This book was pretty predictable for me. That's not to say it wasn't also full of surprises. Some parts seemed over-descriptive. I enjoyed it though.

Going through my netgalley account and just found the section of books titled Archived, not downloaded. I apparently requested and was approved for this book but I never DLd it and so did not read it. I appreciate the approval and while still interested in the title I am not sure when I will get to read it. If/when I do I will be sure to post a review on Instagram, goodreads, storygraph, and Amazon.

Have lost access to this book due to kindle that it was on and I can’t review. I apologise for not being able to do this.

Unfortunately, the galley of this book is pretty much unreadable. It's all jumbled together. I will try to find audio copies of this book and its sequel Tainted if possible.

~A debut YA novel riveting with a morbid edge that will keep the reader reeling until the very last line~

The story opens nicely, sharing with ease Emma's relationship with her immediate family, BFF, and infectious pain over the death of her boyfriend Daniel. Her reaction to the new boy, Alex Franks, is just as easily understood by the reader: she's noticed him and his similar mannerisms as her dead boyfriend, and she doesn't like it. But for me, the reader, I liked it. Dribbles of intrigue and Alex's strange familiarity to Emma pulled me in deeper, wanting to know who this guy really was.

The writing flows and the dialog is especially teen. I couldn't help but chuckle at some of the sassy and quick-witted phrases emanating from these characters. But as snippy as some passages are, there's enough gentleness and depth in others to balance them out. There's a masculinity to the text that I enjoyed, playful but snarky bantering which masks the truth beneath - the brokenness in Emma's heart and what is later discovered to be broken inside and outside of Alex.

One of my favorite aspects of the story is the parent-teen relationship. It's raw and real. Mom and Dad are married, live in the same house, work, and have dinner together - family dinners. The parents are not absent in this YA novel. It's fresh and a great sub-plot to the overall storyline and to Emma's character arc. This is the reason I chose those lines from the tale as my favorite passage. Another element which flavored the story was the realistic use of everyday happenings.

The connections made between Emma and Alex are not just similarities in opinions, attitudes, and like/dislikes, but go much deeper, using their inner pains, sorrows, and confusions about their attraction. This adds tension and way too much mystery for any reader to ignore. There's a scene as the two struggle to understand their strange and sudden connection, a moment so intimate and gentle that I found my young adult as well as adult heart strings tugged to the extreme. Both fear uncovering the truth that has begun to unfold, but want nothing more than to know.

Sinister, mind-bending revelations of what really happened to Alex in turn reveal an obscene and disturbing truth of life over death...death that was cheated. The actual horror is layered with deceit and morbid intent, so arrogant that it could only belong to guests seen but unseen throughout the novel.

Rought wasn't afraid of being real, using the harsh reality of what she created. She used creepy, even grotesque descriptions at times, all suited for the telling of this tale. Similar elements from Shelley's original version added texture. Surprising twists engulfed me as the story climaxed. And as a massive Frankenstein fan I couldn't help but think about Mary Shelley and the similarities to her original tale. I believe she'd be proud of this Franken-teen tale of her misunderstood monster and the girl he inevitably loved from the moment electricity reignited his foreign heartbeat.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but this title was archived before I even had a chance to read it. I really wanted to, Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

Couldn't download this so I can't really review it. Seems really interesting though, sounds like something I would check out.

Broken was hailed as a fresh, new retelling of Frankenstein. That alone was enough to command my attention. I’m a huge sucker for retellings and they’re certainly in abundance these days. That there was a Frankenstein retelling… I couldn’t pass it up.

Unfortunately Broken is a classic example of an intriguing idea with a horrible execution (something I’ve dubbed the Matthew Pearl effect). Broken is a typical YA romance – awful poetics (and the fastest case of insta-love I’ve ever seen) included.

A few short months ago Emma Gentry lost her boyfriend Daniel in a horrific accident. Since then she’s retreated into herself, sleeping in his hoodie every. single. night. and hanging out at the local cemetery where she feels his presence. Emma’s haunted by his memory and when she closes her eyes all she can see is Daniel’s broken, bloody body.

All of that changes when a new boy, Alex Franks, shows up at school. There’s something familiar about him and his mannerisms that Emma can’t quite shake. Why does he remind her so much of Daniel? Why does he call her by the nickname Daniel gave her?

Ugh. Really, that’s all I have to say. Broken was one steaming pile of meh. Emma stubbornly refuses to let go of Daniel until Alex shows up. Naturally he’s got a jawline to die for and amazing cheekbones. And don’t forget that brooding, mysterious aura! I wonder if the author has ever read Frankenstein. But of course she has! Alex has scars all over his body, guys. See how wretched and horrifying he is?? Not at all. In fact, Emma muses – multiple times – over those scars and how hot they are.

Emma is a typical girl who sits at the Theater Nerds lunch table. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why she was the sole piece of gossip. She wasn’t a popular cheerleader, but she also wasn’t a part of the out crowd. Somehow there’s a new rumor about her everyday and I just didn’t get it.

The fact that Alex’s last name is FRANKS, his father is a crazed doctor, and the high school is SHELLEY HIGH never raised an eyebrow. For an English project, Emma has to read Dracula and other classic gothic novels. If those books exist in this world, wouldn’t Frankenstein exist as well?

I could go on and on with my list of grievances: Emma only loves Alex because Daniel is a part of him, certain elements are introduced (Alex’s ex-girlfriend, for instance) only to never be discussed again, etc etc.

I’ll admit that at the very end I was interested. All the talk about memory fusion in tissue was great. Sadly, by that point, I was reading Broken just to finish. I don’t think I could have handled one more page detailing Emma’s school day – including a play-by-play of each class – or her on-going text conversations.

When all is said and done, Broken is 250 pages of overly dramatic high school days (and don’t forget the coffee shop!) with a few chapters that were relatively interesting. If you’re looking for a creepy monster tale, look elsewhere.

I’d like to preface this review by saying that most of my criticism stems from the fact that this novel isn’t what it was marketed to be, and isn’t what I was expecting at all. I did quite some research before reading Broken, checking out reviews of fellow bloggers, thinking this book was for me. It most definitely wasn’t. In this review I will try to warn others to stay away from this book, if you are anything like me. For the romance lovers, especially in the tradition of Twilight, Fallen and Hush, Hush, I think you guys will eat this up. More on that later.

I’d also like to state that I read the ARC copy provided by Netgalley. So take the quotes with a grain of salt – they might not even be in the published version.

Let me sum up some facts about Broken:
– calling it a Frankenstein retelling is REALLY stretching it; there is barely a connection to the Mary Shelley’s story until about sixty percent in
– nothing substantial happens (as in anything besides romantic plot development – there is a lot of that going on) until 82 percent in
– that’s right, no action or horror until the last fifth of the book
– the main character falls in love in only three months after the death of her boyfriend

Basically, Broken is the story of Emma, who loses her boyfriend Daniel. Three months after his death she meets mysterious Alex, who she is instantly attracted to. But there is something wrong about him, and she is slightly hesitant to find out what.

The main problem I had with this book is the blurb. By just reading the blurb we can deduce that Alex is somehow Daniel: “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”. In the book it takes her more than half the book to actually see similarities between Alex and Daniel. And this is something we already know before we even start reading. It just all took way too long for me, stretching the first half into a boring mass of angst and lovey dovey-ness.

I was waiting for the creepiness to kick in. I waited and waited. The cover is very misleading – it remembered me a bit of The Replacement, which actually was a very haunting read. Broken pretty much only features a high school and Emma’s home, both of which are extremely ordinary and nothing like gothic novel material. I’d love to at least have maybe a bit of spooky setting – sitting in a cemetery drinking isn’t my idea of a spooky setting.

Then there is the standard YA-cliche; the message that Broken sends. I have talked about this before, but I will bring it up again. Teenagers are easily manipulated. I’m not saying they are stupid and believe everything they read or see – but this is the period in life where you form your own image of the world, and of what is normal and what is not. If in a high-school novel you present it as normal that girls bully each other, then real teenage girls won’t think bullying is all that bad. It’s normal, right? My main problem with Broken was (for once) not necessarily the romance between Emma and Alex. It was rather stifling, but that’s really just a personal preference. My problem is that every girl in this novel, except Emma and maybe her best friend, is labelled a slut.

Yes, a slut. Let me quote a bit for you here. “Girls up and down the line turn to him, cleavages and boobs lifting and tracking, like indicators on radar”. What the…? This is one of the most degrading sentences I have ever read.

Literally every girl in Emma’s school wants Alex and is jealous of her. Every guy wants to be Alex. They are constantly the conversation of the school. There are literally pages and pages describing how everyone is talking about them. Here are a few examples:

“The halls teem, people pushing, jostling and shouting. Then life grinds to a halt, all eyes on us as we walk into the main hall, hand-in-hand.” I’ve never seen people grinding to halt because someone was holding hands. This isn’t major drama material, no one is cheating or anything. Oh my god, two single people in the school are holding hands! WHAT SORCERY IS THIS?!

“He nods at guys too busy starting to nod back, and ignores the petulant lip-puffing pouts from the girls”. Mind the wording – these aren’t just some girls, these are the girls. Every girl. Every single girl is a dumb lip-puffing pouting brainless person. This just makes me very, very angry. It doesn’t make these girls look bad, it makes all girls look bad. And to be honest, most of us don’t frigging care who you’re snogging anyway.

I really wonder why this book is so, SO degrading towards girls. The only person who doesn’t fall victim to this is main character Emma. Emma only ever wears hoodies, preferably her boyfriend’s, sometimes even multiple hoodies on top of each other (don’t ask me how that should work). The lesson we can gather from this is that every girl that thinks hoodies and thermal wear is boring, is a slut. At one point Emma thinks about how she missed out on the “style” gene but only got the “practical” one. So… those two are mutually exclusive? There is absolutely no way to not look like you are wearing your brother’s leftovers and be dressed practically? Behold all stylish females, we are clearly not dressed for walking around at schools! Because you know, you will look like a slut if even a hint of your cleavage is showing.

I think I get what the author is trying to say. You don’t need to have the ladies hanging out of the front of your shirt to look beautiful. There is nothing wrong with having your own style. Some girls are just plain mean and jealous and petty. That message is getting completely scrambled in the process though, turning it from quite nice to a monstrosity. Maybe that’s the real Frankenstein of this book.

Then there is also a scene in which Emma finds herself in a burning room. Once the paramedics arrive, she refuses treatment. This is so wrong. If you have been in a burning house and you have breathed in the fumes, you must get yourself checked out as soon as possible. She could have easily dropped dead after a few hours because the soot in her throat caused a reaction. I do not condone any of this kind of reckless behaviour in books. What if some teenager reads this, finds herself in a burning house, gets out, refuses treatment because who needs stuff like that, and dies? Really, the blame is on you.

By the way, the argument “what are the odds?” doesn’t work. There shouldn’t be any odds of this happening. This situation could have been mended within the story with just a few sentences. A simple “the paramedics checked all of my vitals but I was fine” would have sufficed.

Broken was not the book I was expecting to read, and if I had known what I’d be getting myself into I wouldn’t have picked it up. It completely pales in comparison, but the last fifty pages or so were quite entertaining. There is some mystery and a crazy scientist, and who doesn’t like one of those. It was all way too black and white for my taste, but that does fit the overall tone of the book. Really, if you are looking for a simple romance story with a dash of supernatural, you might love Broken. It has all the elements a YA romance reader will eat up, as long as you don’t mind the awful generalisations the novel makes.

I enjoyed the idea of the story more than the actual telling of it. The idea was good but the execution fell flat.

Thank you for providing an copy for review, unfortunately I was unable to read and review this.

Creepy, captivating, and unputdownable. BROKEN by A.E. Rought is a spooky and delicious Frankenstein retelling in the modern day.

A modern-day spin on Frankenstein? I so wanted to love this book. Modern retellings are my jam, however I was disappointed with Broken and despite giving it several attempts to win me over, I'm afraid the result was disappointing.