A E Rought

4.5 stars

I have to be honest and say that this was another one of those "Oooh, pretty cover *clicks for request*" situations. I had already read a review on this book and I had read the blurb, but since I haven't read the original Frankenstein, I had no idea what it was about. Oh, sure, I've heard about Frankenstein and his monster before (I think I might have seen this monster in a cartoon or so before, too) but hey, I don't like the classics *shrugs*.

I did love this book, though. There's a show more mixture of cute, funny, dramatic, creepy, romantic, sad, mysterious, dark, with some teenage angst and fights with overprotective parents. And it was a good mix. It had basically everything I could wish for.

I really liked Emma. She started out as a sad teenager, mourning the loss of her boyfriend, and blossomed towards the end of the book. I also liked her dreams. Those were very creepy.

Alex is one of those mysterious until the end character. I couldn't figure him out. I liked the way he treated Emma and how he helped her when she needed it. And he seemed kind of old school, with the proper attitude towards her and their relationship and towards her parents. I liked that.

Something happened while I was reading this book. See, if you read the blurb closely, you might realize what I'm talking about. It's practically like a mantra: "Alex, Daniel, Daniel, Alex, Alex, Daniel". But this is one of those moments where my brain reverses the information it receives. For more than half of this book I thought the connection between the two boys was the exact opposite. So when I got to the ending of the book, I think I had my eyes open very, very wide (think about those big, round plates they bring you when you order pizza in a restaurant). Yes, I was that surprised by the ending. It really is good when a book surprises me that much.

There's another character in this book that surprised me, but this time not in a good way. I thought Josh was a nice guy at first. Then things happened and I realized how wrong I was. Part of me was sad about it. I mean, I loved the initial banter between him and Emma, they were quite funny. Oh well.

The reason why I can't give this book 5 cups is a small one, really: the ending felt too... abrupt. Part of me wanted a "Years later" chapter. I wanted to see them safe, still together, sure that they do in fact love each other and not a memory or an idea of what the other should/could be.

I have to say I was surprised by this book. I feel more open to "classic tale" retellings now, than I was before I read Broken. So if you like the story of Frankenstein and want a more modern spin on it, or even if you're like me and have no idea of how the original story goes but you want something different, try this book. I think you'll like it :D show less

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from Broken by A E Rought; it had been a few months since I'd read the blurb and, having glanced at it again just now, I'm glad I'd completely forgotten about it while reading. In short, don't read the blurb: it not only spoils the plot, it emphasises an aspect that doesn't become prominent until half way or so, potentially leading to disappointment.

Emma is a seventeen year old Michigan high school girl, whose boyfriend died in a tragic accident the past show more summer (and it's nearing the end of October as the book opens). Understandably, she's still sad about his death and hasn't been entirely able to let go yet.

Enter Alex, the new boy at school. He's hot, mysterious and seems to be fascinated by Emma. Emma, meanwhile, feels bad about her interest in him — it feels like cheating on her dead boyfriend's memory — and also senses something strange and wrong about him that she can't quite put her finger on.

In essence, this is a story about their slowly blooming relationship. I thought the pace at which Emma's feelings and their relationship developed — in story terms — was pleasantly slow. There was no irrational insta-love from Emma and we see lots of minor key moments in the development of their relationship, like SMSes that give Emma gooey feelings with only a few words, and uncertainly, and small nice moments. Although in actual time the book spans less than a month, I found the development of their relationship absolutely believable. If it's a little faster in actual time than is necessarily realistic, there are solid plot/spoiler reasons for that.

Because I hadn't read the blurb before starting to read, I wasn't sure where the supernatural elements were going to come in. My first guess was ghosts, partly from the cover (but that's not a ghost, that's Emma in the dress she wears to the school Halloween dance), partly because of Emma dwelling on her dead boyfriend. Once the hints started appearing, I triumphantly worked out what was going on reasonably quickly, but not in an annoying way. However, since the blurb reveals what the "twist" is (OK it's not really a twist, more of a slow revelation of the premise — if you're curious look it up on goodreads or the publisher website), I think reading with that knowledge could have been frustrating. Although maybe I would have picked up on some of the horror references Rought scattered throughout the names sooner.

Once the climactic action approached, there was no denying this was a horror novel, albeit it one with a strong love story surrounding it. Eventually the shit hits the fan and Emma and Alex are running for their lives. I liked that in the course of events, Emma did some of the saving, although Alex did more of it, that can be excused by Emma's repeatedly broken hand (three times, it gets broken/re-broken three times). She definitely doesn't wait around to be saved, which is always nice to see.

I highly recommend Broken to readers who enjoy reading about relatively believable relationships in YA (plot weirdness notwithstanding) and who maybe want a bit of creepiness and horror in their fiction. Or to any readers who enjoy references to classic horror stories. I will be keeping an eye out for future YA books by Rought (she's also written three (adult) romance and paranormal romance books for adults).

4.5 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews on my blog. show less

I hate to begin the review like this, but Strange Chemistry really need to work on their blurbs. The one I’ve provided is only half of the one on their site, and the reason I haven’t included it in full is because it basically makes 2/3 of the book redundant. I normally read books without a glance at the blurb, and luckily e-books make it even harder to read the blurb (lack of a back of book and all), so I was lucky, but there is only disappointment in store for readers who peruse the show more synopsis before starting this great book.

Broken is about two emotionally and physically damaged characters: Emma Gentry, who is mourning the death of her boyfriend, and Alex Franks, the new boy at school who has a mysterious connection to her. Although they initially seem copies of worn out clichés, they are proven to be compelling characters as the book progresses. I liked that Emma and Alex both understood how bizarre their situation was and honestly struggled to come to terms with it, instead of shrugging it off and readily accepting the weirdness as other YA protagonists are prone to do. And their connection, although hasty (but there’s a great reason for it) is also real and natural, shown to us not through kisses or steamy sessions, but through gestures, expressions and sweet moments of cuteness.

Despite only spanning a handful of weeks, Broken is paced slowly, allowing for a gentle build up of Emma and Alex’s characters and their relationship, revealing both the past and the creepy goings on around them gradually. While I like that it’s written this way, the writing style compounds the ill-fit of the blurb: readers who already know most of what’s going to happen will be incredibly frustrated at how slowly the plot progresses. Although, I have to point out that I figured out the deal with Josh pretty early on after he says a particularly telling line that everyone shrugs off.

On the topic of Josh. Emma has some real hate for red-haired people. Maybe it was just Josh, but she constantly fixated on his red hair, whether it was the hair on this head, badly styled, or his chest hair, which had a nasty habit of peeking out from the necklines of his sweaters. I found the preoccupation with his appearance more than a little distasteful, although I agree that he is an arrogant a-hole who needed to be put in his place.

It also made me uncomfortable that Emma had two guys in her life who wouldn’t listen to her when she made it clear that she wasn’t interested in them. I think she conducted herself very well and was mature about it, but the forcefulness of the two male characters in question unsettled me quite a bit. In this regard, I didn’t mind at all that Alex got all alpha male around her, but I was gratified to find that he didn’t once try to dictate Emma in any way and was always acting in her best interests.

Broken is a satisfying read, creepy and romantic and all-together wonderful. It’s an impressive novel, all the more so because it’s Rought’s début YA novel (although she has written a few books for adults), and perfect for fans of YA who want a dash of horror in their books.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review.
You can read more of my reviews at Speculating on SpecFic. show less

Oh, dear. Where to start with this one, really? As a giant fan of retellings, and having enjoyed Mary Shelley's Frankenstein quite a bit when I read it several years ago, I was really looking forward to Broken. It's not often that you come across classics retold (or, at least I personally haven't read many at all), so this promised something new and fresh. I wanted something gothic and eery, reminiscent of the original tale. And, in some ways, I suppose the book delivered: set during the show more Halloween season in Michigan, the descriptions of the setting were spot-on; Emma feels uneasy, she hangs about cemeteries, and there are plenty of descriptions of the lit jack-o-lanterns grinning from her neighbor's porches. I enjoyed reading about her surroundings quite a bit. Unfortunately, the rest of the book wasn't nearly as engaging or interesting, and I found myself in a serious struggle to get through it.

For me, the main problem with this book was the slow pace of the plot. For the first 50%, you are stuck reading a minute-by-minute account of Emma's school day, from her teachers' lectures, to her walking the halls, to her waiting in line and getting lunch. This goes on for several days in a row, and, frankly, got extremely tiresome and tedious. It also really slowed the book down. Once she meets Alex, she can tell something's off about him, but she's strangely drawn to him anyway (yes, there's insta-love, although it IS explained toward the end, so I'm willing to forgive it in this case). Cue lots of dirty looks and rude responses from the other girls at her school who were hoping to snag Alex for themselves, as well as a rumor mill that works like greased lightning, and you also get lots of Emma trying to ignore what they're saying while internalizing how much it irritates her. Throw in a school dance, multiple stops at a local coffee shop, and some evenings spent with either Alex or Bree (Emma's best friend) helping her with homework, and you pretty much have the synopsis for the first half of Broken.

I also want to mention that I had a really difficult time connecting with Emma. She's supposedly sad, suffering from the shocking death of her boyfriend, and she's mourning the fact that he doesn't have a grave (hence her penchant for hanging about cemeteries), but I never really felt the connection with her grief. It was simply words on a page: they had absolutely no effect on me. This made the first part of the book doubly difficult, because, not only did I not care about how she spent her school days, but I also really didn't care about how she was feeling. Mostly I was just wishing that the book would get to the point, which is not really a good combination of feelings for a reader to have.

Broken did have some good parts. While the climax was, for me, too long in coming, once things started becoming clear to Emma, I did like her roiling mass of emotions. I could easily understand being confused and uncertain of what you can do when faced with the information that comes to light. I also liked how the action picked up and things finally started happening. I just wish it would have happened sooner; I mean, knowing this is retelling Frankenstein, most older readers are going to know exactly what's going to happen, so trying to make it into some sort of mystery really isn't going to work. Maybe if I were younger - I'm thinking MG/young-YA - this would have been a completely different reading experience, but for me, personally, it just really didn't work.

While promising a modern retelling, Broken sort of falls flat. Fans of romance novels who don't mind a slower-moving plot will probably get more enjoyment out of this than those reading it because it's supposed to retell Frankenstein. For me, personally, there just weren't enough of the original elements to properly call this a "retelling" (although the question of who's really the monster is quite apropos, although not nearly as thought-provoking in this case). But of course, your mileage may vary; if you're intrigued by it at all, then give it a read. Perhaps you'll like it more than I did. show less