By Destiny Geddis
Scarlet Killian wants to be a normal girl, but like most novel's which feature a child who wishes to be 'normal', she's got something keeping her from being so. In C. J. Lyons's Broken, that would be the rare but fatal heart condition, Long QT Syndrome. Realizing that time is limited and she could die at any moment, Scarlet begs her mother to let her spend what little time she has left going to public school. Scarlet soon realizes that high school's not really that great. Kids in Scarlet's school are some strange brand of teenager who thinks attempted arson is funny. Plus, during an exercise in her literature class, she realize she can't remember anything from her early childhood. What could this mean? As the days pass and Scarlet is forced to deal with the idea that high school might deadly, will she die before she can solve the mystery of her forgotten childhood?
Oh dear, how do I start on Broken? This book is labelled as a thriller. Unfortunately, the beginning of Broken seems to think that thrill is derived from watching a young girl get mercilessly bullied while fawning over some dark and mysterious boy she shares a locker with. There are some minor interesting parts, but they seem to take a backseat to the high school drama. The actual thrill doesn't come until late in the book. I guess you could say that there was some foreshadowing in the beginning, but it was less foreshadowing and more plot-brick to the face which didn't sit well after the realization of what was happening. Maybe I'm not the best person to critique a thriller, seeing as when I think of thrillers the only thing that comes to mind is Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. At the same time, when I see the word 'thriller', I expect to consistently be thrilled. Yet, this book waits for the very end to deliver, which by that time I'm too annoyed to properly respect the thrill I'm suppose to be experiencing.
From what I'm getting, Broken expects the reader to have as much fascination and naivete in regards to the inter workings of high school as Scarlet. The biggest problem with this is that this book is targeted towards young adults, and well, a large majority of young adults are already in high school. We've experienced the daily high school life. We don't need to read about it. While, yes, I'll admit, the majority of us do not have a debilitating heart condition to think about while going through high school, Scarlet's disorder doesn't really add enough to the experience to make it all that interesting.
I will admit, I didn't completely dislike this book. It's plot twist (though spoiled for me by an accident involving me flipping to the wrong question in the 'Ask the Author' Page) was pretty cool. I loved one of the members of Scarlet's support group, Nessa. I would have probably loved this story a lot more if it was about her. Her story arc was no more thrilling than the rest of the book, but from the bits I could see, it was an interesting one. Of all the characters I met, she was the one I cared most about. There's also the fact she didn't ever get a love interest which, since I dislike most romances, was perfect. On that note, another thing I liked was the fact that Broken avoided the whole love triangle trope (kinda). The love interest wasn't all that bad either. I eventually warmed to him, if only slightly.
On a final note, try this book. It's not horrible, but I doubt it'll be a book I reread. It's just not my kind of book. At the same time, I'm sure there are others out there who have considerably more patience than I who also love to read about high school. I'm just sorry to the author that I couldn't properly enjoy her story. Hopefully, I'll enjoy some of her other books a lot more.
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