Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Review: Broken by C.J. Lyons

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Pages: 325
Received: Received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley/Edelweiss

Release Date: November 5, 2013
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Goodreads Synopsis:

New York Times bestselling author CJ Lyons makes her YA debut with a fast-paced thriller sure to keep readers guessing to the very last page

The only thing fifteen-year-old Scarlet Killian has ever wanted is a chance at a normal life. Diagnosed with a rare and untreatable heart condition, she has never taken the school bus. Or giggled with friends during lunch. Or spied on a crush out of the corner of her eye. So when her parents offer her three days to prove she can survive high school, Scarlet knows her time is now... or never. Scarlet can feel her heart beating out of control with every slammed locker and every sideways glance in the hallway. But this high school is far from normal. And finding out the truth might just kill Scarlet before her heart does.

My Review:

I finished this book a few days ago and am still on the fence about how I really feel about everything that happened. The one thing I really liked about the book was how CJ Lyons shows the difficulties of integrating into society when you have been isolated for so long. She really brings out the hardships of high school, and yet in a way I felt that Scarlet had things a little easy, and how quickly she made friends.

That was the one little downside to this book, is that everything happened so fast, the timeline of the story just seemed a little off to me. I really felt that everything Scarlet went through in this book would have happened over a bit longer period of time (the entire book is placed in a one week period). That one little thing made the book a little hard to believe. But other than that I do think this was an interesting story.

I really liked how the characters all were troubled and had this group (the peer mentoring group) to really help each other through things. I think this is one things schools need more of is peers helping peers, it's easier to open up to someone your own age and I can see why the friendships Scarlet makes happen so quickly. They begin to rely on each other and really help one another through the tough times and it's great to see how they help Scarlet and make her feel that even though she is ill she can still be a somewhat normal teenager.

I was a little surprised at the turn of events that the story took as we learn more about Scarlet's illness and it really kept me interested to see how things would turn out. Though when some information came out I had guessed it earlier on and I think it took a little too long for it to be fully revealed. The book definitely takes a dark and intriguing turn keeping readers turning the pages to learn more about Scarlet's life.

It was interesting to see so much medical terminology throughout the book. I think CJ Lyons shows that children with illnesses really begin to understand a lot more about that and when it comes to the sciences of their bodies they know a lot more than people would think. This was an interesting story that kept me reading until I finished but I do really feel that the timeline was too short for everything to have happened the way it did. I'm very much on the fence of my feelings for this book, where a part of me liked  it, a small part of me found a few tiny issues that kept me from really loving the story. 

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