The Brokenhearted

Brokenhearted #1

by Amelia Kahaney

A teenage girl is transformed into a reluctant superhero and must balance her old life with the dark secret of who she has become.

Prima ballerina Anthem Fleet is closely guarded by her parents in their penthouse apartment. But when she meets the handsome Gavin at a party on the wrong side of town, she is immediately drawn into his dangerous world. Then, in a tragic accident, Anthem falls to her death. She awakes in an underground lab, with a bionic heart ticking in her chest. As she navigates her new life, she uncovers the sinister truth behind those she trusted the most, and the chilling secret of her family lineage…and her duty to uphold it.

The Dark Knight meets Cinder in this gripping and cinematic story of heartbreak and revenge. From Alloy Entertainment, this inventive new superhero story is sure to captivate any reader.

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Paranormal, Fiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 2013

About the author

Amelia Kahaney is the author of All the Best Liars and The Brokenhearted series. Her short fiction has appeared in Best American Nonrequired Reading, One Story, and Crazyhorse, among other publications. She teaches writing in New York City, where she lives with her husband and son.

Reviews

[Giselle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope, not torturing myself again. After Taken it's all that I can take. I'm not even writing it up, I'll just post this convenient chat session >.<

[Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies · Rating 1 out of 5]

A poor-little-rich-girl Mary Sue turned vigilante of a heroine in a watered down imitation of Gotham City.

There was little about this book that didn't make me cringe; it was insufferably terrible, the plot deviated in a nonsensical way. The heroine is an insipid, overly imaginative idiot of a girl. She takes her life for granted, she makes irrational choices. She is a terrible daughter, a terrible friend, a terrible vigilante. She lies to her family. She lies to her friends. Anthem steals from her family (to be fair, she couldn't access her trust fund until she's 18, no, really). She is a vigilante without just cause. She is judge, jury, executioner, but reading about her is pretty ridiculous, because her bad-assery isn't very bad-ass. Not when she executes a fucking pirouette during her escape.

Anthem is more Kick-Ass than the Dark Knight. The plot is plagued by the overuse of a fucking literary device known and despised by many, known as deus ex machina, to make up for the lack of creativity in creating a plausible plot.

The blatant parallels between this book's Bedlam City and Batman's Gotham was the least of my complaints; it was a tolerable, if wholly uncreative copy. Regardless, there is no question that Bedlam City can't hold a candle to the original Gotham, it is the weakest of replicas, the way a Seurat painting would look after it has been scanned by a scanner on the lowest setting.

Anthem Fleet is the daughter of two real estate moguls in the city of Bedlam. Besides having the advantage of one of the most Mary Sue names I have ever encountered in a novel, she lives a blessed life, and yet doesn't see it that way. Anthem suffers tremendously from a devastating plight known as "poor little rich girl" syndrome. Honestly, I don't really know why she has this feeling of discontent in her life. She has hardworking, distant, yet caring parents, yet she constantly imagines that she is merely a replacement for her older sister who died of drowning before Anthem was even born. Her mother suffers from severe, constant, debilitating depression---and who can blame her? Yet Anthem sees nothing but neglect in her parents, she feels ignored, she feels unloved---which might have worked if there had been any evidence of it within the book---there is none. I can think of far, far worse parents than these.

Anthem is the soon-to-be valedictorian of her high school. She is a brilliant ballerina---primed to dance the lead in her ballet school's production of Giselle. She has a suspiciously too-good-to-be-true politician's son, charming, bright, intelligent Will, as her boyfriend. Her parents are incredibly wealthy; they literally own half of Bedlam City. Anthem is set to be their heir.

The future looks bright. And Anthem is set to throw it all away. On insta-love.

I hesitate to claim that Anthem is the dumbest chick I've ever encountered in YA literature, because, let's be honest...there are some dumb-as-fuck heroines out there. Still, Anthem would rank quite high upon my list. Enough to elbow the way into my Holy Trinity of Idiocy, that's for sure.

She goes slumming. She meets a boy from the bad side of town while slumming. He is...*cue eye rolling in 3, 2, 1*...a dark, brooding, artistic type, who tracks her down in the wealthy side of town where she lives, despite not knowing her real name, despite not knowing anything besides her besides the fact that she's a ballet dancer. They meet at a club in the highly dangerous, good-girls-would-never "South Side" of Bedlam. They almost get caught and gassed during a police raid.

Anthem wasn't even supposed to be there. On that night, she was supposed to be at a society party, the Orphan's Ball. After which, she will lose her virginity to her long-time boyfriend, Will. She hesitates against that...understandable. Losing your virginity isn't something to be taken lightly, after all. But then she does something completely fucking stupid. She loses her virginity to New Boy (AKA Gavin) within a week of knowing him. While still dating Will. Cheating: cute. Completely not suspicious at all. Background check? What background check? Let's just fall in love with the bad boy from the EastSouth Side despite not knowing anything about him.

Anthem then slowly, carefully, deliberately throws away everything she has been working hard her entire life, in order to be with One Week Wonder Boy. She neglects school. She ditches ballet practice. She lies to her best friend. She lies to her parents. And then she loses her life.

All this happens within the first 25% or so of the book, and my dislike of Anthem only goes down from there. She gets revived from death only to discover that she has new, superhero powers. Events happen, in which she slowly, nonsensically becomes the city's vigilante. Her newfound sense of justice stems from one act of revenge, which, in the span of 2 minutes, Anthem changes to suit her own needs. She is out for one thing, revenge against some people who wronged someone she thinks she loved. She twists the truth around to justify her own revenge. It makes sense for a 17-year old, maybe, but it doesn't change the fact that the reasoning behind it completely lacks any true justification.

Bedlam is, without a doubt, a Gotham City wannabe. It is as if the rest of the world doesn't exist. Bedlam is a world cut off from the rest of the United States, if that's, indeed, where we are. For all intent and purposes within this book, Bedlam is the center of the universe. It is overwhelmed with social instability. The economic divide is vast. The rich live in a completely different world than the overwhelming number of poor, beaten, dejected. It is like Detroit on steroids. It is the most depressing fucking city in the world, and it makes me wonder why anyone would choose to live in a place with depressing-as-fuck names like Lake Morass and Arsenic Street, etc. It seems like the sun has never risen on Bedlam City, there is nary a light, a ray of hope to be found any-fucking-where.



We have police raids. We have feargas, we have gigglegas. We have an organized crime gang known as the Syndicate. We have a former superhero who has since disappeared, with the bright, brilliant, amazing name of....DUN DUN DUN..."The Hope." We have signs of protests all around the city, protesting the economic and social disparity. "EAT THE RICH," "THE REAL BEDLAM WILL RISE UP AGAIN," "COPS ARE NOT ABOVE THE LAW."

We have drugs with alternate names, like Zenithin. We have chopshops for body parts, we have BodMods, designed to enhance the human body...which doesn't really make any sense in the scheme of this book, because given Anthem's "enhancements" which make her so Speshul could be just as easily given to ANYONE ELSE. Why Anthem alone? With all these available resources, there should have been 100,000 fucking superheroes wandering the streets, providing vigilante justice against the Big, Bad, Evil Rich Guys.

Everything just comes so fucking easily to Anthem. She's got money, she's got resources, she's got special fucking powers thanks to a so-very-convenient escape from death. She's got her very own Alfred in the form of her family's chauffeur, a black, ex-military man with a French-African accent who drives her around everywhere and helps her in her escapades without question (because Poor Little Rich Princess Anthem can't be bothered to fucking walk or run to her destination of the day, despite her enhanced speed). And gives her a gun to use, despite the fact that Anthem doesn't even know how to shoot it.

It's like a messed-up version of Driving Miss Daisy. Which would be funny if it this entire book wasn't so laughably bad.

Go watch the Batman series if you need your superhero fix, the Dark Knight is really good. Hell, I'd even take the crappy Batman movies with Jim Carrey as the Riddler and the Governator as the Iceman over this book. At least that shit was entertaining.

[Jacob Proffitt · Rating 1 out of 5]

After a really slow start, this book finally got itself together and went... nowhere. I was intrigued by the possibility of a YA superhero novel with a young girl protagonist. Some of that eventually panned out, though whoever wrote the cover copy on this book should be fired (a bionic heart? really? Maybe someone should go back to remedial reading before venturing into writing for the public...).

So Anthem Fleet finds herself with some neato superpowers (eventually. The book meanders a lot before finally getting to the point), just as she has some bad guys to get revenge on for spoiler reasons. She even develops some mighty convenient friendships with people who can help train her and even guide her to the bad guys. In between drama-fits, she even gets out there and hunts people down. Unfortunately, it turns out that she's a complete idiot. Fortunately, she has an author on her side so she is spared the natural consequences of allowing drama to trump sense in the heat of armed conflict. Although seriously, cradling someone's head in tender despair when the bad guys still have guns they haven't finished shooting is just bad form.

I guess what I'm saying is that Anthem makes a lousy heroine. She's a crappy friend (though some of that is clearly the author's fault because she let a training montage get in the way of continuing an interrupted conversation--like the only time best friends could possibly talk things out is in the middle of school and they wouldn't think to get together later on to iron out something that is bothering both of them). She wastes golden opportunities with senseless drama (because just standing around is the best thing you can do when bad guys are doing bad things). And she sounds like she's just been released from a leftist reeducation camp and needs to make sure she takes proper mental note of the downtrodden poor, the evil corporatists, and never forget to blame all the violence on allowing people to have guns (holy crap guns!!!).

To top all of this fumbling around, Kahaney consistently dodged some of the most interesting themes begging to be addressed during the course of this book. She had all the angsty vigilante justice in a corrupt society you get with Batman and then added that it's taking a teenage girl to kick people into action. She had a custom-built opportunity to explore the use of violence in pursuit of noble goals and the opportunity for good people to stand against the barbarians when civil society breaks down. But while Anthem whinged about how violence is bad and even once or twice contemplated how violent her situation had become, she never bothered to pursue any of those thoughts beyond feeling completely inappropriate guilt for stuff that clearly wasn't her fault. It's like Kahaney wanted to be all dark and stuff but without putting any thought into what that would actually mean to her main character.

Finally, all of the twists were not only completely predictable, but they were also drawn out way past the possibility of being interesting. Add in plot developments that only a particularly naïve teenage girl could believe and you have a story that you end up just rolling with because it might eventually get to something interesting (reader hint: it never does). Here's a helpful hint for authors: if you find yourself counting on readers believing that successful criminals are insane on top of being mindlessly evil then you probably need to rethink your plot a bit.

So yes, my hopes of a decent YA superhero story were cruelly dashed. The potential was all there, it was just squandered.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a case where I'm glad I didn't turn a book down that I was interested in SIMPLY because of a few negative reviews. I liked it a lot--yes, there were some predictable parts, but I was interested because it promised a superhero/ comic book like story and hey, that's what I got. Yes, the setting was like Gotham. Yes she has crazy abilities, almost a spider sense if you will. And you know, I thought it was pretty cool. I'm no expert on DC comics or anything, and maybe if I was I'd feel differently, but I love super hero movies, I love kick ass heroines bent on revenge and looking for a little vigilante justice--and so this book worked for me. And I also dug the love interest:)

More soon!

*UPDATED REVIEW*


You know when you pick a book up (or in this particular case, sign up for a touring ARC) knowing very little about it other then it's summary? You just get a feeling about it. When this happens to me I usually go with it. In fact, I usually don't read any reviews of the book if I get a gut instinct. Such was the case with The Brokenhearted. What appealed to me was the superhero vibe, correction GIRL superhero vibe, set against a Gotham-esque/ dystopian backdrop. And then there was the cover. Holy Steampunk, do I love the cover of this book. I'm kind of girly-girl about hearts in general. I have coffee cups, pens and pencils and old valentines proudly displaying my love of that particular shape.

It wasn't until later when I received the book and began reading that I took a glance at some of the Goodreads reviews--wow, this book is getting panned quite a bit. But I didn't let that cloud my judgement and moved on. Guess what? I LIKED it. While I can totally respect others opinions about The Brokenhearted, and in some cases see and understand their particular beef with the book, in my estimation, the book totally worked for me. I wanted a girl superhero set in a Gotham-esque/dystopian setting and that is exactly what I got. It's got kick-butt action and it's got some swoony romance. It's got this kind of mad scientist in it, but she's totally endearing too. It's got this awesome, protective chauffeur/bodyguard guy who I L-O-V-E and definitely want more of. In other words, I am really glad I took a chance on it because it paid off in the end for me.

So in a nutshell, Anthem Fleet is living in New Bedlam--a city that we don't get a total description of--we just know that it's a dark place. It's got it's relatively safe side and it's got the dangerous areas. Anthem is the only child of a wealthy businessman and building contractor. She is sheltered and presumably, a dutiful, "good daughter." She's being trained as a prima ballerina and she attends an exclusive private school. But there is more to Anthem then meets the eye. We soon discover that she is the "replacement" child. Her older sister Regina died tragically and unexpectedly when she was a teenager and Anthem was conceived afterwards. Her parents are quite protective of her-- to the point that Anthem is kept pretty much kept in the dark about everything going on around her. Her mom is in a particularly fragile state--she is basically addicted to sleeping pills and keeps herself medicated most of the day, a defense mechanism after losing a beloved child. Anthem's dad is different--he is very affectionate with her, and protective of her mom, but he's a bit of a mysterious figure as well.

At the story's start Anthem shows us that she's not as much of a good girl as her parents think. She sneaks out with her best friend Zahara to a party in the seedier side of town. This place hosts the underbelly of New Bedlam society, and just before it's raided by the police, Anthem meets a boy named Gavin who she falls for hook, line and sinker.

Their relationship develops quickly and before you know it, Anthem is in love. But things turn tragic very quickly and, as you read in the above synopsis, Anthem ends up dead. But in a strange turn of events, Anthem gets a second chance at life when Jax, an exiled and on-the-run surgeon resuscitates her by replacing her heart. Not just any heart though--a robotic heart that pretty much transforms her into a superhero--a superhero that is bent on vengeance and revenge.

Ok, so here is what a lot of readers have a problem with in their reading of the brokenhearted. 1) the world-building and 2) the insta-love between Anthem and Gavin. Let me talk a little about each one and why I don't share the same opinions.

As far as world-building there are definitely some gaps. We are thrown into this new world without a TON of explanation. It feels futuristic, but no, it never really says that. We know that there has been a revolution/ rebellion in the past that was thwarted and as a result the rich are getting richer in New Bedlam and the poor are getting poorer. Never a good thing, right? There are some names of neighboring cities and communities mentioned but nothing in great detail. I can see why some readers might be driven crazy by this--but for me it worked because we are hearing Anthem's story and Anthem, raised as a replacement, sheltered and protected her whole life, is basically in the dark about what goes on in her city too. But as the story continues, and I have to wonder if some of those disgruntled readers had continued reading might have discovered this, Anthem begins to learn more about the corruption and lies that have led New Bedlam to the state it is in.

There is a mysterious figure mentioned in the book, he's known as The Hope, and he was a leader of the failed rebellion that was launched some 10 or 15 years earlier. We don't know a lot about The Hope except that he was of the people and for the people, especially the down-trodden citizens of New Bedlam. But something happened and The Hope disappeared, and with him went any hopes for change in the city.

All of this information is given in The Brokenhearted--and from what I have gathered, Kahaney does plan this book to be part of a series--so I have every confidence that all these mysteries will be examined more closely in the sequel or future installments. So the gaps in the world-building? Didn't bother me. I got enough to understand the gist of the story. The Hope was the hero years before. But the city needs a new hero now. Guess who that hero will be?

Moving on to gripe 2) the insta-love between Anthem and Gavin. Look I am NO fan of insta-love. And yes, things progress VERY quickly between Anthem and Gavin. But they are cut off just as fast. And the circumstances of that division sets a chain of events in motion which leads to Anthem's death and resurrection as a total bad ass, butt-kicking hero. And while I have to be careful what I say here so as not to spoil, the relationship between Gavin and Anthem, while important, is not really the focus of this book. In fact we meet other characters that Anthem forms friendships with that are much more intriguing and relevant.

And there are surprises in store for Anthem in this book too. Some that I kind of, sort of, saw coming but wasn't entirely sure about until the end, and others that I didn't see at all.

I loved a number of the secondary characters, especially Serge, Anthem's family chauffeur who also has a bit of a mysterious past, and Ford, a boy who Anthem becomes friends with after she is resurrected. I can't say too much more about either because it would venture into spoiler-y territory. But Ford is my favorite. I'll leave it at that.

So here is what I think is the most important thing about The Brokenhearted and why I will be coming back to read more if Kahaney chooses to continue: I see a lot of potential. I can see what direction she might take this series and these characters and I like it. There is nothing worse then when a book doesn't live up to it's potential or lacks any potential in the first place. I don't think that The Brokenhearted falls into either of these categories. I think that it lived up to it's synopsis, and then some, and I see many, many cool directions that it could go in as a potential series. I'm really hoping that it does because I for one will be reading it :)

[Isamlq · Rating 1 out of 5]

One would think Batman meets ballet something different. One would be wrong. Try Googling Batman, ballet, dance or any combination thereof; you’d be surprised how not-quite original the concept of this book was. I mean, consider: , or

As is usual for me, I didn’t bother with the blurb and dove straight in, so by the first chapter, it was apparent that someone had been heavily influenced by a very particular thing. I thought it cool at first BROKENHEARTED giving off the same vibes as Gotham City and an MC leading a privileged life but heading toward some darker goings on.

But you see with each page, it became more and more apparent that this book was trying to be something it wasn’t… trying too hard but not pulling it off. There are all these parallels, when in fact something else that’s being developed. Look, I’m mini Bruce, and look I live in a Gotham feeling city with it’s crime a crooked cops and whatever. But wait, I’ve also a beau, a bestie and a mysterious dude fellow I kind sort like. There’s all that effort to make it feel like Dark Knight, but you really have to put aside the (obvious) parallels, because this felt like a poor imitation of that. Here’s what I disliked (in an off the top of my head fashion, random fashion because I’m not quite sure where to begin):

First, is she a hero in the making? Not quite. Her type’s more of the kid falling in love time and time again them doing some pretty dumb stuff because of the same. More like kid in the wrong place/time variety; things happen to her or around her and not necessarily because of her. The introduction had me thinking dark moments of revenge in a not so good place. You know, Gotham City, Bruce Wayne? Only here it’s Bedlam and this is Anthem. So, yeah… you could say bits of those are present, but not mainly those. The lot of this was her being in love, then crying, then by some convenient external source getting information and then there being something that would happen with her around.

Second, there’s a randomness to the goings on that’s not quite pulled together by the end. Nothing gelled is what I mean. A couple of things are introduced but never full explored. A humming bird heart. A mad scientist in hiding. And a fighter (?) turned puppy dog in love (the same fact so obvious to everyone, save the heroine of course.) Then allusions to THE HOPE. A city in tatters. Plus, the MC’s own personal history as replacement kid. Throw in the golden boy and a bestie, both of who are not quite what you think. Put all that together (if you can) and you get this.

Most everything felt random. The main thing made clear is that she’s in love and does everything because of the same. Then everything that happened because of that made it painfully obvious how little thought she gave to whatever she was doing. I just wish the kid could see what was what early on. With the numerous hints dropped about who/what/why, the ending(s) was no big surprise. Now, what was surprising was why the lead was surprised at all.

1.5/5
Thank you, E!

[Jade Walker · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mrs Kahaney, there is such a thing called world building and in the very massive young adult market its pretty darned important. Unfortunately, you are seriously missing it and in this book it was pretty necessary so this book seriously dropped in my rating just because of that. The whole bleak world and silent vigilante with improved skillz was all well and good, but why is the world so bleak? Who are the bad guys and what is the motivation? Who is this mysterious The Hope that keeps being alluded to? I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if I'd actually had a clue what was going on.

I also would have loved the whole mechanical heart thing to have been mentioned a little more. It's mentioned every now and again in passing and Anthem does use her awesome new powers but what about the emotional effect of having a heart transplant? I loved the whole vigilante thing though, Anthem going and kicking butt was pretty awesome to read about and it was at this point that the pace picked up. Then there's that twist at the end which I could have seen coming but... well... it did hit me and I'll give Kahaney kudos for that.

Let me get onto this romance though. This was one of the most frustrating and annoying romances ever. Anthem meets Gavin. Anthem falls for Gavin. Anthem loses her virginity to Gavin within a few days. Gavin is kidnapped. Anthem is heartbroken because she loves this guy. No, just... NO. I get that Kahaney had this awesome batman-esque vigilante thing planned out and had to get there somewhere, but what the HECK is this? Instant love is one thing, but instant deflowering is on a whole other level.

I was so excited for The Brokenhearted and I regret to say that for me this book was an absolute let-down.There were some exciting and well paced parts and the ending was a shocker, but the romance and absolute lack of world development just really disappointed me. Not recommended by me...

Overall Rating: E+

[Crystal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay I just can't do it anymore. I have never and I mean NEVER had a DNF but this book *kicks wall* I just can't finish. I feel so defeated! I got to just over 100 pages and the storyline is just too unbelievable and there are so many plot holes already forming that I know there is no saving this one for me. Oh and not to mention the instalurve that happened within a week and the crazy kidnapping plot fiasco that followed. Yeah just not my cup of tea...

[alannahlovesbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

While the first half of this book was quite slow and hard to get into, I found I quite enjoyed the second half. It took me a while to get into the story as I found it to be a bit unbelievable and I found Anthem to be extremely naive, but by the end I wanted to keep reading and the cliffhanger has left me wanting more. It was also beautifully written.

[Nasty Lady MJ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Posting the full review here for now since Booklikes is currently down and my blog is going through some maintenance right now (i.e. I'm slowly but surely going over to Wordpress).


Disclaimer: Obviously, I do not own DC or Marvel comics. Really, you’d think I’d be writing a YA blog if I owned either company. No, I’d be doing cameos on The Big Bang Theory and be firing whoever thought it was a good idea to recon Catwoman’s origin story into a twisted version of what you see on Batman Returns.



Arkham Asylum Conference Room: The room is filled with many superheroes and villains and no the world hasn’t been taken over by some big bad evil where they have to team up. It’s the monthly annual book club that many people believe will rehabilitate these so called evil people. Obviously, they have not heard about how YA books can drive someone insane. At least until now….

Batman: Well, because that ass Bruce Wayne believes that you morons can be rehabilitated and since that idiot, Superman, decided that it would be good if the LJ did some community service….really, Superman, really….we’re having our first book club meeting. And somehow I’ve been elected moderator.

Iron Man: It’s because of your pleasant disposition.

Batman: Shut up, Stark. You’re not even a member of the League.

Iron Man: Well, Fury, didn’t like the fact that the Avengers were left out. Besides, you have some of ours here so we had to be here.

Batman: Shut up, Stark.

Iron Man: I don’t have to shut up. I’m a genius billionaire philanthropist and what are you…

Batman: Unlike, some people I have enough common sense to keep my identity hidden. You know what, maybe you should moderate this book club review, Stark. People say this sad excuse of a heroine is based off of me. But you want to know what, she’s selfish. Just like you.

Iron Man: Oh, really, I’m selfish. I get so sick of people telling me that. You know, if I really was as selfish as people make me out to be I’d be selling my tech to the highest bidder.

Batman: You were.

Wonder Woman (sighs): Batman, ignore him. The book….we need to talk about the book. It’s supposed to rehabilitate them.

Joker: I have a question?

Batman: I don’t want to hear your question, it’s something that will obviously annoy me.

Joker: But Batsy, this is book club. We’re supposed to ask questions. Discuss the book. By the way, you look nice in a tutu.

Batman grumbles about having a no kill rule.

Joker: But you didn’t have a no kill rule in the book.

Iron Man: Seriously, a no kill rule. Obviously, you have never met Loki. You’d want to kill Loki. But you can’t because he’s a god. Well, says he’s a god. I still think there’s some other explanation to that. I mean, really, gods in Manhattan.

Wonder Woman: I’m a god. Well, products of gods. Depending on what origin story you believe.

Iron Man: Of course, you are. But speaking of origin stories. Let’s talk about Anthem, God what a stupid name–seriously, Anthem that’s like naming your kid… I don’t know, Ballad.

Wonder Woman: Ballad?

Iron Man: First thing that came into my head, it’s a stupid name. Even the name Jarvis serves some purpose.

Jarvis: Excuse me, sir, but I am just a butler.

Iron Man: In the comics. In the movie you’re just a really very intelligent system. But the name, Anthem, no purpose. At all. And god, $250K is difficult for her to get. Obviously, she’s not that rich.

Batman: She’s rich. She has a driver and her mother owns a fifty thousand dollar necklace, you numbskull.

Iron Man: Well, not Stark rich. And she lacks Stark guts too. I mean, I wouldn’t let myself be blackmailed. I’d just blow something up. Case in point, Afghanistan.

Batman: And you cost lives.

Iron Man: Oh, it’s always about lives for you. You know, if you got off of that no kill high horse, you’d probably would be making a lot of progress.

Batman: Really, did Anthem make any progress despite killing two people? No. She’s no better than them.

Iron Man: She saved the town from those people, that’s something, I think.

Wonder Woman: I actually agree with Batman on this the League has a no kill policy. Anthem killing those victims that way destroyed any chance they have for redemption.

Catwoman: Redemption is really over rated. Most of us don’t reform. I’m an exception and that’s only most of the time.

Batman: Some of the time.

Catwoman: Oh, don’t get your bat briefs all twisted up. You know, you like me when I’m playing for Team Good.

Iron Man: Are they a thing, really?

Batman: No. We’re not a thing. I don’t do relationships. I fight for justice. Just like Anthem should’ve been doing, but her head was caught up way too much in personal matters. Just like you, Stark.

Iron Man: Really? I’m not that self absorbed. I’m self absorbed, but even I have my limits. Like, I would actually have a plan or have some big weapon ready before I decided to barge into some villain’s lair.

Loki laughs.

Iron Man: What? I totally was able to put you into confinement, Goat head.

Loki: Goat head, really original, Stark.

Iron Man: What do I say I try?

Batman: That was sarcasm, you moron. Really, I’m shocked they say that Anthem was based on me. She acts more like you when it comes to being an immature ass.

Loki: Somehow that comment makes me hate you less.

A bat glare was sent to Loki.

Joker: Oh, boy, you got a bat glare. Evil team up?

Loki: I don’t team up with mortals. Especially mortals with green hair. Really, I don’t understand the point of this book. The villain really isn’t that well formed. I think people who watch obsessive amounts of daytime television should be able to figure out the plot.

Iron Man: Oh, so it was because of Days of Our Lives that I figured out that Gavin was alive so fast.

Wonder Woman: You watch Days?

Iron Man: So, what if I do? I have to have something to talk to Pepper about besides the company. Besides, I like Sammi and EJ.

Wonder Woman: I love Days.

Iron Man: And yet another reason to like you, princess. Besides, the swimsuit.

Wonder Woman: Watch it.

Catwoman: He did bring up a good point though, the way women were depicted in the story. Once again, Anthem falls under the problems that most of us suffer from. Save for the fact she doesn’t have to wear some revealing outfit with no bra. I mean, seriously, I don’t get how it’s expected of me to be able to fight in leather with no support?

Iron Man: I didn’t think Anthem wore leather around the town.

Wonder Woman: Maybe not. But despite the fact that Kahaney and Alloy wanted the audience to view Anthem as strong she really comes through as weak. And dumb, just so freaking dumb. Seriously, instead of being freaked out over the fact she had a new mechanical heart in her body and worrying about rejection it’s time to get “bad ass” to save a boy.

Iron Man: Yeah, the heart thing….as someone who has heart problems it was really handled poorly. From the transplant to the basic way the organ works. Totally off. And really, bad ass? Didn’t she fail at saving him.

Catwoman: She failed at everything. If it wasn’t for other people she would’ve been dead. I’m not even written as poorly in the new 52 and my new origin story sucks.

Wonder Woman: If it makes you feel any better, woman characters in comic often get the sour end of the stick. It’s pretty well documented. Though I have to say this particular “super hero” was particularly bad. She might’ve not worn leather, but she was objectified like she did.

Batman: If you mean, making a fool of herself. Than yes, you pretty much got that down pat. But even if she wasn’t a woman and didn’t get the usual girl in comics treatment she still would’ve sucked. Heros do not act that way.

Loki: Yet, you claim your not a hero if I remember correctly.

Another bat glare is given towards Loki who just ends up smirking .

Batman: I’m a crime fighter. I don’t subscribed to the tights and glory business. I actually care about saving lives, fighting for justice, unlike this girl.

Loki laughs.

Batman: What?

Loki: Oh, nothing. Just there had to be some motivation for crime fighting. Let’s see Stark fights crime because he feels guilty about his friend dying in Afghanistan. My moronic brother fights crime basically because our father made him do something to redeem himself so he could be a god again. You in the swimsuit you fight crime to feel normal. And you in the catsuit, you fight crime just when it’s necessary.

Joker: You sound like Harley? Did you major in psycho babble?

Loki: No, I’m immortal. Besides being instantly superior to you, I can read you imbeciles without much effort. Which was why I was absolutely bored throughout this entire book. Nothing remotely interesting happened. It was basically like reading Batman’s origin story if he was born a girl and was into ballet. Oh, and instead of his parents dying his girlfriend dies. But I’m sure that has happened a few times in Batman’s actual universe I mean how many times has Robin died again?

Batman: Robin is my sidekick my girlfriend…well, it’s….

Catwoman: Complicated.

Iron Man: You two?

Loki: Oh, yes, those two.

Iron Man: Do tell…

Joker: There’s not much to tell. Catwoman and Batsy get it on every once in awhile. But they just can’t seem to commit.

Catwoman: It’s justice’s fault.

Batman: This is not about my romantic life. And if I was to have a relationship with Catwoman it would be because she’s reformed. Until then it will be nothing more than the occasional liaison. I am not like some stupid teenage girl who’s only real object is to avenge her boyfriend’s death. I actually care about my city….

Loki: For the most part. Though there was time where I thought you might actually have a relationship with her. Remember that time you managed to rescue her heart…hey, organ selling on the black-market? Happened in this book too. Looks like you got a thief to catch, Bruce.

Iron Man: Holy, cowl! Banner is Batman?

Batman: I am not the Hulk. I despise the color green.

Iron Man (big wink): Of course you do, Bruce.

Batman: I am not the Hulk, I’m Batman.

Anthem: No, your not. I’m Batman.

Batman: You did not just say that.

Joker: Oh no, someone’s got batsy briefs all wadded up. Thank you, Catwoman, for answering that long asked question.

Batman: God damn, book club. Worked like I thought it would. I know who you are, Anthem. Who you really are.

Loki: Anyone want popcorn? This could get mildly interesting?

Much to the god’s disbelief people ignore him and instead stare at Anthem who looks more beautiful than ever because she probably got another heart upgrade or something mundane and unrelated to actual physical beauty.

Anthem: I’m Batman.

Batman: No, you’re a Robin reject.

Gasps in the crowd. A Robin reject is there really such a thing since Robin is probably one of the most lamest characters in comics with the exception of Dick Grayson who became Nightwing so we all sort of forget he was the boy blunder at one point in time.

Iron Man: Really, a Robin reject is that even possible?

Joker: I thought I killed the only Robin reject.

Catwoman: Technically, Jason, was not a reject. He just had issues, like me. And Bruce doesn’t like problems as we already discuss. Therefore, no dynamic duo status for them on Facebook. Plus, he just wasn’t selling enough issues. But he wasn’t a total reject he resurrected with his Red Hood persona.

Anthem: Just like I am resurrecting myself as Bedlam City’s newest and greatest heroine.

Batman: No, you’re not….not on my watch.

Anthem: And that’s supposed to scare me because…

Batman: Because I’m Batman and you’re not.

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Check out Scott Reads It! for reviews, giveaways, & more!

"Time heals all wounds. Not all of them, it turns out. Some wounds cut too deep, and some kinds of heartbreak aren't temporary."

Often times, a book with a spectacular premise is announced and the blurb immediately grabs you. I read the blurb for The Brokenhearted and couldn't help but download an ARC of it. I really didn't believe this book would be anything like The Dark Knight or Cinder and it turns out I was right. I was skeptical about the comparisons, but I was blinded by the fact that this was a superhero novel.

The Brokenhearted by Amelia Kahaney really reminds me of another (painful) packaged book that I had read this year. A Dance Of Shadows by Yelena Black is another YA book with a killer premise, but extremely poor execution. Just like A Dance Of Shadows, The Brokenhearted suffers from a weak romance, bland characters, and a plot that leaves much to be desired. Both books extremely let me down and to be honest, are complete gimmicks.

Anthem Fleet is an extremely petulant protagonist, she is incredibly naive and lacks common sense. Would you really go to the most dangerous part to town for a party? Considering how rampant crime is in that part of town and how dangerous everyone says it is, I would avoid it. Of course, Anthem meets a "hot, brooding guy" who rescues her and then immediately falls in love with him. Why does the guy always have to save the damsel in distress?

In the media there needs to be less of this:


And more of this:



The Brokenhearted has one of the worst cases of insta-love I have ever seen to date. It only takes Anthem about one second to fall in love with Gavin and a couple of pages later, she confesses she's in love with him. Then Anthem decides she's going to let him drive her on his motorcycle, I wouldn't trust some random stranger who I just met to drive me on a motorcycle! After Gavin meets Anthem, a couple of chapters later she loses her virginity to him, even though she knows virtually nothing about me. To make things even worse, there's nothing appealing about Gavin AT ALL. The fact that Gavin smokes doesn't make him "artistic" nor does it makes him attractive in any shape or form.

Considering Gavin isn't much of a catch, you would think that Anthem would think she deserves him. NOPE! Kahaney decides to make Anthem extremely self-conscious and she complains about her looks, claiming that's she too ordinary. It's okay to be self-conscious, but to wallow in sadness and continuously complain about your looks just doesn't cut it. Just when you thought Gavin couldn't stoop any lower, he tells her: "It's just hard to believe a girl like you would bother with someone like me." This is the most cheesy, cliche line, Kahaney could have possibly stuck in this scene and really angered me. It's not enough that we have an overly, annoying self-conscious heroine, but now we have a male love interest who is convinced that the MC is too good for him. This is NOT okay; The Brokenhearted uses cliche after cliche when it came to the romance.

So Anthem gets into an accident and they give her a mechanical heart which gives her superhuman abilities. I'm fine with the whole mechanical heart spiel, but the heart is scarcely mentioned throughout the book. The mechanical heart is mentioned two or three times in passing and that's it. Considering both the title and the cover revolve around the heart, one would think it would be a major plot element instead of being a minor detail. Considering how self-conscious Anthem is, once she becomes a superhero she becomes instantly gorgeous. WHAT?!?! I am beyond the point of trying to understand this book, I just can't even.

You would think that becoming a superhero would make The Brokenhearted alot more exciting, but it really didn't. Anthem continued to annoy me by acting harshly to her parents who are already in a bad place; I really thought Anthem was being unfair to them. The action scenes in The Brokenhearted aren't very thrilling and they have a tendency of recycling dialogue from B-List Superhero movies. Anthem begs in one of the key action scenes: "I have money. I'll give you whatever you want." Isn't Anthem supposed to be a superhero? Superheroes don't beg villains to release hostages, they get stuff done by fighting for what they believe in. By the time, Anthem said: "It's me you want, not him", I couldn't take it any longer.

Of course The Brokenhearted is a part of a series and it supposedly ends on a cliffhanger, according to reviews that I've read. I'm not sure how that was a cliffhanger at all because I saw where the book was going so much earlier than it was revealed. Also the beginning of a love triangle starts to emerge near the end of the book and it is just so unnecessary. I really think that someone tried to make the most cliche, typical YA book possible because The Brokenhearted comes across as derivative and lame.

[All Things Urban Fantasy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy

I’ll be honest- half of the reason I chose to review THE BROKENHEARTED was that I was under the impression it took place in Chicago. (I had to search long and hard before I found a copy of the original description I read). After being burned by the last book about ballerinas I read, I had pretty low expectations. Luckily, THE BROKENHEARTED surpassed my expectations and more-what I got was a gritty superhero novel that read as vividly as if it were a graphic novel, with scenes I could picture in my mind.

THE BROKENHEARTED was a total surprise. There was a little bit of ridiculousness- to me, Bedlam City came across as a thinly veiled Chicago, complete with a Lake Morass, and Museum Mile, Bankers Alley, and Lakeside neighborhoods (very similar sounding to the existing Lake Michigan, Magnificent Mile, Financial District, and Lakeview, respectively). And yes, at one point the South Side of Bedlam City was even referred to as the murder capital of the country. It was at times distracting, but also a bit fascinating. To take a location that could be so familiar for some readers, and turn it into something darker and more sinister is a risky move, and once I got past the similarities (and stopped seeking them out), Bedlam City was a perfect setting for this story.

Luckily, despite those little bits of ridiculous, THE BROKENHEARTED has some awesome characters, spectacular writing, and great plot twists- both predictable and not. Anthem is a reluctant heroine, given powers she didn’t ask for, thrust into a position she doesn’t want, and on top of that, people begin to ascribe greater meaning to her relatively selfish (vigilante) actions. THE BROKENHEARTED is a bit of a dark book for young adult in my opinion- Anthem definitely doesn’t shy away from defending herself, and sometimes that leads to lethal consequences for those attacking her, which becomes something else Anthem has to learn to live with. Plus, she gets blackmailed into a slightly abusive relationship, something that, despite all of her newfound powers, she can’t get herself out of easily. Over the course of THE BROKENHEARTED, as she learns more about the world around her, you can see her start to question everything she has believed in her life thus far, and the way she steps into the new role she involuntary gains and doesn’t just shy away from the evil around her shows great strength- this is a female character I can get behind.

Like I mentioned, there is a relatively predictable plot twist about midway through. While it didn’t play out until the end of the book, it was an easy guess based on the events. But then, at nearly the very last page, the reader is hit with a twist that I did not see coming, something so much bigger than the small potatoes con perpetrated against Anthem. As a reader, we’re left thinking “what comes next?” and “how does Anthem react to the news she just learned?” Hopefully, those questions will be answered in the second book of the series. I personally hope that Anthem continues to dig deeper past the “picture perfect” life she lived and that she continues to grow and take a stand. I’ll be impatiently waiting in the meantime.

Sexual content: Kissing, implied sex.

[jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, so in my mission to read ALL THE REVIEW BOOKS on my Kindle before they expire, I tested out this little beaut.

In the beginning, I was ENCHANTED. I feel like I'd stepped into a Baz Luhrmann movie, BUT INSTEAD IT'S A BOOK. It was all alive and vibrant and colorful and there was a handsome passerby who happens to become a focal point and object of swoon and YAY. I love objects of swoon.

But then shit got cray.

And things got weird.

I usually like weird shit, too.

I really liked where this book was going, but couldn't quite connect with the latter half of the story.

If this is a series, it has potential.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe 2.5

I tried very hard to like The Brokenhearted more than I did. While it has some really fantastic moments, and a few characters I loved, they weren't enough to save the story for me as a whole. The beginning of the book was especially rough. In fact I barely made it past the first 75 pages. But I was told by a friend that it would get better, and I was determined to see that happen. While the second half was an improvement over the first, the story didn't get better enough for me to give it a stronger review. This makes me sad, because I think Amelia Kahaney has some really great ideas and several beautifully written scenes. I also love that she's exploring superheroes in the sci-fi, Batman way than straight fantasy. Unfortunately, the good parts got over cluttered by a crucial relationship that I never believed, too many plot directions and a vague setting.

I never really connected to the main character Anthem. That is mostly because Anthem's relationship with one of the characters in the beginning of this story colors a lot of what happens throughout the entire book. I had several problems with the buildup of that relationship, especially on Anthem's part, causing me to have a lot of trouble connecting to her emotionally or sympathizing with her choices in the rest of the story. Anthem's relationship with Gavin moved too swiftly for one, causing it to read more like a cringeworthy insta-love than an intensely consuming and swoony romance. Guys, I'm actually not opposed to instant attraction, but this took it over the top in an uncomfortable way. Anthem's swift devotion to Gavin also felt a bit out of character from what she tells us of herself before that. Although I give the author props for what she attempted with the relationship, unfortunately, the risk made it hard for me to make it past the beginning of this book. That said, I did like how the love story progressed the second half of the novel. The romantic storyline develops differently from normal, and by the end of the book I was really digging it.

There is a certain place in The Brokenhearted where something big happens to Anthem, and it causes her to makes a pretty dramatic change of life direction. Although I appreciate that the author didn't rush Anthem's transformation and her struggle to come to terms with herself, the way it was handled felt awkward and focused on too many unnecessary side plots. The worst of these side plots involved Anthem's former boyfriend Will. I actually think that I could have really liked the second half of the book, if he hadn't been so much a part of it. I can see what the author was truing to do with him, but I felt like his role was unnecessary and redundant. I also think that Anthem's struggle to reconcile her Before and After lives, could have been explored solely through her relationship with her friend Zahra.

Anthem lives in the city of Bedlam, but we don't have any context around this one city. No info about where in the United States it is (if it's even in the US), except that it has kudzu and also frozen lake near it - two things which don't usually go together (kudzu in the south east, frozen lakes in the north). However, Bedlam appears to be in an alternate or future US. I could sort of forgive the lack of world building, because it read very much like a vague comic book setting (Bedlam seems a lot like Gotham). But though that type of vagueness doesn't bother me in superhero movies (I'm not a comic book reader so not sure how its handled there), it was hard for me to forgive in book form. The alternate names for cars and drugs were all little bit silly and made the story seem even more fantasy like. But if I had been sold on the rest of the book, I would not have minded the setting as much.

As I said, The Brokenhearted does have some really great moments throughout (see below for my list of loves), and I especially liked the direction that the book takes in its final chapters. This book got better as soon as Ford and Jax were introduced, and scenes of Anthem awakening and using her powers were well written. I also enjoyed when the story focused on Anthem's new understanding of the politics and criminal activity of Bedlam. I only wish we gotten more of those ideas sooner. There's a really interesting revelation at the very end of the story that I thought was a great set up for the next book, if there is one. Actually, if the storyline continues in that direction, I would definitely consider picking it up, despite my disappointed reaction to this book.

I loved:
1) Every interaction between Anthem and Ford, Rufus or Serge. I also liked Anthem's friendship with Zahra.

2) Visiting Hades, a really cool place that fascinated me and gave me the creeps.

3) The fact that Anthem is a ballerina. I loved the scenes where she dances and tests her limits. Those were beautiful and extremely well written, and a fantastic way to show the contrast between before and after.

4) When Anthem starts getting angry and takes out the bad guys, vigilante style. I wish we'd gotten more of that plot direction. But it took a long time to get there.

5) I also really liked the general idea of this book. I thought some of the plot was great conceptually, and I like where anthem's journey brought her. The very end/set up for book two (if there is one) was fantastic - and one of the few elements that surprised me.

I wish:
1) The buildup of Anthem's relationship with Gavin had been believable. That relationship sets the mood for the entire book, and because I never connected with it, I had a hard time emotionally connecting to Anthem.

2) Will had been expunged from this book. He was a distracting presence/storyline.

3) The world building had been stronger. I wish the setting had either been in a real US city, or the author had gone farther with this one, and created a larger world around Bedlam.

4) We'd learned more about The Hope and what happened to him. That felt like a dropped storyline. If there is another book, I hope there's more about who/what he was. And the people who surrounded him.

5) I wish I had enjoyed The Brokenhearted more. This is one of those books that has potential leaking off the page, and it could have been great with some subtractions and a few changes in focus. But, I'm afraid many people won't even make it past the first 75 pages.

Love Triangle Factor: unconventional but Mild
Cliffhanger Scale: Low. But end is a definite set up for another book.

Find this and other reviews on my blog Love is not a triangle

[Tez · Rating 2 out of 5]

The thing with book packagers is that they make what they THINK readers want - rather than what readers ACTUALLY want. Or maybe they know their target market, and I'm just the wrong demographic. (Therefore your opinion doesn't count, Tezzy; because it wasn't made for you...)

Hey! I wouldn't have even tried the novel if it didn't appeal to me in some way. An experimental bionic heart, a city called Bedlam...you know I love medical shiz and asylums. And I do love Jax and her mad science. Hillside Palisades is a wonderfully creepy place, with ominous businesses such as Chop Shop. So up my alley, yes?

Those bits: yes. The rest of the book: no. I don't blame the author - she did the best with what she was given, and she's a good writer. But the plotting and characters just don't work, and for those I blame Alloy Entertainment.

Instead of concentrating on the awesome mad science, the story instead focuses on flighty Anthem Fleet and her emo ways. She meets Gavin, and falls in insta-love. That insta-love kick-starts the downfall of this TSTL heroine. Anthem is wealthy; Gavin is poor. Within a week of meeting, just after they root, Gavin is kidnapped and rich Anthem must pay to free him. Because some random dude she's only known a week is worth $250,000. So she steals a necklace from her mother...

Anyway, the moral of this story is that there are consequences to insta-love. But of course Anthem is not doomed to complete her teenage years single and sexless, as we'll likely find out in Book 2...

Amelia Kahaney is a talented writer, and The Brokenhearted has an awesome premise. The mad science won my heart. But the rest of the novel is full of fail.

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Source: I own a copy of this book.)
17-year-old Anthem Fleet has always lived in the shadow of her older sister who died. When she meets someone from the wrong side of town and falls in love with him, she feels like she’s finally found something just for her, when suddenly Gavin is kidnapped, and she’s expected to pay the ransom.
Can Anthem get Gavin back? And should she really try to do it on her own?


This was a really good YA sci-fi/dystopian, with some great twists, and I really enjoyed it.

Anthem was an interesting character. She had such a big heart, and such an ability to love, and somehow muddled through; even with all the pressure everyone loaded onto her. How she coped with being a prima ballerina, going to school, dealing with an utter turd for an ex-boyfriend, as well as all the less normal problems I really don’t know.

The storyline in this was really good, and I really liked the twists and turns. The pace was a little slow in places, but it didn’t bother me, and I was really desperate to find out what happened to Anthem. I did guess one thing that happened, but I didn’t guess everything else that happened as well!
The romance in this was pretty good, although there was a twist to that also.
The ending to this was really good. I liked the action, I liked the twists, and I’m really excited to see what will happen to Anthem in the next book!
Overall; Really liked this one!
8 out of 10.

[vicky. · Rating 3 out of 5]

“You have no idea what you’re saying,” Ford insists. “A girl like you? They’ll eat you alive. You won’t last ten minutes in there.”
“Don’t be so sure of what a girl like me can do.”

Meet Batgirl... I mean, Anthem Fleet.



Okay, I'm a 100% Marvel fangirl so I don't know much about DC Comics but as far as I can tell, The Brokenhearted is a light version of Batman. Or Batgirl. Whatever.

Anthem is rich young ballerina whose life is already planned. Until one day she meets a cute guy, falls in love, discovers the bad side of town and dies.
Yes, dies as in dead. But then she wakes up in a lab and discovers she has a mechanic heart which also gives her superpowers.

The main problem of the book is that is super slow and not much happens. Is not until the middle of the book that Anthem decides to train her powers and get revenge. The first half is all about her life, which is at the same time a good thing because we get a background, but at the same time her life is quite boring until she meets this guy.

I'm a sucker for superhero stories, and The Brokenhearted delivers a slow story that builds piece by piece and has all the potential to be awesome.

[Phebusa · Rating 2 out of 5]

En bref, certains aspects de l’histoire ne sont pas du tout crédibles. Mes attentes ne sont pas comblées car je trouve dommage que la dimension du cœur mécanique ne soit pas du tout développée et que la romance prenne autant de place. C’est dommage car l’univers a du potentiel ! A recommander tout de même aux amateurs de Batman ou encore de The Arrow, les justiciers masqués…

Review : http://phebusa.fr/les-coeurs-brises-t...

[Ceres · Rating 1 out of 5]

J'ai sincèrement essayé d''avancer le plus loin possible dans ce roman, sans succès. Et pourtant il me faisait vraiment envie avec sa superbe couverture et son résumé attrayant. Mais des les premiers chapitres, j'ai senti qu'entre ce livre et moi, il n'y aurait aucune connexion. Au final, j'ai préféré l'abandonner, plutôt que de m'obliger à rester dans un univers qui ne me correspondait pas.

[Noémie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5 j'ai mis beaucoup de temps à le lire. Parce que j'avais peu de temps mais aussi parce que l'histoire au final est une sorte de justicière dans un pseudo gotham( bedlam). L'effet seconde chance est pas mal mais toute s'enchaîne trop vite pour être crédible.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's really bed this book is so underrated. It was really good!

[Gabrielle · Rating 1 out of 5]

2/22/19--Oh boy. This is...painful. As in cheesy and larger than life, and slightly ridiculous kind of painful. For example, the streets in the bad part of town are named stuff like Arsenic, and Thorn. In the good part of town, we find streets like Catechism Way and Banker’s Alley, where—get this—there’s the town bank. I’ll give it a few more chapters, but I have no idea if I’m actually going to be able to finish this. 🙄 (Especially considering the serious case of insta-love going—“Sure, just met you a day ago, but already I painted a graffiti/oil paint mural of you literally dancing on top of the oppressive police.” Cue passionate kissing.)

2/25/19--After several days of *not* reading this book, I'm officially surrendering it to the DNF shelf for now.

[Adelaide Metzger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is unreal for me. ME! The young woman who’s primary genre of interest is Star Wars/Transformers/Asimov science-fiction and hard core dragon-dappled/Tolkien fantasy, gave a YA, Harper Teen, 15-16-year-old-female-audience-aimed book a 5 out of 5 stars!!!

The reason is I actually loved this book and the experience it gave me.

I walked into B&N to window shop while waiting for a bowling class to start not to buy anything (mainly because I was very crucial to save my money for gas on my car). But then I got into a camaraderie flecked conversation with the employee in charge of the teen section, sharing our interests and favorite genres and even agreeing to disagree as I was a sci-fi nerd and she loved Twilight and the Hunger Games. I enjoyed talking with her so much I felt like I should buy something to be polite. So I asked for the book prior to Amelia Kahaney’s The Invisible (which was on the NEW IN YA shelf). I had no idea what Brokenhearted was about and I doubted I would even like this YA buy—I even felt guilty for putting my money into this whim buy. But now I wonder if I should do this more often.

Okay, so, a majority of Goodreads reviews gave this 1-2 stars and said they didn’t like the book because either 1: It’s a YA copy and paste of the Dark Knight Batman calling Bedlam it too close to Gotham and other stuff like that, or 2: It’s a dumb YA novel with all the clichés about losing the boy you love and being dramatic about it. Even after reading those reviews I found myself enjoying this book so much that I was shaking my head and saying, “What are they talking about—this is awesome!” as things just got crazier and more epic with every page-turn.

To get it off my chest:
I’ve read a couple of what’s considered cliché YA material recently (hardly being able to finish them) and I just found that this book wasn’t one of those. I expected that from this after reading those reviews but was pleasantly surprised when Anthem Fleet is not your usual Mary Sue and is in fact a kick-ass protagonist that behaves realistically under the circumstances. Yes, this is a Bruce Wayne/Batman origin story, but at the same time it’s not. The Gotham-esque Bedlam City and Anthem’s wealth is the only thing that really cuts it close to everyone’s favorite DC superhero. Anthem’s parents are still alive (unlike Mr. Wayne) and the tragic backstory that kind of sent Mrs. Fleet over the edge and made Mr. Fleet a jagged, cold kind of man I find far more complicated and interesting than that of the Dark Knight. Also, I think Anthem and Serge’s relationship is far more affectionate and emotional than Bruce and Alfred’s; part of my opinion on that is because Anthem is a young girl who needs all the help she can get to figure out her next step while Bruce Wayne is all, “I’m a cold-hearted bastard who can take care of himself and—oh yeah, Alfred’s cool, I guess.” Being an admirer of comic book literature myself I wasn’t offended by this book—one reason being just that : It’s a novel with only words, no pictures. If this were a comic book, I would be completely offended at how close it was to The Dark Knight. But we don’t get enough of this creative, super hero, graphic novel atmosphere in books enough.

Much like Adam Christopher’s Empire State I found that the author’s talent to get you illustratively attached to the characters with some badass coolness among the subtle notes of YA was done well. Kahaney is smart and organized with the plot, having each scene set up like a play with each character having their purpose but not in a starchy, pasty kind of way that makes it predictable. The very idea of a prima ballerina living in a Gotham environment and turned broken super hero with super powers, I may add, is one of the coolest ideas I can think of. Another thing that people seemed to complain about in the reviews were that Kahaney doesn’t do enough world-building. This is a dumb thing to get upset about because every author, as well as every story, may not need world-building to hold it up. I think Kahaney was smart to give just enough information on Bedlam City that we can get an outside-looking-in point of view on it while she used a majority of page space to focus on her characters—which is the MOST IMPORTANT PART OF A STORY, PEOPLE! Without having a good grasp on your characters and their personalities, you basically have no story, and it’s not like Kahaney DIDN’T use ANY descriptive paragraphs because there were plenty there. Like I said, I believe she was smart about every move she made.

There were a few YA clichés to start with, but they were put so early into the book, making it feel like the tale was coming to a happy end, that I couldn’t help but think that something terrible was going to happen to flip what seemed like the usual girl-meets-boy story on its head. No spoilers, but that plot twist happens quite early and made me so happy when I realized I was no longer reading the usual YA book. Kahaney puts up a YA façade up until page 61 and then stuff gets real.

I’m totally defending this book and can’t wait to go back to B&N to ask the friendly employee for The Invisible. Well done, Kahaney. Well done.

[Kira Simion]

Fun fact: I actually bought the second book of this in 2015, but I have never even read the first one. :/
It's a curse of mine. ;-;

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I first read the synopsis to this and saw the "Dark Knight meets Cinder" line, I was all like, 'Oh, yeah. I've GOT to read this one!' Unfortunately, as exciting as the blurb makes this book sound, it really fell flat for me and didn't do the blurb justice. I think this book had a lot of potential, but it really didn't deliver with its execution.

Kahaney does a good job of setting up her futuristic, crime-laden world- and I was really intrigued in the beginning. However, I found it wasn't very consistent. I needed more world-building- I wanted to know so much more about how Bedlam City became what it was. How did there come to be a Crime Line that divided the rich and powerful from the South Side, full of criminals and people less fortunate? How did The Hope (a famous vigilante) come to be? We are introduced to a lot of ideas but never received any kind of resolution for them. The biggest issue I had was the end. It was pretty predictable as to who 'The Boss' was, but how that all worked out is a mystery. There are no details as to how its possible for this person to be 'The Boss' and it was really a 'it is what it is' moment and you have to move on. I wanted details! Tell me how this came to be! I also felt there was more to Regina's story (her dead sister) than was given to us. Maybe I was reading too much into it, but the way she was alluded to made me think that before her death she was part of something big (a potential rebellion?)

Anthem Fleet, is our main character, and I felt no real attachment to her. She is the daughter of Harris and Helene Fleet, and lives in Fleet Tower. They attend charity balls and care about appearances. They believe Anthem and her boyfriend Will are the perfect match (probably because Will's dad is the D.A.) and are focused on their daughter being the epitome of perfection. Anthem feigns illness and gets out of attending a social gala, opting to head to a party with her wild friend Zahra instead. It is here she meets Gavin, a boy from the wrong side of the tracks. I honestly didn't expect this story to take such a turn in the romance department, but it did. Gavin and Anthem's relationship is very West Side Story and even though Anthem knows she shouldn't be playing with this kind of fire, she can't help herself. She falls for Gavin WAY too fast and the night she gives herself to him, he ends up being kidnapped by the deadly Syndicate- a well known criminal organization. I couldn't really get on board with Anthem and Gavin's relationship. It was underdeveloped and short-lived and after only knowing this boy for a short amount of time- the lengths she will go to in order to save him seemed really extreme. I get that she feels responsible since his kidnappers demanded ransom before they would release him, but still.

The book takes a sudden turn when Anthem ends up falling to her 'death'. However, she doesn't die- instead she receives a bionic heart and discovers she is faster than ever, has sharper hearing, and has all of these abilities she can do. I don't know- I suppose this was a cool twist? It seemed a bit strange is all. We go from seeing the rich, prima ballerina to a girl with a bionic heart who is determined to get Gavin back. She enlists the help of Ford, the man she was running from when she ended up falling into the river, but who also saved her life by getting her help. Ford is a former boxer, who got tangled up with the higher ups in the Syndicate. I never expected Kahaney to take Ford's character where she did. It seemed kind of sudden and I didn't see the development of the situation coming at all. Ford ends up becoming Anthem's go-to person (aside from Serge, their family's driver). He is the one who convinces her to keep going, even though Anthem's world has fallen apart around her. He is also the person whose help Anthem enlists to train her how to use her newfound gifts. Her goal is to find Rosie, the lead woman who took Gavin, and make her pay for what she's done.

Anthem makes such a transformation in this book. We watch her go from the rich, prima ballerina girl with the 'perfect' boyfriend, to a girl who, after getting tangled up with a boy from the South Side, ends up becoming a machine bent on taking down the people who destroyed Gavin. She becomes relentless, exposing Syndicate thugs working for Rosie and 'The Boss', earning her vigilante status.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn't for me due to the inconsistencies and endless questions I still had. I also feel this kind of novel needed more world building behind it to make it more believable.

*Received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review*

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anthem Fleet has spent her life in the shadow of the dead sister she never met; a replacement for a lost daughter against whom she will never measure up. A talented dancer, the daughter of two of Bedlam's most respected citizens, Anthem appears to be a girl with a bright future. Everyone thinks she's lucky.

Everyone is wrong.

When Anthem meets a boy from the South Side--the absolutely wrong side of Bedlam--it feels like she is finally waking up. Her real life, the one she has been waiting for, seems to finally be starting.

Then the unthinkable happens.

Then Anthem dies.

When she wakes up nothing is the same. Not Anthem, not her life, and not her heart which is now a mechanical thing that beats faster and pushes her harder than should be humanly possible.

Anthem's old life is over. She is broken. But maybe this new heart of hers will give her what she needs to find a new life and help Bedlam the way no one else can in The Brokenhearted (2013) by Amelia Kahaney.

Everything about this premise sounded amazing. The cover is beautiful. The opening prologue is well-written and completely fascinating. Even Anthem, with her ballet background, has the potential to be a unique, strong heroine.

With the gritty, hard luck setting of Bedlam and the promise of superhuman powers this book is reminiscent of comic book stories and recent books like Vicious or Steelheart.

Unfortunately, beyond all of this potential is a deeply disappointing book. The plot is slow to start, dragging through the first half which is mired in tragic, star-crossed love and Anthem's sulking narration.

Plot points that are hinted at in the prologue are treated with no further foreshadow or resolution until the bitter end of the novel making for a story that drags and offers very few surprises or revelations.

Even with this problems, the idea remains promising. Unfortunately key elements* are never quite explained enough to make sense and character motivations never quite make sense.** The atmosphere is pitch perfect completely evocative of comic book cities Gotham before Batman returned.

The Brokenhearted strikes an uneasy balance between superhero story and romantic adventure. Erratic execution and poor pacing make it a frustrating read though die-hard comic fans (or dancers) might find some redeeming qualities here.

*Anthem gets a new heart. Which also gives her superhuman powers. But how a new organ changes everything about Anthem's abilities is never explained.

**Anthem essentially has insta-love as a driving force of her character which is fine as an inciting incident but makes less sense as it is dragged through more than one hundred pages. The other male lead, Ford, is also a bit strange in that he is in no small part responsible for Anthem's injury but he is also her ally. It's just a strange combination.

Possible Pairings: Plain Kate by Erin Bow, If I Stay by Gayle Forman, Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman, Magisterium by Jeff Hirsch, Proxy by Alex London, Fracture by Megan Miranda, Watchmen by Alan Moore, The Superhero Handbook by Michael Powell, Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson, Vicious by V. E. Schwab, The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

[Rachel Webb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hyped as a cross between The Dark Knight and Cinder, I was so on board for this book it was ridiculous. However, maybe that was the problem. If you're going to say it's a cross between two such amazing works of entertainment, you have to follow up and unfortunately this book fell short. Both the Dark Knight trilogy and the Lunar Chronicles quartet are really about the world the characters live in and Nolan and Meyer do amazing jobs creating these worlds and we understand the characters more. The world-building, or rather lack there of, left me questioning several things like why was the city in such a state of disrepair and separation between the classes? Why did they need The Hope guy and who the hell was he to begin with? Did he have mechanical organs like Anthem Fleet (I really do love her name!) that made him stronger then others and that's why he rose as a leader? Who knows!

The only thing this book had in common with Cinder was Anthem's mech heart. Other then that absolutely nothing! It was more like Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy then anything. Anthem Fleet is a super rich ballerina, like Bruce Wayne rich, who falls in love with a guy who is kidnapped and ransomed and she has to save him. Clearly Anthem is Batman. The villain is straight evil, but has a secret that I'm sure you can guess pretty easily as I knew pretty much from Chapter 10, (which is 20% into the book) so we'll call him Two-Face, this fits even more when you get to the end. The other smaller villains are straight out of Gotham city including Rosie, who I feel is the Joker. The city itself is pretty much Gotham city in it's underground syndicate network of thieves and murderers, the corruption in the police department, the parties held by the uber rich, and the atmosphere of hopelessness. There is even an Alfred character in terms of Serge her driver. Even after all this borrowing from one of the greatest trilogies in film history, this book just couldn't get off the ground. Such a disappointment.

[Galleane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ce premier tome n'a pas été une mauvaise lecture, mais elle est loin d'être excellente. Les idées de l'auteur sont bonnes, elle a construit quelque chose de très sympa, voire même de très attirant, mais au-delà de ses bonnes idées, l’exécution n'est pas toujours bien servie. De nombreux manques ne permettent pas toujours d'apprécier ce que l'auteur propose, il y a des explications essentielles qui sont passées sous silence, et le manque de développement général n'arrange pas tout ça. Les bonnes choses restent trop discrètes, c'est dommage. Si la fin me rend curieuse, je pense m'arrêter-là. Vu les manques de ce premier tome je doute que la suite soit davantage creusée et avec cette fin on voit ou l'auteur va semble-t-il aller.

Ma chronique complète : http://bloggalleane.blogspot.fr/2015/...

[Kara-karina · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5
A unique superhero story, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The problem is that the world-building is almost non-existent and feels like the author just patches it up as it goes. Still, recommended as a character-driven story. The plot twists though were visible from a mile away!

* * *

История уникальной супергероини, и читала я её по большей части с удовольствием. Проблема в том, что построения мира здесь почти нет, и кажется, что автор его придумывает по мере развития сюжета, да и "сюрпризы" повествования видны издалека. Так что, рекомендую, но сдержанно.

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm still trying to figure out why Bedlam City wasn't just called Gotham City - it would really simplify things. And, I wish this was about that crusader Batman almost cleaning up Gotham City for good -- I mean, the Hope and Bedlam City -- see what I mean?

[_sniper.force_ · Rating 4 out of 5]

That bitch be fakin' deaths. XD