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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An ugly duckling turns into a beautiful killer swan, March 5, 2002
This review is from: The Ugly Duckling (Mass Market Paperback)
The back cover of "The Ugly Duckling" asks: "If fate suddenly made you more beautiful than you ever dreamed possible, would it be the beginning of a fairy tale, or your worst nightmare...?" However, that rhetorical question does not even come close to scratching the surface on this thriller by Iris Johansen because by the time Nell Calder is transformed into a beautiful swan she is already living a horrible nightmare. As a little girl it was pounded into Nell's head by her mother than she was never going to be the swan, always the ugly duckling. As an adult Nell is married to a handsome executive and has a four-year old daughter, but the doubts are always there. Then there is an attack on a party at which her husband and child are killed and Nell is horribly scarred. Yes, she emerges as a stunning beauty, but inside is that creature of doubt, transformed not so much by the amazing surgery but by the brutality of events. If this is a fairy tale then Johansen is clearly writing a very grim fairy tale. Because Nell was not just an innocent bystander, she was a target of the attack and the killer is still after her. As much as Nell would like to know why this is still happening to her, the more primal part of her sees the opportunity not just to fight back but to claim revenge for her loved ones and finally get back at those nagging voices her mother put inside her brain. With her new face, Nell has effectively disappeared from the killer's radar. But then she figures out that the only way to catch the killer is to let him think he has caught her. Surely this book is in development somewhere off in Tinsel Town with actresses fighting over the role and trying to figure out how they will make themselves look like the "before" Nell. I like a story of revenge as much as the next person and this one delivers just desserts to all of the characters. "The Ugly Duckling" is not great fiction, but it is a first class, fast moving thriller where the psychological dimensions of survival are given as much play as the physical. Of course, if you stop and think about it, most fairy tales have their nightmarish aspects, so maybe that back cover blurb was not off as much as we might have thought.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"No fathers or mothers think their own chldren ugly.' Miguel De Cervantes, November 2, 2010
This review is from: The Ugly Duckling (Mass Market Paperback)
This is a story that shows a woman's transformation from an unattractive, submissive wife into an assertive and lovely woman who knows what she wants and is willing to pay the price to get it.
Nell Calder isn't born beautiful, a fact that her unfeeling mother informs her of. How she was able to grow normally in a home with an unloving mother was a tribute to an inner strength that she didn't know she had.
She married well, but at a party in a European city, her husband, Richard, a banker, and her precious four-year-old daughter, Jill, were murdered. Nell fell from a balcony during the struggle with the killer and was so badly injured that she needed plastic surgery.
After the reconstructive surgery, Nell's appearance changed to that of a lovely woman but inside, she was a shell. When she learned that her family had been murdered, she became depressed.
Nicholas Tanek was at the party and felt somewhat responsible for the killings. He tells Nell that the man responsible is Philippe Gardeaux, and that the killings were carried out by Gardeaux's man, Paul Maritz. Gardeaux is a criminal attempting to gain prestige and position with the Columbian drug lords.
After learning who the man was who ordered her family murdered, Nell has a new reason to live, revenge.
The author does nicely in describing Nell's development into a woman possessed with the desire for revenge. We also see Nicholas bring out a softer side of Nell, as an artist. However, she keeps this in the background as she is undergoing physical strengthening and learing offensive skills to use against the killer.
Nicholas is a criminal of sorts and a rival of Gardeaux but he doesn't deal in drugs. He brings Nell to his ranch to train and admits that he is an adversary of Gardeaux and will continue to pursue him for Nell but she insists that she wants to be a part of the revenge, with his help.
This is a fast moving novel with a number of interesting characters. At one point, Nell signs up for training in a para-military facility in Florida. She meets a young man named Paul Drake who is a childlike person mentally and was sent to this camp by his father to toughen him up. Nell's relationship with Paul, in the form of a big sister, is a pleasant sub-plot.
I enjoyed the novel and the plot development. The author provided a surprise toward the end that was well done but perfectly logical.
An enjoyable and fun read.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
What if .... you could come back different?, October 18, 2002
This review is from: The Ugly Duckling (Mass Market Paperback)
After a rough start, our hero, who had been a plain-jane all her life, is now remade into a beauty. No one who knew her would recognize her. Such Power! And to put it to good use, to bring down the bad guy, to face the man who dumped you, to fit in with the crowd who teased you ... never having been pretty, I wonder what my personality would have turned out to be had I been one of the drop-dead gorgeous women instead of the ever pudgy woman I am, was, and ever will be. For sheer thinks, this book is worth it, but the story holds you. The think stays, the story keeps your mind working, and this one tends to stay after finished for quite some time. Applause, I would say! For anyone with vision problems, the Iris Johansen novels I have read have had a font that is easy one the eyes, leaving less strain, and more time for the actual story. The older I get, the more important that becomes! So ... what would You do??? ~Mariance
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