Beautiful Broken Things

By Author / Illustrator

Sara Barnard

Genre

Adventure

Age range(s)

11+

Publisher

Pan Macmillan

ISBN

9781509803538

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

11-02-2016

Synopsis

I was brave
She was reckless
We were trouble

Beautiful Broken Things is a moving story of friendship from debut author Sara Barnard, shortlisted for the YA Book Prize and selected as part of Zoella's Book Club.

Best friends Caddy and Rosie are inseparable. Their differences have brought them closer, but as she turns sixteen Caddy begins to wish she could be a bit more like Rosie - confident, funny and interesting. Then Suzanne comes into their lives: beautiful, damaged, exciting and mysterious, and things get a whole lot more complicated. As Suzanne's past is revealed and her present begins to unravel, Caddy begins to see how much fun a little trouble can be. But the course of both friendship and recovery is rougher than either girl realizes, and Caddy is about to learn that downward spirals have a momentum of their own.

Reviews

I'd heard a lot about this book before I began reading it so my expectations were high and Beautiful Broken Things turned out to be a beautifully-written and multi-layered book.

Best friends Rosie and Caddy are inseparable until Rosie finds a new friend at her school, Suzanne, and the balance of their friendship changes. Rosie has always been the more confident of the two and as she turns 16, Caddy wishes that something would come into her life to make her braver, more confident - more like Rosie, in fact. Suzanne is wild, funny and a risk-taker and gradually Caddy is drawn more into her world and way of doing things. But Suzanne also has her own problems and, as these are gradually revealed and her risks grow bolder and more dangerous, they become overwhelming.

The story offers a perceptive and honest exploration of the very close friendships and bonds that teenaged girls can develop, and how they can impact on individual lives in both a positive and more complex way. Intriguing and thoughtful.

400 pages / Ages 12+ / Reviewed by Katie Barrow.