Thirteen year old Laika has disappeared and no one knows where she is. Twenty five years later her sister Willa is still traumatised by her mysterious disappearance. At a dinner party with friends and family things get a bit heated and secrets start to unravel.
I didn't enjoy this book mainly because it had a lot of violence in it, bad language and a same sex relationship that I didn't think developed the plot any further. If I had known this beforehand I wouldn't have started reading this book. An upsetting read.

While this book is very well written and the characters are fleshed out and felt relatable, it wasn't quite what it sold itself to be on the tin. While I was expecting a mystery/thriller with a dark twist, examining the way memories work and perhaps the dangers of false memories, what was delivered was more of a domestic drama about a dark past.

I thought most of the book would be centred around the dinner party and the discussions that happen around the table, whereas it's mostly told in flashbacks and switches between different character's POV. Though I often enjoy getting to see the story from different angles, at times in this book it felt a little repetitive and the timeline shifts could be a little confusing.

I wasn't quite prepared for the rather graphic nature in which all the abuse was portrayed. Not suggesting that it needs to be sugar coated and delicately put but its just rather unexpected from anything in the synopsis.

The ending felt rushed and unrealistic, it didn't seem to gel with the rest of the novel and was a bit too textbook perfect ending.

Overall, I'm glad I read it as an ARC, don't think I would buy a copy for a friend.

**Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for access to an advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 3.1/5

I have mixed feelings about this debut novel from Sarah Easter Collins. I don't think her publisher's marketing team have done her any favours with the official synopsis they have created to accompany this book. My anticipation of the type of story I would be sitting down to read was very different from the one that the author has actually created. That isn't to say that her work isn't creditworthy and enjoyable - it certainly is - but the official blurb raises expectations in the mind of the would-be reader that may well lead to disappointment in some cases.

Sarah Easter Collins raises some really interesting ideas in this novel - especially around the concept of the reliability of memory. Unfortunately, in my view, it is revisited only intermittently rather than fully underpinning the narrative. Although positioned by the marketeers as a mystery suspense thriller, this really isn't. Yes, there is an element of mystery than runs throughout the story, but large portions of the book are really more of a slightly dark domestic drama with significant coming-of-age and self-discovery themes.

Sarah Easter Collins clearly has a talent for writing. The characterisation is credible and well-rounded, while her style is both fluent and intelligent. That said, considering the subject matter, I don't think she succeeds in evoking the reader's emotions as strongly as she could and perhaps should have. Nonetheless, I would certainly happily read more from this author.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this. A missing person story with a knowing twist or two with great story shared of the effects on people of hiding family behaviour and keeping secrets from each other
Great warm characters and an engaging read

Beautifully written mystery. It wasn't what I was expecting to be, but in a good way. Love the twists and turns the author put in.

Overall, the style of writing just wasn't for me. I found it hard to warm to the characters and found my mind wandering at times. I do like that it highlighted trauma and the effects of trauma and how it shapes our lives. I just felt like there was something missing for me,

This book made my head heart thinking about childhood memories and how they shape us. Yet I also thought it made the story quite clever in that it caused you to think about your own past history. It was a compelling story that was hard to leave behind.

A gripping read about Willa and how her life changed after her sister went missing….told from different perspectives, past and present and with such well written characters, I really enjoyed this book

Things Don't Break On Their Own is a captivating mystery that follows Willa, whose life was changed when her sister vanished without a trace on her way to school. The story unfolds through multiple timelines and perspectives gradually revealing the truth behind Laika's disappearance.
A thrilling read with really well-developed characters - a great debut!

This book gripped me from the off. Told in two parts, with two timelines, I was eager to know what had happened and how everything would be resolved. A new author for me, I am eager to see what else Sarah Easter Collins writes in the future.

This was a slow burn book.
This book was about 2 sisters and 1 disappeared.
The story began to unfold with individual perspectives written in the book.
Halfway through is when we discover what actually happened and this was found out by the surviving sister but from a readers perspective it wasn't very credible.
Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin General Uk-Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Businesses.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. It’s a story of two halves, told over two timelines. Jam packed, gripping and emotional

Things Don't Break On Their Own by Sarah Easter Collins

I had really high hopes for this book, as I usually really enjoy thriller/mystery books centered around one night and was looking forward to seeing how the dinner party setting would play into the story. Although I did find this an overall enjoyable read, there were a few issues that I felt I couldn't overlook and led to me only rating this a somewhat average 3 out of 5 stars.

Firstly, I did really enjoy the characters and how they were portrayed. I loved getting to know Willa and Robyn especially, and felt immense joy at the inclusion of queer characters, which is not very common in thriller novels. I liked learning about their past and watching them grow from teenagers into the adult women we meet at the dinner party. However, I did find that some of the flashbacks which showed us past events were confusing and I found myself getting lost at certain parts wondering what was happening and why we'd suddenly switched to the past, or vice versa. The scenes set in the past sometimes comes across as long streams of memory/backstory/consciousness which is sometimes pertinent to the plot and sometimes just feels like random added detail. These scenes then abruptly switch back into showing us the scene of the dinner party, and it almost felt like two separate stories that someone was trying to mesh together but that didn't really fit.

Furthermore, we are told different parts of the story through different POV's (mainly Robyn and Willa, but also Claudette towards the end). This is usually something I really enjoy in thriller books as it offers a wider perspective on events and allows us to get an insight into each characters personal thoughts/feelings. The multi POV in this book, however, meant that we saw the dinner party conversations/events through multiple different perspectives and this led to certain scenes feeling repetitive. For example, the argument between Claudette and Jamie is shown to us through Willa's eyes, Robyn's eyes and Claudette's eyes, which means the conversation gets repeated multiple times with very little difference other than offering us the different character's reactions to these events. I think the multi POV worked very well in scenes set in the past, but did not work as well during the dinner party scenes. The multi POV would have been better utilised if the story was set over more than one evening, as this would have lessened the repetitive feel to the dinner party conversations.

I did really enjoy the authors almost lyrical writing. She is brilliant at descriptive writing and manages to paint a picture in your mind that is so vivid you feel like you are experiencing it with your own eyes. My favourite example of this is when the author describes Robyn's house in such a detailed way that I could almost imagine myself walking through the house alongside Willa. The author also does an amazing job at sensitively touching on issues such as domestic abuse and showing the awful effects this has on the victims, showing how the abuse Willa's family experienced has haunted them their whole life. This also gave the reminder, to me at least, that you never know what goes on behind closed doors, and I think that idea became more and more important to the plot as we went on. I also liked how the author explored complex human emotions (such as grief, love, guilt, hate and many more) and also explored human interaction/relationships in a really interesting way. I really liked the way Willa and Jamie's relationship was explored and picked apart by the author as she slowly revealed the issues and lies surrounding them. I felt terribly sorry for Willa during this point, and feel like the author did a great job at showing the subtle control, abuse and fear that both Willa's Dad and Jamie subjected her to. I also liked how Willa's relationship with her family was explored and how she, as the "golden child" held a lot of shame and guilt for being the only one to escape the abuse. The conversation Liv starts about memory, and the memories both Willa and Claudette tell, was also very interesting and a fun addition to the otherwise dry dinner party scene.

I rated this 3 out of 5 stars. Although I enjoyed reading this book and loved the author's choice of underlying topics and themes throughout, there were just a few too many issues that meant I couldn't rate this any higher.. It is a real shame that the flashbacks and multi POV ruined this for me, as otherwise I think this plot (surrounding Laika's disappearance) was really gripping and would have made for a great story! I loved the scenes set in the past but felt that those set in the future, in particular during the dinner party, were disappointing and not as enjoyable compared to the rest of the book. Thank you to Netgalley and Sarah Easter Collins for the ARC.

Wow loved this book from the first page to the last. Was one of those that had me gripped throughout. Would highly recommend this book. Many thanks to both the author and net galley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review. All views expressed are my own.

Amazing book!
I was thoroughly engaged throughout this book and I didn't want to put it down! The author captured my attention from the get go! Five stars from me :)

This is a beautiful, character led story. A present day dinner party brings up a past trauma in 3 women’s lives and forces them to remember and confront the past. I was hooked from the beginning, and enjoyed the interaction between the different points of view enormously.

There is something very comforting about the concept of breaking into pieces, fragments of the self, of things, of memories, and then finding ways, new ways and unique ways, to join those cracks and recreate as something, not quite new, but something built on the strength of those fragments that remained.

This is a story of heartbreak, loss and rebirth. It is hard to read the emerging details of Laika's childhood but her story compelled me to keep going and I couldn't put this down after the half way point, I just had to keep going.

There is a message here also, of the treatment of vulnerable elderly people by greedy relatives and those who should be caring for them but are utterly lacking. I felt that I was in that house with them during that time and I wanted to stay because there was acceptance and compassion there. It was a happy surprise to find out what became of the cats, really nice that was included.

It ends well, and is not just satisfying but gives a warm and heartfelt closure.

This gets five stars from me and joins a very small number of books that make it to my favourite books list. LOVED IT.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

Things Don't Break on Their Own is a mystery drama that is both heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time. Beautifully written and totally compulsive. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my early copy.

3.5 stars for this book. A thrilling read filled with lots of mysteries. It reminded me of the movie “ready or not” for some reason lol. But the book does deal with heavy subject matter so please look up the trigger warnings.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This was a truly dark novel and unlike anything I was expecting from the synopsis. It was a hard read, with graphic depictions of domestic abuse and violence throughout, and was genuinely quite upsetting throughout the whole thing. Saying this, because I connected with the characters immediately, I felt so strongly about the events that occurred and truly felt myself falling into the story and trying to protect the characters from the world/people around them. I also felt that their relationships were detailed and well laid out, with the strong connections between them all further connecting me to the story.

However, there were some structural issues. It seemed to be paced a little oddly, with the ending feeling slightly rushed, and it was hard to depict when there were changes to the perspective timeline - I never really knew when starting a chapter if it was present-day or past. It was also unlike the synopsis, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but did alter the way I went into it and I do feel like a more accurate description would help this novel. I also think adding more time at the dinner party would’ve helped with this as well as ensured that the ending didn’t feel as rushed as it did.

Overall, I think Collins has a great, hard-hitting writing style which in turn created authentic characters that drew me to this novel. I would just caution those reading it to check the trigger warnings as this is emotionally distressing and hard to read.

TW: domestic abuse, violence, abduction/kidnap, death, sexism, child abuse (detailed)