What can I say? I am on a Lauren Oliver kick ever since reading the excellence that was The Vanishing Girls! Yes, Panic didn’t quite live up to my expectations, but she’s redeemed herself with Broken Things! Another complex mystery that involves a five year old murder of a best friend. Lives have been ruined and a rag-tag group slaps themselves together to try and figure out who actually did it.
Because that’s the root of the problem for main characters, Mia and Brynn. Their best friend Summer was murdered in a ritualistic fashion five years back and they were two of the three main suspects. Throughout the novel we learn why the two girls were drawn to Summer in their pre-teen years, but we also learn that Summer was very troubled and sort of treated their friendship in a bi-polar way. They were all connected in a big way to a fictional book called, The Way Into Lovelorn. While they knew it was fake, they also believed it to be real. That’s part of what made the story of their innocence and possibly what happened to Summer so unbelievable.
Ultimately, Mia’s crush Owen was targeted as the main suspect, but he was cleared and moved away to start his life over. Alternatively, Mia and Brynn sort of got stuck in place. They both believed that Summer’s ghost wouldn’t let them move on. Especially now as they are reunited almost by fate during Summer’s five year memorial when Mia, Brynn, and Owen all find themselves back in town. Mia finds a clue that leads them, plus Mia’s friend Abby, and Brynn’s cousin Wade on a wild goose-chase based on any small leads they can get.
There were plenty of aspects I liked about the book, the first of which were the small excerpts from The Way Into Lovelorn, along with the trio’s fan-fiction Return to Lovelorn, that were peppered in before each chapter. There was a good deal of flashback chapters, but I enjoyed those because it helped paint the picture of what their actual friendship was like back then. I even enjoyed the fact that Summer’s whole story wasn’t ever spelled out all the way. She was a mystery, but she was also dead. No one will ever truly know Summer’s whole story. As far as Summer’s actual murderer goes, it was definitely a surprise! And once you learned a little bit more…it was also disturbing!
Like I said at the start, this was another brilliant young adult entry from Lauren Oliver, and I hope that the further I move down her bibliography, the more pleasantly surprised I’ll be! If you want to read a good mystery, then definitely add this one to your list!