Beautiful Broken Things
Sara Barnard
Caddie has never had any significant life events. No boyfriends, no sex, and nothing exciting. When the broken Suzanne comes into her life, her friendships and experiences are going to change. Her best friend Rosie is going to be pushed out of the way by a girl who seems larger than life.
I’m going to be honest here, the first couple of chapters were so slow that I considered putting it back on the shelf for another time. But I kept persevering, and I was rewarded with emotional torrents that could pluck heartstrings while also giving a harsh relativity to the main characters.
Caddie is a selfish teenager sometimes. She wonders to herself, if I do this thing… oh wait, she didn’t actually think about it at all, she just did it. And now people are annoyed at her. She makes plenty of bad choices, and doesn’t seem to know how to stand up to people. Sometimes she was so dumb I wanted to slap her.
I’m not sure anyone was taking Suzanne seriously enough. She writes things off as jokes, make fun of her own mortality, but underneath she does need help. Caddie tries to provide that, once she knows what is going on, but Suzanne doesn’t want to accept help. Considering that Caddie’s parents have had to deal with Tarin being bipolar (which is presented in an entirely blaze way), they don’t seem to get depression when they see it.
For all the worry about where Suzanne is, adults are hopeless and the final chapters of the book are heartrending. What is wrong with you people? Why can you not see these things? Isn’t it obvious that something major is wrong?
There was a lot of underage drinking going on in this novel, plus some weed. I don’t have a problem with that at all though, it certainly fit with what I know about teenage girls. As old as Caddie’s parents are, you would sure hope they might have learnt something about parenting. The chip on Caddie’s shoulder about going to a private school has to stem from them, and I can understand where she is coming from.
This is on par with Cam Girl for me. One depicts codependency as horrible, the other as something that can be respected. Two novels about how friendships can break apart and be put back together, but one as a teenage fiction and the other as brilliant, accessible teenage fiction.
4 stars from me.
This innovative magic system – I could have had more! The basis was spheres – burn a Ruby Red one, have straight teeth, or Aqua ones so that you can sleep whenever you need. The price point is all you need to worry about to do. In the manner of Brandon Sanderson, I wished there had been an index at the end of the novel to remind me what each of the spheres burned did to each person. Then I could have flipped back and forth as I wanted.
I’m not really sure how I feel about this novel. I didn’t really get into the psyche of the characters. I couldn’t keep the boys straight at all to start off with, and although I liked Blue, I just didn’t get along with her. I couldn’t feel anything with her – no fear, no nothing. If anything, they were all too cool. Even when they were in danger, they hardly seemed to care. I didn’t care if they were going to die or not, which isn’t a good sign.
I forget how much I like this novel every time I put it away on the shelf, and then when I pick it up I just can’t stop reading it. It’s fascinating to think that special extensions of senses are just evolution. Let me evolve that way! I wish I had abilities like this. But I wouldn’t want to be able to smell the rotting meat of infected people.
Ah! The twists! Ah! The turns! Ah! The betrayal! Ah! The suspense! Loved it. I really can’t tell you more about the plot without ruining some things that go one, but please go and get a copy to find out for yourself.
Oh god. This is yet another slow paced novel. I just couldn’t get into it. Not only was the pace slow, the way of writing of the novel reminded me of 
Carmel is so incredibly dumb. For an 8-year old, hasn’t she been taught about going off with strangers? Even if they do profess to be related, didn’t she ever know how to call other people? Or remember her own phone number? Doesn’t she know how to call the police? Why didn’t she ask to go to the funeral? Ugh. I couldn’t love her.
The changes between the different perspectives were clear between adults and children, but the two kids, Jesper and Carina, their voices weren’t well defined. I could read one, and because what they saw overlapped, I got confused about how many things had happened.
Thomas and Charlotte are nicely characterised, and the novel pretty much jump starts itself. I felt like I was feeling every step in the wood, and every single thing Thomas was feeling/thinking/saying. There was a hint of sexual humour, but also thoughtfulness and kindness in there. There was just a few things that bothered me…
This is a thriller, and it’s a bloody good one! I absolutely loved this book.