So I was really looking forward to Beautiful Broken Things but it ended up falling little bit flat.
The main problem I had was with the protagonist, Caddy. I disliked her pretty much instantly and never really warmed to her or understood her actions. She’s selfish and gets instantly jealous when it looks like Rosie might want to hang out with someone who isn’t Caddy. She thinks her life is boring and compares herself to her sister (who is bipolar) and Rosie (whose sibling died when she was young), wishing that something ‘interesting’ like that would happen to her too. Since when do mental illness or tragedy make you interesting?
When Caddy does eventually get over herself and start hanging out with Suzanne, her dislike does a total 180 and twists into complete obsession. It’s almost like she’s romantically in love with Suzanne, but the plot doesn’t develop this way. Instead, her interest in Suzanne played out like an obsession and ended up making Caddy seem weak.
The plot itself is a bunch of silly teenagers doing stupid things, like climbing on the roofs of condemned buildings and leaving town overnight without telling anyone where they’re going. I just ... no.
And the adults weren’t much better. Sadly Suzanne is struggling to get over a fairly horrific past - she was smacked around by her dad for years while her mum and brother did nothing to stop it - but instead of giving her, I don’t know, maybe a bit of sympathy, the aunt she lives with acts like Suzanne is this massive, overreacting burden and Caddy’s parents act like she’s being a spoilt brat. I really didn’t get their attitudes.
I love it when female friendships are portrayed in YA, especially when there’s no side-helping of romance, but this book didn’t really do it for me. I think I was expecting it to be more high drama than it turned out to be. So in that respect I guess I’m guilty of being like Caddy! UKYA is always going to find its way onto my TBR list, but I don’t think this is a great example of the genre.
2.5 stars