The brokenhearted

“And everyday since then, Bedlam City and the people in it have managed to break her heart all over again. She's learned this world is a beast, a bully that keeps on kicking you long after you're down. In Bedlam, you either learn to take a beating, or you find a way to fight back.”

This is one of those books that confuses me when it comes to the ratings on Goodreads. This book is rated extremely low (3.37), with many 1 star ratings. I went into this book apprehensive and expecting the worst. I was presently surprised to find a reimagined Batman-esque book. This book was not amazing, nor was it as horrible as others have said. Yes, this book was extremely similar to Batman and Gotham City, but it was unique with a female protagonist. The book had very little world building but this did not bother me much since it so closely resembled Gotham. I can see why others have been bothered by the lack of world building, Kahaney was attempting to make a crime ridden city in Bedlam and used many aspects of Gotham and Batman to achieve this. This lessened the originality of her story.

Anthem was annoying yes, but she is your stereotypical rich kid who gains “powers” and becomes a vigilante. Along with the superpowers, Anthem was also a ballerina initially. I found her annoying at times and hated the way she treated her friends and family throughout the book. Anthem is surrounded by other characters such as her parents, her ex-boyfriend, Will, her best friend, Zahra, and her new boyfriend, Gavin. There was quite a bit of insta-love between Gavin and Anthem, but they aren't with each other long enough before he is kidnapped for it to really bother me.

As for the believability aspect of this book, I think the superhero vibe this book gave off helped me connect with the story and believe that it was possible for Anthem to have this new heart that saved her and also gave her new powers.

The best part of this book was definitely the prologue, I honestly loved it. I even used the end of it as the quote at the beginning of the review. It was very superhero-esque and reminded me of the intros to shows such as Arrow and The Flash, where the character is explaining who they are and what they do.

I struggled with what rating to give this book and decided a 3.5. This was done mostly because this book was enjoyable, but not amazing. I enjoyed the ease of reading it and how fast I was able to get through it. And as I've said, I enjoyed the superhero aspect of this book even if our protagonist left much to be desired.