Top reviews from the United States

• 

  MK

  5 out of 5 stars

  This novel is as strange and beautiful as its cover

  Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2017

  Format: Hardcover

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  This novel is as strange and beautiful as its cover. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's perhaps not for everyone, but whoa. I found it fascinating. It's the story of Ben, a sixteen year old boy who's tracking down notes left for him by his now-dead ex-girlfriend, Mira, who fell (jumped?) into the local quarry with her sister, Francesca. Beautiful Broken Girls has strong religious themes, and it's set in a small, close-knit community where most people are not exactly who they seem on the surface; I loved the mysterious, almost creepy vibe, as well as the novel's creative format. Plus, Kim Savage's prose is stunningly emotive. Read this one if you like your YA dark and literary.

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  Vanessa Gobes

  5 out of 5 stars

  A uniquely thoughtful and wildly creative novel awaits.

  Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2017

  Format: Hardcover

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  After reading Kim Savage's first YA novel, After the Woods, I was prepared for the author's propensity toward the dark and twisty. I did not, however, expect this. Beautiful Broken Girls is perhaps inspired by Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides; but Savage's characters are motivated by a distinctly divergent purpose, which thrilled me. Unlike other YA novels, Savage channels the adolescent spirit without drowning the reader in indulgent teenage angst, making this a book for plot twist lovers of all ages. A story that leaves readers with plenty of questions and theories to explore, BBG is perfect for book clubs!

  Readers familiar with South Shore, Massachusetts will find themselves lost in curiosity, visualizing Savage's Quarry and Powder Neck, wondering if the author describes the very same landmarks locals know so well.

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  2 people found this helpful

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• 

  Amazon Customer

  3 out of 5 stars

  The second half of the book seemed like the author got fatigued and the writing was not ...

  Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2017

  Format: Kindle

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  The first half of the book was very well written and intriguing. The second half of the book seemed like the author got fatigued and the writing was not as crisp. The ending seemed rushed and did not connect well to first half of the story

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  3 people found this helpful

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• 

  Colleen

  4 out of 5 stars

  A dark and surprising treat!

  Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2017

  Format: Kindle

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  * Reviewed by eKelly for North of Normal Book Reviews (dot) com *

  BEAUTIFUL BROKEN GIRLS by Kim Savage is a dark YA stand-alone mystery with some elements of suspense and fantasy.

  Kim Savage is a new author to me. I first saw this book as a recommendation to other readers on one of the various Facebook book groups. The title and cover definitely intrigued me, and since I wanted to be surprised, I went into this book without reading the blurb or any reviews. I am so glad I made that decision!

  Teenage sisters, Mia and Francesca Cillo, are beautiful, odd, and over protected by their widowed father. To the teenage boys, the girl’s traits make them seem alluring and untouchable like sirens. A boy named Ben Lattanzi however got to touch seven parts of Mia; her palm, hair, chest, cheek, lips, throat, and heart. After the sisters kill themselves by purposely drowning in the quarry lake, Ben receives a letter in the mail from Mia wherein she invites him to understand why the girls committed suicide. This sets Ben on a quest to the seven places he touched her. In each of those seven places, she has left him a message.

  The book opens with one of the best lines I’ve ever read:

  <I> When they found Mia Cillo at the bottom of the quarry lake, her fingers were shot through the loose weave of her sister Francesca’s sweater at the neck. </I>

  It completely drew me in and told me everything I needed to know about the premise. This story is told in dual POV, from Ben and Mia. It made it really interesting because from Ben’s perspective you get both his present-day quest plus his memories of the girls. From Mia’s perspective you get obviously the past and the disturbing things in her and her sister’s lives that led up to their suicide.

  I read this book in two days, devouring the “Who done it?” mystery steeped in Christian stigmata. I badly wanted to blame the girls’ suicide on someone else, and Ben’s perspective provided plenty of blame.

  There really is no happy ending to this story, though it is satisfying in that the mystery is very nicely tied up, and the circumstances which drove the girls to their suicide are clear. Though I enjoyed this story as a whole, there were a few aspects that fell short for me. There were a few instances of dialogue that left me scratching my head, wondering who exactly the POV-character was speaking to and that became confusing. There was so many characters, from friends to co-workers, parents, bosses, and even a spiritual advisor, that I think the author could have done a better job at making it clearer to the reader who it was Mia and Ben were engaging with. The second problem for me was an unconnected element of the story. Ben was abused when he was a younger child. This abuse is brought up many times in the story but never really described, and in the end it really didn’t connect well with the main story line. I kept thinking the story would dig into his abuse and somehow Ben’s horrible experience was going to connect with the sisters. Ben being abused as a child could have been left out of this book altogether, and it would have had no impact on the story. That made it feel sort of gratuitous and unnecessary.

  This book is so unique that I can’t really compare it to anything I’ve ever read. I think this book will appeal to both adult and YA fans of strange mysteries and suspense.

  This novel earns 4 North of Normal Stars!

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• 

  DMS

  5 out of 5 stars

  I couldn't stop reading it!

  Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2017

  Format: Hardcover

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  Loved Kim Savage's second book, Beautiful Broken Girls. It has a suspenseful plot with unexpected twists. I couldn't stop reading it! Finished at 3:00 a.m. this morning. If you liked her first book, After the Woods, then you'll really enjoy this good read.

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• 

  YA Book Madness Blog

  2 out of 5 stars

  I wasn’t invested in the characters, I was invested in the mystery.

  Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2017

  Format: Kindle

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  Beautiful Broken Girls is the kind of book you tilt your head and look at sideways, puzzled and perplexed, trying to figure out what happened and how it evolved into what it did. Unfortunately for me, even when the mystery unraveled, there were so many questions left unanswered that I was at a loss for what to make of this bizarre story.

  When I initially saw this cover, I knew I had to have it. It’s creepy and unsettling. It looks like something out of a horror film, so that’s kind of what I expected when I opened the book. This is not that kind of story. At its core, Beautiful Broken Girls is a mystery and an ode to learning to cope after a horrible tragedy, and for Ben, after a lost first love.

  The story is told from multiple characters (Mira, Francesca, and Ben) and takes place in two different years. The pieces are not in order and are further separated by body parts that Ben touched on Mira when they were seeing each other. If it sounds strange, that’s because it is. The idea itself is an interesting one. Getting to each note that Mira left for Ben was like a nostalgic scavenger hunt as he relived the sensual moments he had with Mira as they feel for each other. What the notes meant and getting to the truth propelled the story forward, even when the pacing was excessively slow.

  I made guesses throughout the story about what really happened to the dead girls; I suggest trying this and seeing if you guessed right. I did, to an extent. As the story evolves and the clues are found-in the form of Mira’s cryptic little poem snippets-Ben makes a whirlwind of assumptions. It’s hard to talk about this book without giving anything away and I HATE spoilers. One of the first things you learn about Ben, is that he was molested as a child in little league. So he’s known as touched or damaged. There is so much wrong with this, but I digress. Apart from the fact that this is used as a device by others in the story so that Ben is doubted and seen as projecting his past on the situation, it didn’t really function in the story and threw me off as a story arc. It felt like so many elements of this book were jumbled and thrown in and never really came together to form a coherent narrative.

  One of my major issues was with voice. Ben, the other boys, Mira, basically everyone in the story, despite being set in 2015-2016, felt like they were using language from the 80s or 90s. Maybe even before that. It could be the setting and maybe those phrases are abundant and natural there, but to me, it felt off. Some phrases are crude and made me feel slimy, and other times, it felt like things were thrown in to emphasize that they were teenage boys, whether they were realistic or not. You’re introduced to a lot of characters at once. It took a bit for them to develop into their own people, it was hard to distinguish them at first because of how they were introduced.

  I labeled this with a mental illness tag because of some of the descriptions of Mira and the actions of Francesca (which I can’t really go into without spoilers). But Mira has some disturbing imagery attached to her and her thoughts that make you question her…though somehow nowhere near the way you do Francesca and Mira almost functioned as a secondary character-her voice, her personality, the romance, none of it was emphasized or clear. Mira flitted in and out of the story and there are brief interludes of memory, but other than that, she fades away-ghostly. Back to the point, these thoughts, like wanting to drink toxic chemicals or throw herself off a cliff are dangerous, reckless, borderline suicidal and very disturbing, and yet, they’re just there. Not really deliberated over or anything and it makes you wonder why even put them there other than to show that Mira was messed up too.

  I wasn’t invested in the characters, I was invested in the mystery. The need to know what happened was enough. However, that ending, the truth, the reveal, what about all of the other stuff? Was it real? Was it a psychological issue? So many questions. If you’re looking for something weird, something that when you finish reading you’ll question what you just read, then check this out.

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• 

  Kelley A. St. Coeur

  5 out of 5 stars

  I was drawn to how Beautiful Broken Girls captured the complexity of the teenage years ...

  Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2017

  Format: Hardcover

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  As an adult who works with adolescents, I was drawn to how Beautiful Broken Girls captured the complexity of the teenage years and their relationships. It is a time where the power of relationships, especially with peers, shapes every choice a young person makes and this novel is an example of that extreme. I found myself trying to guess at the reality behind the deaths throughout the novel and was shocked when I learned the story behind Connie. Such a powerful depiction of the reality of relationships between teen girls, when they are often so mean to the ones they love the most.

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• 

  Kim

  5 out of 5 stars

  Very Talented Author

  Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2017

  Format: Hardcover

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  Kim has a gift. She is a descriptive writer with a talent to pull you into a story and feel a part of the character's world. I am not even the target audience for her writing, being well past the age of "Young Adult", but thoroughly enjoyed it and I am looking forward to her next release!

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  3 people found this helpful

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