Nothing is "Broken" in this Monstrously Beautiful Tale

Broken 
Title:  Broken
Author:  A.E. Rought
Format: Print
Length:  384 pages
Publisher:  Strange Chemistry
Rating:  5 stars
  
Imagine a modern spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where a young couple’s undying love and the grief of a father pushed beyond sanity could spell the destruction of them all.

A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry's boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetery and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.

When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she's intrigued despite herself. He's an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely... familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel's.

The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there's something very wrong with Alex Franks. And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks' estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.
-Goodreads

My Thoughts
The overwhelming sense of loss and pervading grief that Emma Gentry feels after the loss of her boyfriend Daniel, engulfs readers in its beautifully woven shroud at the start of this story.  You really feel for Emma as you watch her struggle for life, happiness, and peace.  

Until...

Alex Franks...The quiet, intense, new boy who knows things about Emma and does things that only one person could...Daniel.

Alex is not written as the 'prince charming' that is going to ride in on his 'noble steed' and save the day.  Alex is a puzzle that is just begging to be solved.  As it happens...some of his pieces also fit the empty places that complete Emma.
The tragic bond and shared pain that unites these two defies the odds of convention by providing the couple with a stability that would have not been possible otherwise.
As the pieces of these two puzzles come together, the picture seen there is one that neither Alex, Emma, nor the reader can believe. 

Another element of interest in this story is the level of involvement (obsession) that Emma's mother and Alex's father have with their children.  There is parental love and then there is...madness!
If this is parental involvement, give me absenteeism any day. 

This is a story that though dark and at times very emotional is presented in such lyrical and descriptive writing that one is drawn into the book.   When the aforementioned stellar excellence of composition is coupled with the gripping twists and turns of plot, plus a whisper of Shelly; you have a read too good to miss.
Can Emma get over Daniel
to love Alex?

Does she really have to?

How far would you go for for love?

Find the answers
in

My Rating:

4 comments:

  1. I loved this book too. My review won't be actually live until 30 days before the publishing book though or else I'd send you a link to it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Didn't read your review, but I'm reading this book. And so far it's .... AMAZING (:

    ~(Annie) & Demi @ Characterized

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, this sounds amazing. Adding it to my TBR on goodreads. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. A couple of my friends said they didn't like this book, but it looked so interesting, so this review has renewed my fervor to get it! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for stopping by. I love comments, so please leave a few.