"Not that I'm complaining, but my life up to the age of sixteen had been steady and unblemished. My parents were still married, my best friend had been constant for over ten years, I'd never been seriously ill and no one close to me had died."

This book should have been right up my alley. It's British YA about the jealousies, passions and conflicts involved in teen girl friendships. I love books that explore this subject - the way teenage girls get so wrapped up in one another, loving and hating each other with a furious intensity. Authors like [a:Leah Raeder|7105371|Leah Raeder|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1448080513p2/7105371.jpg] and [a:Courtney Summers|1487748|Courtney Summers|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1421196083p2/1487748.jpg] understand and capture this world perfectly.

But I had so many problems with [b:Beautiful Broken Things|25437747|Beautiful Broken Things|Sara Barnard|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1444049685s/25437747.jpg|45199888]. Firstly, I pretty much despised the narrator - Caddy - and never really came to like or understand any of the characters or their actions. Though, even if we take that matter out for a second, this book lacked a compelling spark that books like [b:The Girls of No Return|11979909|The Girls of No Return|Erin Saldin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327898505s/11979909.jpg|16943267] had. If I hadn't been pushed onward by the other positive ratings, I'm sure I would have DNFed it.

Let's start with Caddy. My dislike for her was almost instantaneous and I found her increasingly unsympathetic. Selfish, jealous, unlikable characters can be very interesting but I draw the line at bratty rich girls who feel sorry for themselves because... um, they've never had a tragedy happen to them.

Caddy - literally, I am not exaggerating - pities herself because she is uninteresting. She - again, literally - compares herself negatively to Rosie and Tarin because Rosie's dad walked out and her baby sister died, and Tarin is bipolar. She is jealous because her life is so boring compared to death and mental illness. I almost put the book down right then.

I'm sorry, but how dare she claim that losing a sister and being mentally ill makes them more interesting? My only hope was that she was going to learn some hard lessons as the book progressed.

Then we get the spiel of how hard it is for her with wealthy, boring parents and the fact that she has to attend a private school and *gasp* wear an ugly uniform. Oh please, am I honestly supposed to feel sorry for her?

And then we get to the crux of the story - her best friend, Rosie, has a new friend called Suzanne and tries to get them to all hang out together. I understand why this would trigger jealousy and fear of losing her friend, but one minute Caddy is whining inwardly because she feels left out, and the next she refuses Rosie and Suzanne's invitation to a party and lies on the bed reading a magazine and ignoring them when they're all supposed to be hanging out together.

Also, Caddy is just such a petty, silly person:

"You should come next time. When you don't have your Service thing the next day." Her face was open and friendly, but I felt a surge of annoyance. Why did she get to be the one inviting me places? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Plus, she is mean. As it turns out, Suzanne has a dark past she's running from and Caddy reads a comment on her Facebook page about something in Coronation Street and "triggers" and "trigger warnings", which she then looks up. Despite knowing that triggers are things that can trigger traumatic memories, Caddy deliberately asks about Coronation Street in front of Suzanne. If she simply had to know, couldn't she ask when Suzanne wasn't there? Or read a soap magazine, which contains all the major storylines?

Then, later, she leaves her drunk friend at a party without even telling her she's leaving... I just had real problems with this girl. I did not like her one bit.

Caddy aside, there still weren't really any characters I could like or care about. Suzanne was the most sympathetic, but I grew tired of her selfish actions eventually. Rosie was a slut-shaming brat. All the parents and parental figures kind of sucked at parenting. And I honestly am so confused why Suzanne's aunt thought that it was not only acceptable to encourage Suzanne to return to an abusive home situation, but also acceptable to act like she's a burden and unreasonable when - surprise! - she doesn't want to go back to the man who hit her for years.

I appreciate the intent behind the book, but I couldn't care about these characters. I was rolling my eyes or being pissed off on almost every page. Two stars for some nice writing and a few interesting scenes.

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