Beautiful
happy. lovely. carefree.

Broken
sad. defeated. lost.

Things
caddy. rosie. suzanne.

I was brave.
dull, nice caddy, interesting at last. interesting enough, fun enough to be spontaneous. to go out in the middle of night, and just talk to her best friend. isn't that what everybody wants to be? isn't that what being on the edge of 16 is like?

She was reckless
abused. fubar. lashing out. the only out suzie knew was to be different. to not be herself. to be free from the pain. but was she holding caddy down?

We were trouble
Rosie, Suzie, Caddie: a duo. then a trio. back to a duo. could they ever just be? who was wrong, who was right?

I hated Caddy, but I got her. The plot annoyed me, but I understood it. I felt the characters. It was a very strong portrayal of the depth, the strength of friendships, and I loved it.

Prepare yourself for a gush-fest. This book is a testament to the complex and crazy reality of female friendships. Everything was so real and true that it struck a chord with me. Why don’t people write about female friendships like this? To be honest, it’s probably because so few of us understand them!

So onto the book. When a book starts with the word ‘Before’, it immediately gives me a chill and sets me up for heartbreak. I was ready, but not totally sure what I’d find.

What I found was a breath of fresh air. No silly love story in sight. And though I love a love story (who doesn’t?) sometimes you just need a break away from them. Beautiful Broken Things is the perfect break.

I immediately fell in love with the voice. The narrator, Caddy, is so real and honest you can’t help but love her. Sometimes I wanted to shout at her for making the wrong decisions, but it wasn’t that she was being stupid; she was just trying her best, so I couldn’t get annoyed at her. That’s one of the things I loved most, everything just made so much sense.

The rest of the characters were just as believable as Caddy, which made every page a joy. Plus, all the scenes were set in just the right place, at just the right moment, meaning it was impossible to put down. I read the first 100 pages in one go and the whole thing in about three sittings. It engrossed me totally.

And of course I adored the Britishness! I always appreciate a book set in the UK, and this felt like an accurate representation of being a teenager in Britain. Hearing familiar brand names is always comforting, and rare — for me at least.

For the sake of a balanced review, I did have one criticism: Adverbs. Yes, Movellians, I tell everyone off for adverbs, including published authors! Just don’t use them, okay? They suck all power away. I suppose I’ll let Barnard off though because it was done in a chatty way, and we all use adverbs in our speech. (Yes, even me, the Adverb Slayer.)

I’m going to reiterate because I don’t think this can be clear enough, Beautiful Broken Things is such a true portrayal of female friendship, which is such a complex thing to explain, but it’s done with beauty, insight, and rawness.
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I think this is a book every teenage girl should read. It’s gorgeous.​

First blogged for Movellas here: http://www.movellas.com/blog/show/201611100009440412/mollys-book-review-of-beautiful-broken-things

I enjoyed this book. It was a really quick read. I loved that it was just about the friendship between the girls, and that it didn't focus on romance or boys as so many YA books do. Going into it I didn't know what had happened to Suzanne, but I like that it wasn't brushed over. It shaped Suzanne into who she was, and I think the message this book tried to give is an important one. Being friends with someone doesn't mean you go along with all their crazy plans. Friendship means being there, listening, but also letting your fiends know when they're doing things they shouldn't be doing. I think that's a great lesson, for people of all ages, to learn.

Project Contemporary 2018 #9 - September

Before reading:
This is my ninth book for my Project Contemporary 2018. I selected 12 contemporary books with the idea that I will be reading one every month so that I can truly say if this genre isn't for me (or maybe it is?!).
I know nothing about this book actually. But I have seen this one and some other books by this author floating around Booktube for a while and so I decided to add one to the list and see what I think! Based on the title... I guess it will be about a troubled girl? Maybe a bad relationship or a bad situation at home? I love the cover and I'm very intrigued!

After reading:
I listened to the audio book for a quite a bit so before I'm going to talk about the book I want to mention something about it. The narrator is Charlie Sanderson and I thought she did an amazing job. There are some emails and text messages in this book and even when the name wasn't mentioned, the voices that Charlie used were done in such a way that I always knew who had sent it. I really enjoyed her voice so I would like to recommend the audio book if you are interested in this one!

So, I was somewhat right with my prediction. This book does feature a girl with a troubled past. But it is also about so much more. It is about friendship and confidence and growing as a person and trying new things and breaking free and finding your own way. But also about asking for help when you need it, no matter how hard it is. And how difficult it can be when you really want to help someone you care for but you can't because you are just not the right person/not qualified to help them.

I really, really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed every aspect of it but my favourite part is probably the ending. It felt realistic, it was heartbreaking but in a way maybe also a little bit hopeful? The issues where never sugarcoated but it also wasn't made black and white with a: this is the bad guy and this is the good guy thing. Yes, you can definitely say that the adult man who hits a teenage girl is the bad guy. But the people around them were wrong too, in their own way. The girl was also doing wrong things, though nothing that should allow that guy to hit her. I loved how the author talked about those things, how she also showed how difficult it is to hate someone when he hits you when you also love them. Abuse is a terrible thing but it's not (always) as black and white as some books make it seem. I have been lucky and have never suffered from such abuse but from what I know of it I think that the author represented the issue very well in the way the characters reacted, talked and felt about it.

I can't give this 5 stars however. Simply because I thought that at times the book moved a bit too slow. At times I was just waiting for something to happen, for the story to really get started. So I'm giving this book 4.5 stars.