This week's Mark This Book Monday start with a book that I got quite a while back and that I finally got to read this weekend!
Broken by A.E. Rought
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Broken had been in my TBR list for a while cause I thought a retelling of Frankestein would be interesting to read (even if I still haven't read the original yet, I know, I know...) and since I got the sequel from NetGalley/AngryRobot Books, I decided to get cracking and read this one already!
Maybe not having read the original might have worked in my advantage here, since I could take this one with the superficial knowledge of the story of someone who has seen movies or shows or references, but without a particular love for the storytelling or twists of the original.
Broken starts with Emma, a girl that has lost her boyfriend and that is unable to deal with her grief. She seems to go on autopilot through life and only comes slightly alive when she goes to the cementery to mourn her Daniel, even though he doesn't have a tomb there. Alex Franks, a new boy in Shelley High, seems to be the only one to strangely wake up by acting on occasion like her old boyfriend did, like opening her stubborn locker door.
The whole story starts more like a regular high school story, but thankfully goes in a few strangley routes despite the very typical high school setting.
Emma, despite her grief and how seemingly insta-love she connects with Alex, is never entirely blinded by the odd attraction, and acts like more of a normal human girl than most heroines. She freaks out with odd discoveries, and asks for time and distance to try and figure out if she can deal with whatever freaking stuff seems to pop up. She might not make the most intelligent choices ever, but not bad either for a teenage girl.
Alex is another mystery to solve for Emma, the reader, and even for a little bit, Alex himself. He goes from new mysterious boy with a past he doesn't ask questions for to the boy willing to do anything to save Emma and do what's right no matter what the consequences.
I loved having Emma's parents as normal parents, not the perfect cookie cutter ones, but a pair of different characters and to see how normal with love & hate the relationship of Emma with her mum is. Who hasn't feel totally frustrated with the way her mother deals with stuff but still understands it at the same time? I know I did (and still do).
The thing that perplexes me the most is how obvious the clues were all over the book about Alex and his father, Dr Franks, and how they led to the final revelation and how clueless Emma seemed to be till the last part of the book. It didn't completely irritate me, but it was a bit of the "you didn't figure that out already, really?" kinda feeling. I did like how the author modernized the process and the motivations for the doctor, and the final chapters were quite a good climax.
All in all it was an enjoyable read, with very well written emotions and with some really fun winks to gothic novels all over the book with names and references. 3 stars for me.
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Broken by A.E. RoughtMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Broken had been in my TBR list for a while cause I thought a retelling of Frankestein would be interesting to read (even if I still haven't read the original yet, I know, I know...) and since I got the sequel from NetGalley/AngryRobot Books, I decided to get cracking and read this one already!
Maybe not having read the original might have worked in my advantage here, since I could take this one with the superficial knowledge of the story of someone who has seen movies or shows or references, but without a particular love for the storytelling or twists of the original.
Broken starts with Emma, a girl that has lost her boyfriend and that is unable to deal with her grief. She seems to go on autopilot through life and only comes slightly alive when she goes to the cementery to mourn her Daniel, even though he doesn't have a tomb there. Alex Franks, a new boy in Shelley High, seems to be the only one to strangely wake up by acting on occasion like her old boyfriend did, like opening her stubborn locker door.
The whole story starts more like a regular high school story, but thankfully goes in a few strangley routes despite the very typical high school setting.
Emma, despite her grief and how seemingly insta-love she connects with Alex, is never entirely blinded by the odd attraction, and acts like more of a normal human girl than most heroines. She freaks out with odd discoveries, and asks for time and distance to try and figure out if she can deal with whatever freaking stuff seems to pop up. She might not make the most intelligent choices ever, but not bad either for a teenage girl.
Alex is another mystery to solve for Emma, the reader, and even for a little bit, Alex himself. He goes from new mysterious boy with a past he doesn't ask questions for to the boy willing to do anything to save Emma and do what's right no matter what the consequences.
I loved having Emma's parents as normal parents, not the perfect cookie cutter ones, but a pair of different characters and to see how normal with love & hate the relationship of Emma with her mum is. Who hasn't feel totally frustrated with the way her mother deals with stuff but still understands it at the same time? I know I did (and still do).
The thing that perplexes me the most is how obvious the clues were all over the book about Alex and his father, Dr Franks, and how they led to the final revelation and how clueless Emma seemed to be till the last part of the book. It didn't completely irritate me, but it was a bit of the "you didn't figure that out already, really?" kinda feeling. I did like how the author modernized the process and the motivations for the doctor, and the final chapters were quite a good climax.
All in all it was an enjoyable read, with very well written emotions and with some really fun winks to gothic novels all over the book with names and references. 3 stars for me.
View all my reviews
A frankentstein retelling how cool!! and Emma sounds like a great character(:
ReplyDeleteAwesome review!
Emma was never too typical and despite swooning for the guy she always tried to be true to herself and her ideas, I really liked that!
DeleteThanks, Katie!