Broken – A.E Rought

Published: January 3, 2013 by Strange Chemistry

Imagine a modern spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where a young couple’s undying love and the grief of a father pushed beyond sanity could spell the destruction of them all.

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 loved this book!

 It is the kind of story that pulls you in and doesn’t let go. Even after the last page has been read, you find yourself thinking about the story and the characters. This is now my third read of the novel and it remains an epic reading journey.

The characters are fully rounded, and at the end of the book you feel as though they are your friends. There are many cute references to other novels throughout the book.

Emma is the perfect female protagonist. For once, the leading lady of a YA novel takes the reigns and stands up for herself. She has so many likeable traits that throughout the story you are constantly rooting for her. The details and descriptions through the book were stunning, her prose read like poetry and the story jumped off the pages and came to life. This is one of the many reasons A.E Rought’s writing style is so unique–she takes the macabre and makes it beautiful.

Fantastic read.