Review: Broken

Author: A.E.Rought
Format: eBook
Print Length:320 pages
Publisher: Angry Robot
Published: Jan. 3, 2013

Imagine a modern spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where a young couple’s undying love and the grief of a father pushed beyond sanity could spell the destruction of them all.

A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry’s boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetary and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.

When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she’s intrigued despite herself. He’s an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely…familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel’s. The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there’s something very wrong with Alex Franks.

And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks’ estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.

My Thoughts

I received this book via the publishers through NetGalley. That in no way influenced my review

If they gave standing ovations for books, Broken would receive one- and then an encore.

When the love of her life, Daniel falls to his death Emma withdrawals from everyone.  Only her best friend Bree understands the pain that she is going through and stands beside her.  Daniel’s best friend, Jason was there that night.  He has been a little bit flirty with Emma lately, much to her cringe.

Emma goes about her day an empty-shell of a being, frustrated that Daniel is no longer there.  She suffers from survival guilt, and sees memories of Daniel everywhere.  She and others blame herself for Daniel’s death.  You can literally feel her pain, and aimlessness with every turn of the page.  You cannot help but feel that Daniel truly was the love of her life.  Which is why her feelings for Alex cause her such anguish.

Alex is the new guy, a transfer student from a local private school.  There is something about him that is well so Daniel like.  Alex has got to be one of the nicest guys on earth- although he has not always been this way.  It wasn’t until his daddy stitched him back up that he changed.  Why that change happen he does not know, all that he does know is that he is drawn to Emma. Alex is amazing in that he wants to protect Emma from the instant he met her.  Yet he fights the attraction- he knows that it will cause her pain.  He knows that he is not ready, he knows that something is not right.

As they exam and explore their attraction they are painfully aware that something strange is going on.  What and why are running through their heads.  The answers to those questions could be the thing that tears them apart forever.

I am not sure if it is the emotional side of the story.  The story teller  guarantees that you will feel Emma’s pain and Daniel’s confusion with every turn of the page.  It could be the gothic like setting or even the premise of the story itself. Regardless Broken has got to be one of the best stories released this year.  

My Rating 5 out 5 stars

Other People

Bree- Emma’s best friend, and the only one who stands by her.
Jason- Daniel’s best friend, a jock who is also a jerk.