Kim Savage

Ben learns why the love of his life Mira and her sister drowned themselves when he receives a post-mortem letter from Mira challenging him to find and decode notes hidden in the seven places where they secretly touched.

Beautiful Broken Girls

Emelie

Chrissy

I received an ecopy from netgalley for an honest review. 

Unfortunately I did not enjoy this book. It sounded interesting and I was excited to get to it but I think it just missed the mark. The characters were a bit too immature for me and the things some of them said annoyed me. There was a line similar to a boy saying that the dead sisters were a waste of hot girls. I found the entire book confusing and I could barely keep myself interested. Near the end I skipped pages and pages just trying and hoping to get the point and get some answers. The only reason I continued reading was for the hope that the ending would redeem itself but all it did was make me more disappointed. 

My Full Review

Jolie

Beautiful Broken Girls is a gripping novel about one boy’s quest to find out exactly why his ex girlfriend killed herself. Told in 3rd person and between Ben and Mira, Beautiful Broken Girls takes the reader on a heart wrenching and mystical journey as Ben uncovers clues about why Mira and Francesca committed suicide.

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I went into reading this book not knowing how deep or how mystical this book was going to be. I certainly wasn’t ready to read, from Mira’s perspective, the events that lead up to her and Francesca’s suicide. I also wasn’t ready to read about what happened to Ben when he was 9. Talk about being blindsided by that (want to know what, read the book). I also wasn’t ready for the reason behind Connie’s death. That was definitely something that took me by surprise.

Honestly, I felt awful for Ben. What a shock it must have been to get a letter from Mira after she died and then to go on that quest to the 7 places where they touched (palm, hair, chest, cheek, lips, throat, and heart) would have done a number on me too. And the way those notes were written!!! If the author hadn’t of included Mira’s side of the story, I would have jumped to the same conclusion as Ben did.

I did feel bad for Mira. She did seem like all she wanted to be was a normal girl but she had Francesca to take care of. Francesca who spoke in tongues, who had fits and who developed an unhealthy crush on their church’s youth advisor. Mira was the one who took care of her and I could see it draining her. Which kinda explains why she committed suicide. The real reason was heartbreaking once it was revealed (again, read the book if you want to find out). I will say that I did think it was kinda mean to send Ben on that quest to find the notes. But at the same time, she wanted someone to know the truth. I think she chose Ben because a) she was in love with him (or in love with him as she allowed her to be) and b) she knew that he would go the distance to get the notes.

The end of the book was very surreal and left me with more questions than answers. I wish that there was an epilogue or something to show what happened to Ben after he got the notes and did what he did. But at the same time, I am glad that there isn’t one and I get to use my imagination about what happened to him.

How many stars will I give Beautiful Broken Girls: 4

Why: This book was heart wrenching to read. It outlines the events leading up to a double suicide while also telling about Ben’s quest to find Mira’s notes and to find out the reason the girls committed suicide. This is definitely a book to read with a tissue and an open mind.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Older teen

Why: Mild Violence, language and the suicide theme

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

Jessica Nottingham

So, first off, kudos to the designer of this cover because it's a thing of beauty. My heart belonged to this book before I even gazed eyes upon the synopsis. Still, it was ultimately the synopsis that did me in. I love stories that hint at a mystery beyond death. The idea of someone leaving you notes to discover the reason behind their demise has always fascinated me and, quite honestly, is one of the YA concepts that I'll read no matter what. It's not hard to imagine that I was pretty excited to dive in to Beautiful Broken Girls. I only hoped that it would live up to the hype that my brain was already generating for it.

Which is where we come to the difficult part, and that's the fact that I'm still not sure entirely how I feel about this book. I'm a bit on the fence because, well, this story confused me more than I'd like to admit. Beautiful Broken Girls starts out fairly strong. We're introduced to Ben as he's mourning the loss of Mira who, as we slowly uncover, was a much bigger part of his life than he'd like to admit. I liked Ben. He was a little broken, a little angry, but full of the kind of resolve that only exists when you truly cared about someone. His quest to find out what happened to Mira was harsh at the best of times, but he soldiered on despite all of that.

Ben's relationships with the other characters in this story, specifically his family and his group of guy friends, were also pretty well laid out. I understood his frustration that people kept trying to put him in a bubble because of his past trauma. I felt for him that he couldn't express his feelings, because it looked to the outside world that he was overreacting. While I wasn't a huge fan of the majority of the other boys in this story, I liked that they weren't caricatures of what someone believes boys would be. They were raw, and honest, and sometimes kind of obnoxious. Just like real life.

The disconnect for me, came when Mira and Francesca's story began to unfold. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting the reasoning behind their suicide to be, but the choppy and vague story that was laid out for me left me feeling a bit frustrated. I don't want to give anything away, for readers out there who are interested in this book, but I can confidently say that I wanted much more backstory. It drives me mad when characters are given a special trait, or an interesting existence, and there is absolutely no explanation as to where it stemmed from. Since I had no insight into Francesca's past, she simply felt shallow and spoiled to me. I had no empathy for her whatsoever. Which meant, unfortunately, that since Mira kept playing into her delusions I kind of began to hate her as well.

As it stands, Ben ended up being the best part of this story. The ending was okay, although not quite what I was hoping for. I just really feel like the middle of this book needed much more explanation and much less of Ben's flashbacks. It was tough for me to build a relationship with any of the other characters, and it ended up hurting my connection with book. Did I mention that my feelings are all over the place? I can definitely offer this book a three star rating, and say that there's much of it that is going to interest other readers out there. If you're looking for a book that blends mystery with some darker emotions, you'll want to pick this up.

Laura

Why I continue to read YA mysteries Lord only knows. Maybe it's because I'm loyal to a fault and would rather blame the bad streak I've had with YA mysteries on my own bad picks rather than on the genre itself. 

Such was the case with Beautiful Broken Girls. The eeriness of the cover made this book pop to me, and I was drawn to it the minute I stepped into the library. Even if it kind of looks like she's bathing in milk. 

It was fine at first. The introduction reminded me of Deep and Dark and Dangerous, a children's ghost/baby horror story I loved when I was a little one. But there was something that didn't feel right to me. I had a hard time concentrating and really getting into the story. I felt like that from the very first page I should have been immediately drawn in and intrigued by the story, but I had a hard time connecting. There was nothing wrong with the plot- in fact, the plot had a lot of promise, and the characters were mildly intriguing, so I placed my lack of engrossment down to the writing. At first, I couldn't pinpoint what was wrong with the writing, just that it didn't really work, but as I read on the flaws became more apparent. The writing is both flowery and disjointed, really amplifying the messiness of the plot and making me think that Kim Savage bit off a little more than she could chew tackling this novel. There were tons of adverbs and adjectives that didn't work well- I wrote down two examples: "called crustily" and "hated...keenly" that stuck out to me in particular- and I had no real emotional attachment to the characters. I felt as if I was a faceless audience member, looking on with cool passivity at everything that happened in this book. The two words that kept sticking in my head were detached and uninterested. I couldn't hate the two sisters or emphasize with Ben the way I was supposed to because they couldn't get any emotion out of me. It didn't feel haunting, just hollow.

Continue reading this review on my blog here: http://bookwormbasics.blogspot.com/20...

Lauren Tabor

Samantha Bass

Everyone wanted to touch us. Including you. So remember the seven places you touched me. That's where you'll find the truth. From Kim Savage, author of the critically acclaimed YA novel After the Woods, comes Beautiful Broken Girls, an atmospheric psychological exploration of what loss and death leaves behind. Mira and Francesca Cillo were beautiful and strange. Their isolated life under their father's overprotective watch made them seem untouchable—but Ben touched seven parts of Mira: her palm, hair, chest, cheek, lips, throat, and heart. After Mira and Francesca's drowned bodies are pulled out from a quarry lake, Ben recieves a letter from Mira sending him on a quest to find notes she hid for him before she died—notes that will help Ben uncover the truth behind the sisters' deaths. How Ben interprets those notes has everything to do with the way he was touched by a bad coach years ago. But the hidden circumstances surrounding the girls’ suicide are far more complicated, involving a dangerous infatuation, a deadly miracle, and a crushing lie. Will Ben put together the pieces to finally understand these mysterious sisters—or will he be left to wonder why they did it? Praise for Beautiful Broken Girls: "After two sisters commit suicide, the boy next door traces the notes one left behind for him. . . . Told through both Ben’s and the girls’ perspectives, the mystery unfolds with aching precision—both Ben’s grief and the sisters’ pain can be acutely traced as they grow. Even though the truth can be seen before it’s revealed, the girls’ secrets pack a gut punch that lingers. Haunting and mesmerizing." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Savage’s second novel is more character-driven than plot-driven. These figures are compellingly damaged, and the suspense is ever present. Savage’s skillful writing makes the characters’ pain deep and tangible, offering readers the full impact of the deaths on the town." —Booklist "Familial ties, friendship, and community trust are all intriguing themes, but the book’s central story line is its strength as Ben moves through the stages of disbelief and grief. Teen readers will find sympathy for each character introduced and be moved by the profound sadness of the sisters’ short lives. . . . A haunting tale that reads like a young adult version of Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Virgin Suicides." —School Library Journal "This disturbing and emotional ride will appeal to readers of Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why and Beth Revis’ A World Without You, as the mental health, romantic obsession and codependency of two sisters are explored within this compelling drama." —Romantic Times Book Review