God Don't Like Ugly

Written by Mary Monroe

Narrated by Denise Burse

The riveting first book in the acclaimed God series sweeps readers back to the streets, porches, and parlors of civil rights–era Ohio to bring to life the beginning of an enduring friendship between two girls from opposite sides of the track …

Annette Goode is a shy, awkward, overweight child with a terrible secret.

Frightened and ashamed, Annette withdraws into a world of books and food. But the summer she turns thirteen, something incredible happens: Rhoda Nelson chooses her as a friend.

Dazzling, generous Rhoda, who is everything Annette is not—gorgeous, slim, and worldly—welcomes Annette into the heart of her eccentric family, which includes her handsome and dignified father; her lovely, fragile “Muh’Dear"; her brooding, dangerous brother Jock; and her colorful
white relatives—half-crazy Uncle Johnny, sultry Aunt Lola, and scary, surly Granny Goose.

With Rhoda’s help, Annette survives adolescence and blossoms as a woman. But when her beautiful best friend makes a stunning confession about a horrific childhood crime, Annette’s world will never be the same.

"Reminiscent of Zora Neale Hurston."—Publishers Weekly

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 10, 2008
• ISBN: 9781436183079

Mary Monroe

Mary Monroe is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five novels and six novellas. She is a three-time AALBC bestseller and winner of the AAMBC Maya Angelou Lifetime Achievement Award, the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award, and the J. California Cooper Memorial Award. The daughter of Alabama sharecroppers, she taught herself how to write before going on to become the first and only member of her family to finish high school. She lives in Oakland, California, and loves to hear from her readers via e-mail at [e-mail]. Visit Mary’s website at MaryMonroe.org.

Reviews for God Don't Like Ugly

[hhs1students · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Reviewed by: Angela (Class of 2013)People say you have to truly love yourself before you can love someone else, but maybe all you need is a little love given to you to realize what you have within yourself; your beauty, your intelligence, and your capabilities.Mary Monroe is an author from Alabama. She also lived in Ohio and moved to Richmond, California in 1973. Mary Monroe published her first novel in 1985. She won the Best Southern Author Award for "Gonna Lay Down My Burdens" in 2004, and she also won the Oakland Pen Award for Best Fiction of the Year in 2001 for "God Don’t Like Ugly". "God Don’t Like Ugly" is a novel about a lost girl, whose bad situations help her to find friends and God which helps her cope. Annette Goode was a girl who lived in poverty in the 1950’s with her mother and father when her dad left them for a white woman; this truly devastated her mother so they attempted to move away from their troubles in Florida to Ohio. In Ohio, her mother struggles to provide a better life for her. Her mom does many things for money until she finally finds a way to get them a nice house. When they get a house Annette’s mom allows a Christian veteran boarder (Mr. Boatwright) to live with them. Annette was an overweight dark-skinned girl living in a harsh period of racism with very low self-esteem. Annette meets a pretty rich girl who lives across the street named Rhoda who makes her feel better about herself and they soon become best friends. Mr. Boatwright is a highly respected man but he deserves no respect at all because he starts to molest Annette; she has no one to tell but her best friend Rhoda, and Rhoda finds a perfect way to put an end to it. This story is eye-opening and heartwarming and is enlightening about relationships and karma. I give it a rating of five stars because it had a brilliant plot with good structure and vivid details. As I was reading the story I could relate to the characters’ emotions because with the descriptions, I felt as if I was there going through some of the experiences with them. I felt their pain, their confusion, and their joy. Mary Monroe crafted this novel perfectly.

[albinorhino_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

God Don't Like Ugly is in no way your basic coming-of-age story. The story is dark, tragic, and heart-breaking. I absolutely fully loved this book and found it hard to put down. I will undoubtedly be reading this book again!

[girlsonfire · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book, besides being poorly written, contains mention of/the act of rape throughout the book. I labeled it for teens because the story centers around a teenage girl. However, recommend with caution. From the synopsis, I took away the idea that a girl was going to get sexually abused and her friend helps her out of a jam. I wasn't expecting the entire book to be about that, though. It's a constant rape for years. The story was really tough to read and didn't resolve itself much because, oh look, there's a sequel (called God Still Don't Like Ugly). I think books with subject matters this extreme can be important and find a place within literature, but the writing style threw me off so much that I couldn't connect with any of the characters or situations.

[joann berry · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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