Ratings1
Average rating4
Attending high school for the first time, chronically ill Scarlet, with the help of her new friends, faces down bullies, endures her school-nurse mother's smothering overprotectiveness, and eventually discovers the truth behind her illness--a truth that puts much more than her life at risk.
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So what really drew me to this book was the combination of a disabled protagonist (which I was pretty psyched about) and the promise of a fast-paced thriller, according to the blurb on the back cover. And I'll admit, for the first 150 pages or so, I was wondering when the thriller bit was going to kick in, because I didn't find the first half of the book to be particularly fast-paced.
That being said, the beginning wasn't boring. I enjoyed reading about Scarlet's life, and her perspective as a teenager never having been to public school before was pretty fascinating—it just wasn't the fast-paced thriller that I'd been promised.
Queue plot twist.
I don't want to spoil anything, so I'm not going to give details, but I finished the second half of the book in a couple hours. I don't usually stay up late to finish a book (which I know is rare for a voracious reader like myself, but I tend to be pretty self-disciplined), and yet I totally did with this book. Post plot twist, the “fast-paced thriller” promise really did live up to my expectations.
Broken features a disabled protagonist who is doing everything she can to live her life to the fullest, covers mental illness in a powerful and realistic way and definitely ends with a bang. I'm rating it 4/5 stars and giving it a definite thumbs up.