Broken Things 

By Lauren Oliver

Blurb: 
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.

Review: 
This book is told from two characters point of views as well as two different times, one in the present and one in the past. It starts of from Brynn's point of view in the present and she is describing what she and Mia have done. But shortly afterwards you discover that neither of them have actually committed the murder.

Both of these characters suffer from guilt and have always questioned what happened that night. Brynn is in a addict unit trying to get help, when in fact she does not have a problem, she does not want to face the world outside because people call her names and think it was actually her.

Both of the characters suffer with anxiety which was a nice way to put across a mental illness and describe how it felt in the real world. It was great insight on how they go about their everyday life and cope.

The book itself was generally good, there was plenty of plot twists and the actual story was quite captivating. The start was quite slow but it picked up once they got into the discovery of the other suspects. The way that they discovered other suspects was really good, I found it quite a mystery and at times I liked how they linked things to people, which made it seem like it was believable. I also really enjoyed how they came to the conclusion, it was quite fitting. 

But the ending once they discovered who it was shouldn't have really been like that I don't think. I just don't believe that it was justice for Summer, I also don't think it's really realistic because I would have expected that response after maybe a year after the murder, not 5 years. So the ending itself wasn't that great it was just too far fetch. I understand guilt does get to you and it can take time but I just think that it was just generally too far of a time frame for it to effect them. But then on the other hand you hear some murders are guilty for 20 years plus before they actually admit what they have done wrong, so I'm not really too sure how I feel on that.

Another thing that I didn't really like about the book is trying to remember which character I'm actually reading about, and what time I'm in. Both characters were wrote very similar and the gap between time was quite drastic with chapters. Later on in the book though it did feel when we went back to the past it was more planned and didn't feel so sudden compared to the start of the book.

I really enjoyed the two main characters and the side characters, Owen, Wade and Abby. They all had their personalities and I felt that they had developed quite well within the book. I also enjoyed how they all connected with one another and how they got along. Where as usually in teenage friendships there is usually always one person who doesn't get along with the rest of the group other than one. I enjoyed how there was LGBT reference because that is quite a common thing now, it was great how Abby felt comfortable speaking to Brynn about it rather than her close friend Mia. But I suppose that's how things go if they have more of a connection and fell like they can speak to people about those sort of things.

This book was well written for a stand-alone, I felt that all the information for the mystery about solving Summer's murder was given and I could see how they go the conclusions that they got to. I also liked how this book was based on events that happened within another book that the main characters love and are obsessed with. I thought this was unique and definitely something well worth reading. I have read some of Lauren Oliver's work when I was younger in Secondary School (High School) and I remember I liked it then and I'm pleased I tried reading her things again. I'm more than likely going to try more of her works but not anytime soon.

I almost forgot to mention another I disliked about this book, it was the detail that it went into when they were killing the cat as a sacrifice to the shadow for the book Lovelorn.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery, love stories and plot twists.

Favourite Characters: Abby

Read: 02/11/18 - 14/11/18

4 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie