Beautiful Broken Things is a book that has had a lot of hype around it over the years. I know that a lot of the UKYA community loved this book and Sara Bernard and while I had read another one of her books, I didn't love it which meant that I was put off from reading this book, but I shouldn't have been. While this book did start off slow for me and I didn't know if it was going to be for me, once I was in, I was hooked. I loved the friendships throughout the book and once it got to the end I was on the edge of my seat. I loved seeing the evolution of the different friendship evolve and change as this happens throughout your teen years. It is a book that will stay with me for the rest of the year and I hope that it makes one of my favourites.

I had heard great things about Bernard, and I was a fan of one of her later books, A Quiet Kind of Thunder, though I can't remember much about it. I went into this not knowing anything about it, but it quickly became clear that it deals with a lot of important issues for teenagers to grapple with. I won't go into them, but I will say that even though the premise of the book is that Caddy, the protagonist has never had a 'Big Life Moment', I did find it quite hard to believe that she could have lived such a sheltered life that she could be so shocked by everything that occurs. I do think it was well-written, and could be relatable to a lot of people, because of what it covers. I don't think the character of Suzanne got as much attention as she deserved, so I'm happy that the sequel focuses on her. However, I'm not sure if I will be picking it up.

I recently bought a new kindle after my old one broke. For some reason I was unable to download this title from the cloud onto my kindle, therefore I will be unable to review this title. I am sorry for any inconvenience caused

This is a love story, but not romantic love. Instead, it’s about a love between friends, old and new. Caddy and Rosie have been friends for a decade when into their lives comes Suzanne, a girl with a dark past and a bright exterior surface designed to hide it. As Suzanne’s former life gradually gets revealed, Caddy is pulled closer in. She’s drawn to Suzanne’s ability to have fun, but also to her rule-breaking which makes average Caddy feel cool. Things gradually come to a head as more and more of Suzanne’s former life is revealed, and the final few scenes are gripping and absolutely heart-breaking.
This is the second book by Sara Barnard that I’ve read, and considering how much I loved A Quiet Kind of Thunder, I genuinely don’t understand why I’ve not just gone out and bought everything she’s ever written and read it immediately. Her writing is pure and beautiful, and emotionally vivid. She writes well-rounded, honest characters, and this story cuts straight to the heart – it nearly had me in tears more than once.
I may have received a free e-copy of this book from Netgalley, but I loved it so much that I bought the physical version too, along with the sequel Fierce Fragile Hearts, which I cannot wait to start.

Along with a beautiful cover, I think it was the title of Beautiful Broken Things that attracted me most. After all, aren’t most things (and people) beautiful and broken? I received an ARC of it on Netgalley and after some rave reviews from other British book bloggers and Booktubers, I decided to give it a go.

Set in Brighton, it’s the story of new girl Suzanne showing up and befriending Rosie, who is the narrator Caddy’s best friend. Suzanne is beautiful and funny with a mysterious dark past that Caddy can’t help but investigate. As her friendship with Suzanne grows, she uncovers the truth behind her arrival in Brighton and goes on a journey to save her new friend from herself while accomplishing some Significant Life Events of her own.

This book deals with a variety of dark topics such as physical abuse and depression. On the surface, it is a light-hearted story about female teen friendships but underneath there is a lot of serious real drama. As more of Suzanne’s life is revealed to us, the reader feels themselves becoming more and more involved. In fact, like Caddy, I often wanted to reach out and help her. I did see the “significant event” coming and I kept expecting it to happen before it did. That may be because I have read a lot of YA books that deal with depression and Beautiful Broken Things certainly follows a similar chain of events.

The life-long friendship between Caddy and Rosie is a typical one, full of happy memories and true loyalty. In contrast, the new friendship between Caddy and Suzanne appears to go a lot deeper. Suzanne is the bad influence who Caddy feels a need to help, which is something that many people would dismiss as toxic and unhealthy. However, by the end of the book, the reader is in no doubt that Caddy and Suzanne have a genuine love and passionate connection, bordering on infatuation on Caddy’s part. The jealousies and intensity that comes with being sixteen and having beautiful complicated friends is depicted in a very real way that I think many readers will relate to.

Caddy’s preoccupation with being cool and shaking off her private-school image is another aspect that felt very real. The beginning of the book shows Caddy to be a quiet, intelligent girl from a conventional family who is tired of having such a normal dull life. This is something that I struggled with when I was a teenager. At sixteen, it felt like I was surrounded by people whose lives were so much more interesting than mine. They had plenty of stories about sex and heartbreak and broken homes. Although those stories came from dark places, I felt an unexplainable jealousy that they had those stories. That they had lived through some Significant Life Events. Despite my irritation with her at times, I saw a lot of my younger self in Caddy. In fact, that’s probably what spurred a lot of my irritation with her. Maybe I was really irritated with my former self.

In many ways, Beautiful Broken Things is a lot like other YA contemporaries that feature mental health. There is a tragic past and a lot of serious difficulties during teenage years but there is the feeling that starting afresh and accepting help is the first step to recovery. A lovely uplifting thought but whether it would actually work in this case, I remain not entirely convinced. I would recommend giving it a try if you love a book that is full of high drama and complex characters with a relatable look at what it is to be growing up female.

A beautifully honest, emotional story about teen friendship. Perfect for fans of character-driven YA.

This is my first Sara Barnard book, and I can't believe I've never read something from her before. This was beautifully written and really hit me in the feels. I was warned that if I read this I may cry, and it was so well written that it did bring a tear to my eye - and really hit close to home with how similar me and the MC are. I am definitely going to be reading more of her books in the future.

Ooh, three way friendships are tricky little things, aren’t they? It is the friendship between Caddy, Rosie and new girl Suzanne, this is the basis of Sara Barnard’s Beautiful Broken Things. When Rosie and Suzanne become friends, Caddy – Rosie’s best friend – becomes unbearably jealous. However, as the girls all get to know one another the dynamics of the group shift and the girls all form roles within their cohort.

We have all been there, haven’t we? All had that tricky friendship group and have fallen out with your best friend. It feels like the end of the world (when, it happens at the age of 29 it is much worse, trust me) so you really feel that Barnard is portraying a universal story. The emotions that come along with friendship are harsh, they are real and they go deeper than anyone would ever imagine.

You can’t help but feel for our young protagonist, Caddy; equally you find yourself screaming at the book when you know she is making bad decisions. Rather cleverly, Barnard has managed to portray ‘bad influence’ Suzanne in a heart warming way. Your heart breaks for her the same way that Caddy’s does. Yes, she keeps doing messed up things but she is so self destructive that you can’t help but want to fix her.

Beautiful Broken Things is one of the best books that I have read about the dynamics of friendship and the real life dramas that take place among teenagers that should never be taken lightly.

Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard is available now.

For more information regarding Sara Barnard (@saramegan) please visit www.sarabarnardofficial.com.

For more information regarding (@panmacmillan) please visit www.panmacmillan.com.

Heartbreaking and uplifting all at once a must for the teenage girl with a John Green obsession

tI really enjoyed this book, I’m saying it now. I’ve since read Sara Barnard’s second book and loved that probably even more. It focuses on friendship and trauma and family and it really was a great read. Not that it doesn’t have problems, but it was really difficult to put down.

The principle problem I had with this book was Caddy. Honestly, this would probably have been a five star book without her. I understand unlikeable characters, such as Suzanne’s aunt (others may disagree with me here but her seeing Suzanne as a burden was just cruel after all she’d been through), but Caddy was ridiculous in some parts. She’s jealous of her best friend Rosie and her sister Tarin because her Rosie lost her baby sister when she was younger and Tarin is bipolar. I just cannot fathom how someone can be jealous of either of these things - she wants to be interesting, fine, but does she honestly want either of these things to happen to her? Really?!

Caddy is just selfish and shallow, she provokes Suzanne despite having researched what triggers mean and knowing that she will hurt her. I know there are people in the world who would act that way but I’d bet that they’re in general not nice people, but Caddy is portrayed throughout as a decent human being. It’s kind of confusing. Basically she’s jealous of Suzanne, jealous that Rosie has a new friend, jealous that Suzanne has had something happen to her in her life, regardless of the pain and upheaval it has resulted in. In short, she’s just jealous.

On the other hand, I loved the characters of Rosie and Suzanne, the latter in particular. Suzanne’s story was heartbreaking and painful and about recovery and it was so much more interesting that the main storyline. (Caddy’s life goal was to get a boyfriend. No, she’s not twelve). Rosie was a great character too, a little simple at times, but I felt that it was just the way she is; seeing the good in everything and wanting to do the best for everyone.

So much was happening in this book, with everything linking in places, but I found that I didn’t get confused. Barnard is such a wonderful writer and it was such a compelling read - I just wanted to read on and on and on, regardless of whatever stupid thing Caddy said or thought. It was genuinely such an enjoyable book and I was dragged in by the plot and its fast pace. I’d highly recommend this to any lover of contemporary YA, and Barnard has definitely become an auto-buy author.

did i love this?

no.

did i hate this?

again, no.

did i like this?

yes, very much so.

We meet Caddy who, in her own eyes is very ordinary. Too ordinary! Living in a nice house with a Dad who is a Doctor and a Mum who works with the Samaritans. She goes to a private all girls school, which she knows costs a fortune, and she wants for nothing. Other than a more interesting life.
As she turns 16 she vows that this will be the year she will find a proper boyfriend, lose her virginity and experience a “Significant Life Event”. She shares this goal with her best friend, Rosie. She has been best friends with Rosie for years and they are still the best of friends, despite attending different high schools. They tell each other everything and spend all of their spare time together. That is until Suzanne comes along. Suzanne attends Rosie's school and they become close, much to Caddy's annoyance. She's not used to sharing her best friend. However, over time, she too becomes close to Suzanne. Suzanne is exciting. She seems to not care about school or anything really. For Caddy, Suzanne is exactly what she needs to bring her out of her shell. However, Suzanne has a painful past and one she's likely to never get over. She obviously needs more help than she is receiving and I felt so sorry for her, despite her destructive behaviour.
As a parent, I could totally sympathise with Caddy's parents. What parent would want their 16 year old daughter sneaking out in the middle of the night? We don't want our well behaved children being led astray by so called bad influences. Their reaction to things that go on throughout the story was very believable for me. As much as I respect my children's right to choose their own friends, I would certainly have something to say if their behaviour put them at any risk.
However, this story does highlight just how we never know what someone else might be going through and that their reckless actions can be a cry for help.
It was interesting how the dynamics of the friendship between Caddy, Rosie and Suzanne shifted over such a short time. Rosie soon became the jealous one as Caddy and Suzanne became close, but this jealousy turned to concern as Caddy took more and more risks just to spend time with Suzanne. I felt sorry for Rosie then as feeling left out is awful.
It was hard to guess where the story might lead. My heart was breaking for Suzanne and I truly hoped she would get the support she needed to start building a new, positive life for herself.
I could totally see why Caddy was drawn to Suzanne. At such an impressionable age, a lot of teenagers are trying to fit in and be what they see as interesting. No-one wants to be the boring one.
They're having a great time until an accident happens during one of their many middle of the night adventures, and their friendship changes forever.
Beautiful Broken Things is so beautifully written, I was drawn in from the very beginning and it didn't let me go until the very last page. It's a very powerful story about friendship, family, child abuse and mental illness. It's aimed at a teenage/YA audience, but honestly, I have thoroughly enjoyed it as an adult. It is most definitely a book that will stay with me and one I will happily recommend.
Many thanks to the author and publisher for approving my request on Netgalley.

Strangely enough, I feel like this book was too realistic to worm its way into my heart? I suppose I was personally a bit of a mix of Rosie/Caddy myself in high school so there was too much here that felt like "duh". I adored that the narrator did learn the advantages her privilege afforded her but so much of that growth was understated. and made me wonder at how much was being achieved through the book or my application of my own experiences. I wonder if I was /too much/ the audience for the book or just not the best.

I am pretty conflicted about this book.

On one hand, it was well written and it's a story of friendship and deals with important topics, such as mental illness and abuse. It was easy to read and I flew through the pages, eager to read more.

However, on the other hand, I struggled to like the characters. I liked Rosie, but Caddy, our main character, was so frustrating. She starts off the novel being sad because she's uninteresting, but the reason she thinks she's uninteresting is because she has never had anything bad happen to her. Like, don't wish tragedy upon yourself, go get a hobby!

When Suzanne comes along it is understandable that Caddy is going to be jealous and start worrying about losing her best friend, Rosie, but she deals with it so badly. She actually searches for bad things and when she hears about "triggers" and that something happened in "Coronation Street", she actually brings it up in front of Suzanne knowing that it would be upsetting for her. It's horrible, insensitive and selfish. Not traits I like to find in main characters, especially in stories about friendship.