Review: Broken by A.E. Rought

Title: Broken

Author: A.E. Rought

Publisher: Strange Chemistry

Publication date: January 8th, 2013

Source: NetGalley

Format: eBook

Pages: 384

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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.

I am very well acquainted with Mary Shelly's Frankenstein novel. It was a requirement reading that I resisted at the beginning but then devoured. So to say I was excited to read a modern retelling of it is accurate. The synopsis doesn't even tell you much other than hinting on who Frankenstein's creation is and who he was reconstructed from. However I was both impressed by the direction the plot took but also disappointed by how the plot itself was handled. I might not be making much sense but to say it simply, Broken had potential, but towards the end my disappointment took over. 

The story revolves around Emma Gentry and the loss of her boyfriend Daniel. Emma really mourns him to the point that she spends everyday after school at the cemetery where she wished Daniel was buried (his parents cremated him). However, Alex Franks comes along and confuses Emma. I liked that she didn't feel guilty about liking someone else but she still remembers Daniel whenever she is with Alex because somehow Alex knows things about her that only Daniel knew. I found that to be a bit creepy and added to the mystery of the novel. However then the romance blooms and the cheesy texts between them that I would rather have not read were written. We also encounter Alex's dad who is supposedly a doctor but I would rather suffer through any sickness than go to him. We also have Daniel's best friend who can't seem to stop harassing Emma, because they are not seniors but kids who show their feelings towards each other by being mean *rolls eyes*. I honestly couldn't stand the dad, the best friend and the cheesy romance, but I did like Alex, Emma, and her best friend. 

A pet peeve of mine whenever I read a novel is the amount of detail an author puts in describing inanimate objects. I just tend to skip these unimportant paragraphs that take me away from the novel. The problem is that Broken had a lot of those; I wanted more dialogue but got more repetitive contemplation and worry from Emma. The mystery gets unraveled way too late in the story and by then I have honestly lost my interest and just wanted the story to end. The mystery was well planned but the execution took some of the enjoyment level out of it.