Broken
By A.E.
Rought
It’s
unfortunate that this wonderful YA modern take on Shelley’s Frankenstein isn’t
due to be released until January 2013.
I just finished reading it over the past few days and it is the perfect
read for the month leading up to Halloween. We are a country obsessed with the holiday -- anything for a good scare! As I started reading the first chapter, I was thinking about
how fun it would be as a read-a-loud to a group of high school students.
The
language in the first chapter is sad, beautiful, and haunting. Emma has lost her boyfriend in a tragic
accident and is wandering the graveyard where they used to hang out by a
mausoleum. He is supposed to be
buried there, but for some unknown reason he isn’t. Her pain oozes out in the language and it reads just like
Juliette has lost Romeo and survived the tragedy only to meander her days zombie-like in continual
mourning. Teens will identify
immediately with Emma. She is a
sympathetic character and sounds like she walked right out of the high school
hallways in which I teach.
The
story continues with an interesting twist on the Shelley Gothic tale that keeps
an edge to it by weaving in a mystery.
The novel is a page-turner that keeps up a steady pace right up until
the very final pages. It almost invites reading in a dark room with candles waiting for things to go bump in the night. There is
mild sexual content and so I would recommend that it be reserved for high
school libraries.
Melissa
Singleton Josef, MLIS
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