It’s been five years since Summer Marks was brutally murdered in the woods.
Everyone thinks Mia and Brynn killed their best friend. That driven by their obsession with a novel called The Way into Lovelorn the three girls had imagined themselves into the magical world where their fantasies became twisted, even deadly.
The only thing is: they didn’t do it.
On the anniversary of Summer’s death, a seemingly insignificant discovery resurrects the mystery and pulls Mia and Brynn back together once again. But as the lines begin to blur between past and present and fiction and reality, the girls must confront what really happened in the woods all those years ago—no matter how monstrous.
Lauren Oliver has written some brilliant books - I really enjoyed Delirium, though the rest of the series wasn't great. Panic was really enjoyable as well - I think standalones are Oliver's strong point. Broken Things cemented that for me.
I wasn't sure what to expect from that blurb - I didn't know if this was a thriller or a mystery or a fantasy what, I didn't really know what was going to happen at all. I really enjoyed the direction that this book took.
The strength of this book was the characterisation. We start off with this 2D idea of who Brynn, Mia and Summer were - of who Mia and Brynn now are, and over the course of the 'then' and 'now' part of the books we realise that Summer wasn't the pretty perfect princess, and was actually troubled and very toxic. We realise how she hurt Mia in their own ways, and we come to terms with what happened to her and by the end I didn't even mourn for her any more.
The main issue that I had with this book was that the snippets of the source material - The Way Into Lovelorn, and the fanfiction written by the girls, Return to Lovelorn got very samey. For material that inspired madness, it wasn't particularly inspiring. It felt like a plot hole, in a way.
Everything also tied up very nicely, like wrapped in a little ribbon as well. It was all a little too neat and convenient - the plot was great, just a little... too neat.
Overall, I did enjoy Broken Things - it was enjoyable. I did feel at times a little underwhelmed by the material and some of the snippets in the book but in the end I was hooked into it.
Book released 2nd October 2018 by HarperCollins
Book received from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review
Lauren Oliver has been a big hit-or-miss for me lately! I still want to read this one, but I've only seen meh reviews for it. I really don't like books that are too neat and tidy at the end. I want there to be some speculation about the story and the characters.
ReplyDeleteLindsi @ Do You Dog-ear?