Beautiful Broken Things

Loved the book it was great!!

Such a brilliant, thought provoking book about the strength of female friendships and how intense they can sometimes be- how in giving so much to a friend, you can lose sight of yourself. The narrative also explores the importance of boundaries, severe trauma and mental health problems, and the tragic truth that sometimes, trying to help, trying to 'be there' for someone is damaging, no matter how good your intentions are. You can be the best, most thoughtful and accepting friend in the world, but some people need rescuing from themselves. Caddy and Rosie have been best friends their whole lives, despite their separate schools. Caddy's set up is a woefully boy-free affair, filled with too-high expectations and extra curricular activities. At the start of year 11, Rosie meets new-girl Suzanne, and Caddy is determined to hate this super gorgeous, witty, self deprecating interloper that Rosie has brought into her life. But Suzanne- enigmatic, secretive, hurt, has just escaped an unsafe home life and is struggling with her behaviour, her destructive tendencies and her self esteem. Caddy does not come off well to begin with. She's jealous, kind of spiteful and spends a lot of time being self obsessed, lamenting that nothing interesting ever happens to her, unlike Rosie who has a baby sister die and her sister Tarrin who is bipolar. Yep, she really is wrapped up in herself to the extent that she is jealous because her life lacks the drama of death and mental illness. As with many 'shy/boring/too-nice' narrators, she's determined to shed her shyness, become more Rosie, become more interesting. Get a makeover and a boyfriend, in true teen priority style. Thankfully, Caddy does grow as a character. The duo becomes a trio and for once, it's really refreshing to read a story about three girls where one is not ostracised. As the girls get closer, the reasons for Suzanne's increasingly erratic behaviour becomes clearer. Is friendship enough to save Suzanne? Will listening help? So Rosie seems more aware of Suzanne's state of mind, seems to view her struggle more objectively- Caddie is just desperate to be there, to be a good friend to Suzanne. She kind of gets off on being Suzanne's go to- not just the friend of a friend. She still parades around like a fool as Rosie begins to become concerned about Caddy and Suzanne's developing friendship and the intense closeness that they suddenly have. Caddy thinks she's jealous. Caddy's family think Suzanne is an awful influence and is jeopardising their daughter's future. Suzanne is a brilliantly crafted character, heartrendingly vulnerable and deeply sympathetic- she's frustrating and reckless and in many ways quite unlikable. But she is hypnotic. Rosie and Caddy’s deep, lifelong friendship is such a beautiful one- I absolutely believed in their bond and knew that they were both in it for the long haul. Teen rebellion is explored brilliantly, and the rites of passage, the bust ups, the friction and the solid foundations of teen friendships are beautifully explored. Anybody that has ever been a teen will relate pretty hard to this. Sara Barnard captures that teen intensity, that NEED to be accepted, to be liked by your peers, perfectly in a complex and engaging character study. The prose is gorgeous- sensitive, resonant, and enthralling. These girls are so real: their changing relationships, the lessons they have to learn and the challenges each faces are so authentic and absorbing. It leaves the reader with a weird mixed feeling cocktail of melancholy, happiness, hope and that sort of tragic acceptance of inevitability- it's the very definition of bittersweet. In her notes at the back of the book the author herself afterwards calls it "A love story without a romance", which it so absolutely is; it's really refreshing to find a contemporary that willfully neglects boy meets girl romance so steadfastly and instead spins a tale of the deepest and most life changing friendships. The support, the craving and finding of acceptance, how heady that can be. How occasionally, intentionally or not, such intensity often leads to destructiveness.The fallout from such a friendship makes bad decisions seem like good decisions, fosters an impulsiveness that overrides sense. The book is so realistic in its depiction of that process, and in the aftermath and the consequences of such an intense, impulsive friendship.

I prerecorded this book so i could get it the day it was released because of all the good things i had heard and i have to say that this book is truly amazing. the writing is so great and sounds exactly like what would come out of a sixteen year old girls mouth.So i would highly recommend.Also it being my first book to deal with abuse and other touchy subjects it was done wonderfully so do not hesitate to buy this great book, written by a great author.

This book was absolutely fabulous, it was so moving and emotional, yet gripping, heartfelt and just perfect at the same time. By just a few pages in, I felt truly connected to Caddy, and later on Suzanne and Rosie. It was a complete page-Turner, and had me reading this book with no break, for ages. Honestly, I was TERRIFIED for caddy and her parents, even more so for Suzanne. It was so sad and emotional, and I just loved it! This book was honestly one of my favourite YA novels in ages!

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 realises, and Caddy is about to learn that downward spirals have a momentum of their own. 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.

Really enjoyed the story, the plot slowly un folded throughout. Would recommend to teenage girls, its a tough time without the issues discussed, but could provide some perspective.

Dieses Buch ist so schön und detailliert geschrieben. Es kommt einem vor als wäre man mittendrin. Eine sehr schöne Geschichte die mich manchmal auch an meine komplizierten Freundschaften erinnert.

Ok

I could not love this book more. Barnard is a master plotter and truthteller.

The most wonderful thing about this book is that.. It's so real.. Uk what it means and how it feels.. It shows the power of female friendship through such a great perspective.. It's so realatable as a teenager.. If you are a teen then this book is so for u!!

Good book.