All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

An outlaw who works for a meth dealer and a man with a habit of getting in bar fights, Kellen seems an unlikely caretaker for a child. Originally Jesse Joe Barfoot, Kellen renames himself as a gesture of separation from his traumatic early life. His violent parents and a brother who is a criminal leave him vulnerable and damaged, even if his large size intimidates most people. His first vision of Wavy standing on the edge of the meadow saves and damns him. He wrecks his motorcycle, almost killing himself, right away.

The emotional havoc his contact with Wavy causes unfolds at a slow pace through the first half of the book. At first, Kellen genuinely wants to protect Wavy. Over time, he sees her as an adult when she is truly still a child; Kellen himself did not have a childhood, so he does not have the emotional tools to assess his relationship with Wavy. He wants to think of himself as a person who does the right thing, but his relationship with Wavy pushes the boundaries of righteousness more than any of his other transgressions. At the same time, his love for Wavy redeems him like nothing else in his life.

In the iconography of a fairy tale, Wavy’s mother Val would be an evil queen or a witch. Depending on Val’s attitude and state of sobriety, Wavy variously calls her “Good Mama,” “Bad Mama,” “Old Val,” and “Sad Mama.” Wavy learns to read Val’s moods in order to survive. Most of the time, Val is asleep in bed or too high to take care of Wavy or Donal. When Val does act, she overcorrects to paranoia and phobic behavior. She gives Wavy a list of conflicting rules to follow, convincing Wavy that her mouth is dirty. She washes Wavy in bleach when Liam, her father, has been near her. She tells Wavy not to trust Liam and never to let anyone touch her. The behaviors that characterize Wavy as out-of-step with society all trace back to commands from Val. She brings no discernable comfort or love to Wavy’s or Donal’s life and, in fact, makes it difficult for them to form relationships with others due to Fear’s Stifling of Love. Wavy mourns her murder, mostly out of pity, but Val never recognizes Wavy as her own person.

Amy’s chapters provide context missing from the central character’s narratives. As Wavy’s suburban cousin, Amy offers a witness-like account of the main events of Wavy’s life. Fascinated by Wavy and her fierce resistance to the comforts of childhood and home life, Amy studies her. Her observations establish a more complete view of the timeline, the locations, and the details that unfold out of order or in part elsewhere in the novel. Amy avoids revealing much about herself except her feelings about Wavy. Only in her final chapter does Amy confirm that she is gay, which suggests that her own sense of difference has connected her to Wavy all along. Wavy’s transgressions leave her vulnerable, and Amy cannot help but worry that she will suffer similar disapproval if she reveals her true self. Amy’s revelation becomes an integral part of the novel’s resolution.