Early Review - Broken by A.E. Rought (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Size: 320 pages
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Release Date: January 8, 2013
ISBN: 78-1908844316
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eBook through NetGalley.com
Rating: 3.5/5 stars


This is a haunting and beautifully written retelling of Frankenstein. The story ends up being pretty typical paranormal YA, but the writing was more beautiful than most YA books that I read.

Emma is trying to recover from the mysterious death of her boyfriend Daniel when she meets Alex Franks. Alex and Emma are strangely drawn to each other...as they try to figure out why, they uncover some very dark secrets.

I enjoyed the haunting settings and writing style of this book, it has a very gothic feel to it. This is a decently done paranormal mystery of sorts. Things progress slowly in the beginning of the book as the mystery builds. The last eighth or so of the book is a frantic sequence of events that are more action packed then the whole rest of the book was. As a result the pacing in this book is a bit awkward.

There is a lot of high school angst in here too, which I am not a big fan of. Also, the book was pretty predictable. Emma and Alex spend a lot of time being drawn to each other and worrying about it, which got old pretty quickly.

Emma is a decent character, but she spends a lot of time being depressed and dwelling on the death of her boyfriend Daniel. So there is a lot of emotional angst going on. When she meets Alex then she is all guilty and emotional about liking him. So, yeah, just a lot of whining, worrying, and angsting.

Alex is a bit stalker creepy. He is drawn to Emma from the moment he sees her and pretty much stalks her from there on out. I understand that there ends up being a reason for this, so at least there is an explanation for his creepiness...which is better than most of the paranormal YA books out there.

Overall this was a decent retelling of Frankenstein. I enjoyed the haunting and beautiful writing style, but wasn't a huge fan of the story itself. This book may find more appeal with the teenage audience since there is a lot of high school angst going on in here.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Horror and Urban Fantasy Challenge
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge
- Debut Author Reading