Beautiful Broken Girls

by Kim Savage

Remember the places you touched me.

The parts of Mira Cillo that Ben touched are etched on his soul.

Palm. Hair. Chest. Cheek. Lips. Throat. Heart.

It was the last one that broke her. After her death, Mira sends Ben on a quest for notes she left in the seven places where they touched—notes that explain why she and her sister, Francesca, drowned themselves in the quarry. How Ben interprets those notes has everything to do with the way he was touched by a bad coach years before. But the truth behind the girls’ suicides is far more complicated, involving a dangerous infatuation, a deadly miracle, and a crushing lie.

Genres: Young Adult, Mystery, Contemporary, Mystery Thriller, Thriller, Fiction, Teen

336 pages, Hardcover

First published February 21, 2017

About the author

KIM SAVAGE is the author of the critically acclaimed In Her Skin (ALA Best YA Fiction 2019; Eliot Rosewater Finalist), Beautiful Broken Girls (Kirkus' 10 Best YA 2017), and After the Woods (Kirkus and School Library Journal starred; Booklist’s Top 10 YA Crime Fiction), all with Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Her novels have been published in Spain, Brazil, and Turkey and have been optioned by Amazon Studios and Awesomeness TV. Kim is a former beat reporter with a Master's degree in Journalism whose stories are often seeded in the news, skew psychologically dark, and straddle the line between commercial and literary. Kim’s eye—and her pen—are drawn to classism, privilege, and the excesses of modern parenting.

Reviews

[Deanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

My reviews can also be seen at: https://deesradreadsandreviews.wordpr...

3.5 stars

I was really intrigued after reading the description for Beautiful Broke Girls. This was my first book by Kim Savage, though I had been wanting to read "After the Woods" for quite some time.

The story beings in August 2016. One night Mira and Francesca Cillo rode their bikes, then walked for about 15 minutes in the darkness to the quarry.

Not long after that their bodies are pulled from the quarry.

The death of the sisters hit everyone hard. Especially since there was the senseless death of another teen not long before this tragedy. Mira and Francesca's neighbor, Ben was taking it especially hard as he was in love with Mira.

Was it suicide? Did they fall? Or was it something else?

Then a few days after their bodies are found he receives a note. It is from Mira. This first note sends Ben on a hunt for seven more notes that will apparently explain what happened. Each note represented a part of Mira's body that Ben had touched palm, hair, chest...The story is broken down into each of these seven parts.

"Everyone wanted to touch us. Including you. So remember the seven places you touched me. It's where you'll find the truth. Start at the beginning "

With each note Ben discovers more and more about the sisters and their strange lives. He finds himself with more questions than answers.

"Everything is in God's plan"

I liked Ben's character and the story-line was interesting, though I ached for him and what he'd been through. There were not many likeable characters in this novel. I was really into this book at first but then I started to feel a bit overwhelmed. Honestly, it was very different from what I was expecting after reading the description. There was a lot going on and it could be a bit hard to follow at times. Magic realism, religion, and saints. It's kind hard to explain as I don't want to give anything away.

The novel has some dark subject matter and I felt some things were romanticized, things that in my opinion shouldn't be. But at no point did I want to stop reading, I was invested in the story. I did enjoy this novel, just not as much as I was expecting. Though some things may not have worked for me, they may not bother other readers.

I do look forward to reading more from Kim Savage, as she is definitely a talented writer.

Thank you to NetGalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Kim Savage for an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

[Lala BooksandLala · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was disturbing, but so well written. The ominous vibe it gave, the word choices, the slow reveals, the way we would be let in on something just before the main character discovered it himself, the fucked up and unlikeable cast of characters...This is definitely not a book for everyone; you're not going to find character growth, justification for bad behavior, a thrilling climax or a clean ending. If you need those things to appreciate a book- skip this one.

As the synopsis suggests, content warnings for child abuse, self harm, suicide and eating disorders.

[Alexis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The only positive thing I can say about this book is that Ben's storyline was at least interesting.

Now onto the long list of things I did not like about this story.

Firstly, the characters. None of them were developed and they all featured one large character trait that constituted their entire personality. There was the two crazy ones, the mean one and the sorta nice one, there was the grossly stereotyped fat character, the stoner one, the main character, the teacher-like figure, and that's it. Every other character had no personality and were utterly undistinguishable from the other characters, especially Ben's group of friends. I honestly could only name the fat character whose name is Piggy by the way and how he's a sleazy, pervert like 75% of fat characters in literature. The rest of them I've already forgotten about. None of the characters served any sense of development throughout the story. Clearly the author was trying to write a story about unlikeable people, but it never felt like she commented on the fact that they were all crazy. Instead, her overly flowery writing just romanticized them all to high hell except for the characters that the main characters deemed undesirable (i.e. fat, homeless, or ugly characters.) There are times in the text when characters have horrible thoughts or voice horrible thoughts and not a single other character ever contradicts them in any way. I'll talk more about this later on in my review when I get to the romanticization of Ben's childhood molestation.

The next thing I strongly disliked about this story is that it was very different from what the synopsis said it would be. Since I did receive an ARC of this, I could have gotten an incomplete synopsis but this synopsis made it seem like the story would be a contemporary mystery in the vain of Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why. It's not. Instead, the Cillo sister's chapters which take up half the story are all magical realism with a hint of Christian fanaticism because one of the sisters thinks she's turning into a Saint. But really she's only doing this to impress the pastor character because she's in love with him. I don't feel like this book is marketed the right way because half of the story has this magical realism element that is never, in any way, ever explained. These "miracles" are happening to the Cillo girls, but you won't be getting any explanations as for why. None at all. Most of the book is just the pastor character telling them that "Everything is in God's plan." I can promise you that if I had known that I'd have to read that over 60 times throughout the book, I wouldn't have asked for it.

The storytelling and writing were just not good. So many reviews of this book call the writing beautiful and I just don't agree. There would be prose that were kind of beautiful and then the author would immediately take me out of that by talking about the insides of someone's body, but in a horrifyingly creepy way. Like this quote:

"More and more, he found himself thinking about the insides of Mira, healthy, pink organs and long, smooth muscle wall. The parts of Mira no one saw, whose actions were involuntary and unguarded. He imagined glistening blood cells, villi waving like sea anemone, velvety mucosa. Turn Mira inside out, smear his hands inside." (LOC 2108)

Yeah sorry but I don't personally find science textbooks to be "beautiful writing." I honestly can think of like nine more beautiful ways to explain that exact sentiment. And this was the only example I saved because I saved it for multiple reasons, including how stupid of a relationship Ben and Mira had.

My other point regarding the storytelling is that it isn't cohesive at all. Aside from the fact that the ending is anticlimactic and doesn't explain a single thing from the book, I'm talking about this one chapter in particular. In Part 5, the main character Ben meets with his friends to discuss a theory he has with them about the Cillo girls death. He meets and talks almost individually with every single one of his friends, including his friend Kyle (who, by the way, is a weed-smoker stereotype through and through.) Except in the very next part, he meets up with Kyle and it's stated that "they hadn't seen each other since the day Ben had knocked Piggy unconscious" (LOC 2307) which is a reference to a scene that happens in the very early part of the book. So at this point, I'm really confused because literally Ben and Kyle had a conversation the very previous chapter that took place after the events earlier in the novel. It's clear that chapter still exists within the story because Ben mentions it but for some reason I guess the author forgot that she made Kyle be there. From then on, I did pick out other inconsistencies in the text but I did not save them to my file.

I guess I'll mention the little bit about how dumb and uninterested in Ben and Mira's relationship I was. Mira writes these letters to Ben urging him to go to all the places they touched. We're supposed to read their great and secret love story through this, but honestly it's just seven cases of super horny teenagers touching each other. They talk once in the beginning of the novel and then the next time they meet in a flashback they're in love, with no romantic development whatsoever. Not to mention that both of them believe the other to be a manic-pixie dream girl, which is only briefly mentioned by a ghost at the end of the text. Though honestly I couldn't explain to you what was going in that scene because the author didn't really explain it at all.

And now to the largest point of all, the one that literally set my teeth grinding. Part of the story is about Ben's name being found on a list by a local coach who turns out to be a child predator. For that reason, every one constantly refers to Ben as being "special" and "touched," words that for me have a connotation of those blessed by angels and good fortune. For me personally, this topic was never handled correctly. In the first half of the story, Ben's trauma is never mentioned in more than one sentence and never with more feeling than one would comment on whether Ben had the flu. Now, as someone who actually has been the victim of similar trauma, you could see why this might bug me. A trauma that leaves many people with some level of emotional scarring. Fast forward to the end of the novel, where Ben's trauma suddenly becomes his only character trait. You can also see why that annoys me as well. Ben had the most personality of any of the characters and suddenly he's reduced to nothing more than anger he feels at this trauma that is never mentioned in more than one breath. No multitude of complex emotions like many survivors actually do feel. Nope, Ben's other characters traits disappear all so that he can move the plot forward with his anger. The final point I'm going to make is that Mira, Ben's love interest, is constantly romanticizing his childhood trauma.

The quote I pulled was this one, "Mira loved him more for the damage inflicted on him, the kind of damage that her touch might heal. Mira imagined that the bad couch had hollowed out parts of Ben for Mira to fill. A co-mingling that might suffocate Mira's own wrong urges"

Sure, the author used the word "wrong " that one instance. After the thirty-five romanticized words before it. It's not enough to have one word to describe the incorrect thoughts of your character, not when the entirety of the novel is made to make Mira look beautiful. Ben is constantly romanticizing her, talking about how she's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. Mira's own chapters, constantly pitch her as a beautiful, quirky soul who just wants to help her sister. There's a scene where she smothers a cat that's just totally glossed over. By not having Ben acknowledge how disturbed the Cillo's really were, the air of romanticism remains. There never was a realization that the girls were bad which meant that all Mira's thoughts remained beautiful and quirky in the eyes of readers. I'd like to point out that childhood molestation isn't beautiful or quirky.

I feel like that sums up all the things I hated about this book. Honestly, I don't think anyone should read this. Aside from my review, there are tons of one and two star reviews on this book that all talk about a lot of the same stuff as mine. Save yourself the time and effort and just skip this one.

[Constantine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating: ⭐⭐ ½
Genre: Mystery Thriller + Young Adult

"Beautiful Broken Girls" is a young adult novel that tells the tale of two sisters, Mira and Francesca Cillo, who are found dead at the bottom of a quarry. Ben, the boy next door, serves as the book's narrator and becomes fixated on unraveling the mystery surrounding the girls' deaths.

Ben looks into the matter and learns that the sisters were battling their own demons, such as an abusive father, a mother who is emotionally distant, and some other issues that I don’t want to spoil. Ben becomes increasingly obsessed with the sisters and their secrets. He also starts to question his own motivations, wondering if he is truly trying to solve the mystery or if he is just using the deaths of the girls as an excuse to escape his own troubled life. He also begins to question the motivations of the people around him.

Ben does, in the end, figure out the truth about the letters and the deaths of the girls, but the information only leaves him with more questions than it answers. The final chapter ends on a muddled note, leaving Ben uncertain about what he has truly learned and whether he has found any kind of resolution.

When I got this book, I thought it could be something similar to The Virgin Suicides. Unfortunately, it is not. The story was boring and failed to be entertaining. An adequate atmosphere may not be enough to keep the reader engaged. Even if the setting and mood are well-crafted, if the story and characters are not compelling, the book may feel like a slog to get through. And if the ending is not compelling or fails to provide satisfying closure, the reader may feel like they've wasted their time. While an adequate atmosphere can add to the overall reading experience, it's ultimately the story, characters, and ending that determine whether a book is successful or not. If these elements are lacking, even the best atmosphere may not be enough to save the book from being boring and unengaging. For me, this was the main issue with this book.

[Rachel Bea · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was... Dumb. I know that's not a nice thing to say, I don't like the fact that I hated the book so much and I feel bad leaving a negative review. But. I cannot in good conscience recommend this book. Writing was clunky and awkward and the story was weird and not in an interesting way. The characters were ridiculous. I don't understand the creative choice of focusing on Ben, who was a total dumb ass. Don't get me wrong, the two sisters central to the story of this book weren't much better but at least they were more interesting? Why not just have the book be about them and Connie? Instead of this wack 13 Reasons Why bullshit in the form of short, vague notes that made zero sense anyway. None of the religious nonsense was explained. I don't like how it was insinuated that Ben wasn't actually molested by the Coach (this was during a girls' flashback toward the end of the book when one of them muses on the Coach being falsely accused). I just felt like after I finished the book, what was it trying to tell me about child victims? Absolutely nothing, I guess. So it was just an overall gross way to have a book about child abuse/molestation. I finished the book thinking um, okay: Really? Digging up the girls' cremated remains and throwing the urns into the water? lol wtf I just felt like the author wanted to throw in as many "triggers" as she could (eating disorders! depression! child sex trauma!) and adding in religion to make it faux deep. the book wasn't deep, it was stupid.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

A totally different kind of book than After the Woods. Less thriller and more....Virgin Suicides-esque? Definitely not a bad thing. A really beautiful and haunting 2nd novel.

This is an achy book, if that makes sense. My heart ached for a while after reading it, due in part to Savage's writing and in part to the narrative itself. I'm a sucker for stigmata and living saints and old timey Catholicism. I'm also an Italian-American and a lot of the scenes hit home for me, especially in regards to the patriarchal brand of protectiveness.

I'm not sure this will appeal to everyone, as it's more of a meandering novel than the usual plot-driven stuff, but it's gorgeous and worth a read.

[Stacee · Rating 2 out of 5]

It sort of breaks my heart to give this 2 stars because I wanted to love it so much. The synopsis was intriguing and I really enjoy unreliable narrators.

It started out strong. I was captivated right away. Ben seemed like an interesting character and I loved the idea of the notes and finding out what really happened...and then it sort of went to shit.

The timeline flips back and forth. The past chapters tell us what's actually happening with the Cillo girls and it wasn't at all what I was expecting. Not that it was bad {yes, I'm being vague on purpose}, but it did have a lot of things stuffed into the story. For me, it was just too much. I found myself getting bored and completely losing interest in a resolution.

I can definitely see how people will love this, but it was lacking a spark and sense of mystery that I was hoping for.

**Huge thanks to Farrar Straus Giroux for providing the arc free of charge**

[Linda Strong · Rating 3 out of 5]

They found the two young sisters at the bottom of the quarry. They were clutching each other, bound together for all eternity. Did they stumble during the night and fall to their deaths? Perhaps foul play, although who would want to hurt them? Joint suicide pact?

Ben had loved Mira and he grieved so hard. When a letter came to him a few days after the girls were found, written by Mira, he wasn't prepared for what she had to say. Remember the places you touched me.

As Ben remembers the seven times he touched Mira, the life she shared with her sister, Francesca, comes front and center. Each place that Ben searches reveals another letter, a note, telling him of their strange existence.

I really wanted to like this one much more than I did. The title, the cover, the book blurb all drew me in. It failed to live up to ny expectations ... maybe because it was aimed at a much younger reader. I almost gave up when I started skipping pages, scanning for something that would draw my attention.

I really liked the character of Ben. Mira and Francesca didn't elicit much compassion or interest from me other than the thought of needless deaths for two teenagers who had so much life left to live. There's also the hint of paranormal with this story.

This one just didn't hold my interest.

Many thanks to the author / Macmillan Children's Publishing Group / Netgalley for the digital copy of this book. The opinion(s) expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

[ambsreads · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was the romanticisation of way too many things. I can’t even put into words. It tried to be 13 Reasons Why but pushed christianity and “mystery” on the readers. Reviews also say the sexual assault was handled poorly.

[Kay · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars

*An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

It felt a little strange giving Beautiful Broken Girls a lonely star (and a half, to make me feel a little less guilty) it’s something so rare for me, I think I’ve only given 2 other books 1 star. Ever. Unfortunately, for this one I’ll have to be honest and say it was a complete waste of time and I have no idea how I finished it. Let me tell y’all something, I came into this book excited as hell, ready for one thrilling adventure. I expected dark and disturbing, what I got was unnaturally tame and boring.

Beautiful Broken Girls is primarily about the mysterious Cillo sisters, Mira and Francesca, who have drowned in a quarry pool cliff. The story is told in the perspective of Ben, the Cillos’ neighbor, who had an on-again-off-again secret love affair with Mira, and is now left to investigate the sisters’ story through notes left by Mira in the places where Ben touched Mira. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? That’s what I believed too, before I came to the realization that I was being CONNED.

The writing is lyrical and even beautiful at times, but for the most part, it was convoluted and unnecessarily detailed. It was a major hurdle for me throughout because there was hardly any dialogue, most of it was description bordering on purple prose. Bland, tasteless commentary on random things and characters in the story lead to nothing actually happening. Most of the book consists of Ben riding around on a bike, punching his friends, and creepily lusting after a dead girl, things that do not exemplify the girls’ presence, or the mystery and twisted nature of their death and legacy. There are many thriller/mysteries that exempt themselves from humor or a lightheartedness that I usually enjoy, but these books are excellent in their writing, character depth, and story. The Walls Around Us and All The Rage are also darker books with a very serious tones, but they are never boring. The emotional, raw, and uncensored story-telling is what makes them so engrossing. Beautiful Broken Girls has a lot of interesting concepts, while diving in we are introduced to Catholic undertones and a Virgin Suicides-type mystery, but because of the detached, confusing writing, we never get to see the success of these ideas.

There are two sides to this book — Ben’s perspective and the individual sisters’ perspective, told in flashbacks. Ben’s narration is reminiscent of Clayton in Thirteen Reasons Why, which is not a good thing. While Ben’s trauma and hurt is somewhat expanded on, it is not enough to make me feel sympathetic toward him and his pain. His character writing was solely based on his slightly unhealthy obsession with Mira and all the angst that comes with it. I liked the idea of a forbidden, secretive romance but Ben’s attitude just ruined it for me. His narration otherwise was extremely stale and lacking in any sort of character. There were a few flashes of personality, when he’s angry and traumatized and determined, but other than that, his point-of-view was insignificant.

The Cillo sisters were somewhat interesting to me, but I ended up severely disliking them after their… very questionable actions toward the end. They are fairly easy to dislike, barely any personality was uncovered, in fact, it mostly consisted of the words “attractive”, “mysterious”, “pure”, and most dangerous of them all, “religious”. My god, they were religious. They are religious and strange to the point of driving you insane, and I would have been okay with this if they were well-written characters. I would say this for their story-line as well, a ton of magical realism and religion was involved, and I wanted it to be executed well. Unfortunately for Beautiful Broken Girls, the presentation was all too tame and lazy, I couldn’t focus on it.

Another few points I wanted to touch upon were the exclusion of key details that could have lead to plot or character development. Whatever happened to Mr. Falso’s storyline? What about Ben’s original allegations of the Mr. Cillo abusing his daughters? In the beginning it is stated that Ben was molested by a baseball coach when younger, why was this only brought up vaguely throughout the book and not used to create deeper themes in the storyline? There are so many random events just flying around that are hardly expanded on, these could have been used to propel the plot or development in character. So much wasted potential.

To wrap things up, Beautiful Broken Girls failed to send a message, or make any sort of impact. I would say to pass on this one if you were expecting it to excel in character development or formulate a stimulating plot.

[Erin Dunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://angelerin.blogspot.com/2018/02...

Since I enjoyed After the Woods by Kim Savage so much I had to pre-order Beautiful Broken Girls. It's pretty sad that I just now got around to it though. Shame on me! I really wanted to like this book more than I actually did. I did like it, but I think it would have been more enjoyable for me had it not been for the religious aspect of it. Sometimes I don't mind that, but personally in this one it just didn't fully do it for me. Other than that, I liked Beautiful Broken Girls and I really wanted to find out what happened to the Cillo girls. I was very intrigued and I wanted to figure out the mystery right along with Ben! I love Kim Savage's writing style and I would recommend this one for the mystery aspect.

#IntriguingAndMysterious

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Patty (IheartYA311) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not quite sure what I just read. (scratches head) I finished it only because I bought a copy a while ago on a whim.

[Kelly Gunderman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Check out this and other reviews on my young adult book blog, Here's to Happy Endings!

***Actual rating: 2.5 stars***

Before reading Beautiful Broken Girls, I didn't actually have the chance to read Kim Savage's debut novel, After the Woods. I did, however, hear nothing but amazing things about that book, so it really sparked an interest in her new book. When I got an ARC of this one, I was over the moon, and when I started reading, I really expected it to have really great characters, a mysterious plot, and be the type of book that would be really memorable long after I had finished reading.

Unfortunately, Beautiful Broken Girls wasn't any of those things to me - in fact, I found myself annoyed by the flat, cookie cutter like characters, and almost bored by the plot in this book, which I assumed would be thrilling and a fun mystery to have to unravel as the book went on, but was clearly mistaken.

Beautiful Broken Girls starts off with authorities removing two bodies from the quarry - twin sisters Mira and Francesca Cillo. Apparently they had drowned in the quarry, and no one in town knows why - including Mira's ex-boyfriend Ben, who began noticing changes in Mira's personality long before the girls ended their lives.

While the rest of the town simply starts to come to terms with their deaths and stops asking questions, such as why they would do what they did, their deaths still bother Ben, who is determined to get to the bottom of it. When a note for Ben shows up, instructing him to go to the places where the two of them had touched to find more clues, Ben sets out to figure out what happened, collecting the little pieces of Mira's secrets, one by one, until things start to make sense.

Only Ben begins jumping to conclusions as he unravels the mystery, accusing the girls' father of something horrible. Did he do what Ben is accusing him of? Or was it something else altogether, something that Mira and Francesca could never get over?

The book is divided up into several sections, into the places that Ben had touched Mira - palm, hair, chest, cheek, lips, throat, and heart. While the majority of the book is told from Ben's point of view, the ends of each section has a little glimpse into the lives of the Cillo sisters - Francesca, who was trying to convince those around her that she was a saint, so that she could win the affection of a certain someone in the church, and Mira, constantly looking out for and taking care of her sister. I thought this was a nice touch, as it was written in a way to allow you to get a look into the lives of all the main characters in the book, but at the same time, I didn't really feel like it was enough to really get to know the characters well enough. The brief look into the lives of the Cillo sisters did make me feel a little more connected to them, but not enough to really find myself drawn into the mystery that was their lives.

As far as Ben goes, I didn't really connect with him, either - he was quick to jump to conclusions, and he didn't seem to value the thoughts or opinions of anyone else around him. It's obvious that he cared about what happened to the girls, especially Mira, and this is partly fueled by the fact that he was abused by his coach in the past. While this isn't really discussed much in the book, it's brought up a few times. I kind of wish we could have had a bit of an idea of what Ben's character was like before the abuse occurred, so we could see how it had shaped him as a person, but that happened before the events of the book, and there weren't any flashbacks for Ben.

The mystery that Ben is attempting to unravel is lackluster at best; it wasn't really all that interesting, unfortunately - I had hoped it would have been one to keep me up reading until the early morning hours, but I felt a little bored by it.

Does this book have an emotional scene or two? Yes, it does. While talking about that here would ruin the mystery for others, just let me say that when I learned what happened with the Cillo girls, I felt incredibly sad about it. It wasn't what I was expecting, but it was understandable, the way it pushed the girls to do what they did.

Just because I didn't care for this book doesn't mean I'm not going to go back and read After the Woods - I heard so many good things about that book that I'm still super excited to read it. I wish this would have been better - I has hoping for more of a thrilling novel, but if you are one for a book with a milder mystery to it, then this might be one for you.

Note: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Nemo (The ☾Moonlight☾ Library) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on The Moonlight LibraryMan, these girls were broken long before anyone even died.

Two sisters lead a completely sheltered life and when their promiscuous cousin dies, they seemingly commit suicide by drowning in the local quarry pool shortly afterwards. The younger sister, Mina, left several notes to her ex-boyfriend explaining why they died but in a convoluted way she hid them in places where he touched her, including adult bedrooms, which is weird, so the ex (Ben, by the way, and our sad little hero) has to set off on this strange little quest to break into places to find these notes and find out why the sisters died.

The biggest question that kept me going in this book was why? Why did the sisters act this way, wh did the whole town lust after them, why were they basically shut-ins with no technology allowed in their house and a control-freak dad who called every hour on the hour to make sure they weren't, I don't know, screwing around? Why did the beloved cousin die, and why did it have this weird effect on the sisters? Why was Mina so cruel and Francesca so confident (arrogant?) about how special she was?

Basically, because Francesca suffers from stigmata she thinks she should become a saint and so she volunteers at a soup kitchen where she passes horrible judgment on everyone and manages to convince herself that the youth pastor will fall in love with her once he only figures out how special she is. I'm not sure what she wants from the youth pastor, Mr Falso. Does she want to screw him or just his spiritual approval? It really smacks me of the whole 'women as evil seducers' because this skinny, starving herself teenage girl wants more from an older man when Ben (remember Ben, the actual main character in this novel?) was actually sexually assaulted by his old coach, not that he remembers it, and in fact the only evidence anyone has to go on is a entire list the coach made of kids that Ben happened to be on. What happened to the other kids on the list? Why is Ben singled out and made a fuss of years later over something he doesn't even remember? Anyway my point is that underage girl + older man = girl is seducer but underage boy + older man = boy is victim.

Anyway,Francesca is pretty awful, she's so convinced she has magical powers that it leads to complete tagedy. Meanwhile, Mina is casually cruel throughout the book and even murders a helpless tiny kitten just for shits and giggles, so neither girl is really one I found anything redeeming about.

And Ben's drive to find the truth behind the girls is largely misguided and supposed to be based on his own backstory.

Look, this book was just weird. True, I did find all the Catholic stuff pretty interesting because I was raised Catholic then left the Church when I realised God doesn't exist, but Ben having the break into places and find notes left behind where Mina had had to do the exact same thing months before to leave them there? And the fact that their suicide was clearly planned because of these notes brings up similarities to Thirteen Reasons Why, which I couldn't even finish because it seemed to be about a girl who just couldn't handle being a girl, and it seems that Beautiful Broken Girls also was about girls who just couldn't handle being girls, and although parts of the book were interesting, other parts struggled to hold my interest, and it's not really a subject I'm that interested, the weakness of women, I mean.

And the ending just didn't make any sense to me, and I have thought about it a lot since I finished the book and I still don't get it.

[PinkAmy loves books, cats and naps · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary ARC e-copy of BEAUTIFUL BROKEN GIRLS in exchange for my honest review.

The intertwined, tragic lives of beautiful, enigmatic sisters Francesca and Mira Cillo were as mysterious as they death. Pulled from a quarry, clutching one another. Suicide? Accident? Something else? Ben loved Mira in secret. He touched her in seven places. He receives a letter from her following the sisters' deaths sending him in a quest to find seven letters, clues to their demise.

Kim Savage's AFTER THE WOODS was one of my favorite 2016 reads, so naturally BEAUTIFUL BROKEN GIRLS was one of my most anticipated 2017 new releases. Her gorgeous writing drips with emotion and voice, so much that I often reread sentences, just to savor them again. She's become a must-preorder writer.

BEAUTIFUL BROKEN GIRLS is a much a character study as it is mystery. Most of the major and minor characters have unique characteristics "touched" physically, emotionally and metaphorically. The word "touch" has triple entendre meaning with different characters throughout the novel. Saints or sinners, literally and figuratively the sisters, their father, cousins and Ben are multidimensional, complex individuals.

I usually prefer one or more first person narrative stories, but BEAUTIFUL BROKEN GIRLS works in third person. Savage had me wondering about the reliability of the Ben's third person POV.

I felt frustrated by the length of the seven chapters, for each place Mira touched Ben. I prefer shorter chapters for concentration and pacing. I start and stop reading frequently, preferably at the end of a chapter.

While I loved and recommend BEAUTIFUL BROKEN GIRLS for the writing, characters and plot, I wish the storytelling had been more plot oriented with a faster pace and more tension surrounding the mystery of the lives and deaths of the Cillo sisters.

[Stay Fetters · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Francesca reminded her that blood was thick and binding, that they were part of each other, that this blood transcended anything. But Francesca's blood was shifting, turbulent."

DNF after 45%

I've read a lot of reviews that raved about this and that the writing was so hauntingly beautiful. It is so far from the truth.

I was hesitant about picking this book up, but I talked myself into borrowing it from the library. I got lucky that I didn't purchase this title.

Reading the actual synopsis you think it's going to be dark, spooky and highly original. Boy, oh, boy, are you in for a treat. A treat that is overused and overplayed. It seems to contain so many parts from different books and movies. The thought was not that original at all. And with the hype of Thirteen Reasons Why popping up again, this has that kind of feel to it. With hunting down clues as to what lead up to plunging into the quarry.

The characters came off as arrogant little shits who were used to being told yes. Underdeveloped and I wanted to kick all of them off the diving rock straight into the quarry. Talk about annoying, immature, horny little teenagers who need to get an actual personality.

I can't tell you a single thing that I enjoyed about this. There are only so many times that you can read about a jilted immature lover going on a wild goose chase with the help of his dead ex-girlfriend.

I'm sure I've seen a better story while watching a silent porno involving a break dancing robot.

Don't waste your time on something that has already been done before.

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Source* Publisher
*Genre* Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery
*Rating* 3.0

*My Thoughts*

"Whey you touch things, they can break."


Beautiful Broken Girls, by author Kim Savage, is  her follow up novel After the Woods. The story surrounds two sisters (Mira & Francesca Cillo) who commit suicide, and a next door neighbor (Benvenuto Lattanzi), who manages to find a way into one of the girls hearts before the girls choose to end their lives instead of facing their demons. 

Ben receives a letter (8) days after the girls are found dead: 

"Everyone wanted to touch us, including you. So, remember the (7) places you touched me. That's where you'll find the truth. Start at the beginning."  Mira sends Ben on a hunt for clues to what really happened to her, and Francesca with each clue representing the (7) body parts that Mira allowed Ben to touch. Palm. Hair. Chest. Cheek. Lips. Throat. Heart. The author actually breaks the story up into (7) parts as well with each part representing a body part. 

*Full Review @ Gizmos Reviews*

http://gizmosreviews.blogspot.com/201...

[Roxanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Writing is excellent, however the plot and what happened was so underwhelming. I was expecting major trauma and huge twisty reveal what happened was twisty but figured it out and was just left underwhelmed by the ending.

[Penelope (Penelope’s Picks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I put a rating because I had to, but even now I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. Very hard to describe.

[Anna Darling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Disfruté más la portada que el libro.

[Jen Ryland (jenrylandreviews & yaallday)]

Just couldn't get into this one. May try again.

[Christina (A Reader of Fictions)]

I read through Part 1

Kim Savage has seriously beautiful prose, but I can tell that this subject matter isn't going to work for me. The characterization isn't doing a whole lot for me, and the mass of the story is Ben's sad penis feels, and I increasingly lack sympathy for any sort of penis feels. And mysterious MPDGs aren't improved by sending postmortal quests or by stigmata. Also, the descriptions of the wounds are making me feel super queasy, which is testament to Savage's writing talent but also I cannot handle it.

[Amber · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've written a spoiler-free review on this; however, overall, I was hoping that the things that I previously didn't like about this author's storytelling would be redeemed; however, I've decided to part ways with her.

I received an ecopy of this book through Netgalley; however, my opinions are my own.

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

Let's start with I DNF'd at 48%. I read other negative reviews and realized that I wasn't going to receive a pay-off from the ending explaining any of the questions I had about the book, so I decided to stop. I disliked the characters, adults and youth, male and female and the whole Catholic Saint thing with the stigmata was confusing. Was this a dig against Catholic religious fanatics? Was this a dig at the modern world that didn't have room for saints and religion and faith? I had no idea. Apparently the books didn't either.

This seems to be a cross between the Virgin Suicides and 13 Reasons Why. I didn't enjoy the first book and didn't want to read the second, so not a good combo for me. At first, it seems the girls did it because their father was too over-protective, but then the whole "older sister having mystical powers and getting the stigmata on her hands" thing makes what the father did make more sense, he was trying to protect them from becoming media freaks. He may not have gone about it in the best way, but there was a reason for his behavior at least. The younger daughter, Mira, left notes for her star-crossed love Ben, the MC, in all of the places where they touched, all seven of them. She started his note hunt by sending him a letter in the mail, with cryptic directions. Then the notes explain NOTHING except to confuse the MC into thinking that the sisters were being abused by their father. Possible, but not shown in the flashbacks told from the girls' POVs, so unless it was shown after 48%, not probable.

There were a LOT of things that are trigger-y in this book. Anorexia, child molestation, animal violence (I didn't get to that scene by 48%, but apparently the love interest of the MC smothered a kitten. For no reason. NO thank you.), suicide, finding a parent dead in bed from accidental/suicidal OD, unaddressed mental health issues, etc.

Ok, the mental health issues... I give the mother of the MC props, when she found out her son had been molested, she had him in therapy. Negs to the book, it isn't gone into huge detail, but it and talking about his issues, is poo-pooed by the MC quite a bit.

All of the characters seemed to not be thinking overly rationally, which leads me to my thought that the entire little town was suffering from heavy metal/industrial toxin poisoning in the water. One of the favorite places for the local kids to hang out was the watering hole in the quarry. The MC tells the reader his mother told him that the metal plant/big industry that was a part of the town and then went under, used to use the watering hole to dump it's liquid waste. It's even described as having this oily sheen to it's surface. So of course all the kids jump and swim in it. Despite the dead bodies found in it, the fact that junk is under the water and that there are industrial toxins in it. The parents know it exists, the two girls of the title are found drowned in it, but do they do anything to prevent the kids from being able to get into it? Nope.

So from how the kids of the town were all messed up makes sense, the adults? I'm guessing the water in the quarry must have leached into the ground water somehow, that's the only thing that I can think of that would explain their poor judgment and actions.

Now, for the characters. Sigh, none were likable. Well, Eddie wasn't too bad, but we didn't see much of him other than his grief at losing his sister and two cousins.

Francesca, the older of the two sisters, had mystical powers. She had two birds that followed her everywhere that she went. She could read a person's soul by listening to their heartbeat. She knew ancient, dead languages without studying them. And then she got stigmata on her hands. She had an obsession with the Catholic Saints and thought she was one too. She didn't eat, didn't "need" to. She wanted to be so thin that one could see her heart beat through her skin, as many Saints did, so all could see their heart beat for the Lord. She wanted to show the teacher she had a crush on that it beat for him. She was considered "good" by all who knew her, but she only went to volunteer at the soup kitchen to be seen as good and had nothing but contempt for those who were there. The fat guy was obviously not in need, he was fat and gross and ate second helpings. The druggies were about her age, but she ignored them and them she. She wanted to impress her adult crush who was the church's youth minister with her holiness and stigmata, but didn't want to tell anyone other than her family and him. She and the other females in her family all were fixated on "mia sangre", or their blood relations. That they were there for one another, but she wasn't very nice to Connie, her cousin, who really looked up to her.

Mira, the younger sister of Francesca the saint, was DARK. She had all of these dark thoughts, like of hurting others and animals and she apparently acted on those thoughts when she smothered a kitten (didn't get to that part, but many other reviews cite it, and since she had those dark thoughts earlier in the book, I am inclined to believe them.). She was the one who found her mother dead in bed from an accidental/suicidal OD of alcohol and sleeping pills. She was her sister's self-appointed caretaker, which probably didn't help her mental outlook on anything, but she was also fixated on the whole "My Blood" thing. I also intensely dislike her for playing the cryptic letter and note game with Ben. If she knew what she and her sister were going to do and wanted him to know the truth, why not just write ONE letter with the entire truth in it, rather than a little treasure hunt with equally cryptic notes?? I guess if she did that, the book would be half the length it is or less, but honestly? I don't think that would have been a bad thing. Tighter plotting, less unnecessary scenes, maybe more focus on the families hurting from their losses, maybe actually go into why Francesca was having these mystical things happen to her. Maybe even address Ben's molestation in a way that was realistic and respectful.

Which brings me to Ben. His father and Mira's father had a falling out, so he and she were like Romeo and Juliet ala the warring families. They had a "secret" romance that Mira ended abruptly, also cutting out everything else in her life, other than "My Blood", when her cousin Connie died from an allergy attack/asthma attack. It sounded like asthma, but she had an EpiPen, so not quite sure what that was about? Anywho, Ben was heartbroken and to honor her dying wish, he is hunting down all of these notes she left for him, trying to figure out what the heck happened and why. He was also a victim of abuse from a prior coach when he was younger. The entire town knew about it by this point in the book, but the reader doesn't know much about it. His name was on a list of others who were abused, but nothing is mentioned about them. Were they local too? How are they dealing with it? Was he aware of them being abused too? From other reviews, it seems that some in the town had suspicions of what was going on, but it took a long time for anyone to act on those suspicions. But due to his prior abuse, he suspects the girls' father might have been abusing them, since they were so sheltered and eventually killed themselves via drowning in the quarry waterhole. He knows nothing about the stigmata, etc, because none of the notes are clear about ANYthing. So when he confides in the youth minister Mr. Falso about it, he is warned off from saying anything because the father was too powerful and it wouldn't look good if Ben said anything about the girls' father, it would look like retaliation for what he did to Ben's father. (Apparently Mr. Cillo, the girls' dad saved a lot of people financially in the town when the big industry left. He was the bank manager or something. He diddled on his taxes and Ben's dad notified the IRS about it. The town was not pleased. Not sure what happened from it, but Bad Things that aren't told to the reader by 48%.)

Which brings me to Mr. Falso. All of the kids in town, I mean ALL of them, are enthralled by this guy like he's the Pied Piper and it's because he TRIES to be all chummy chummy with them. He's "Mr. F", The "F-Man", etc., and tries to get them to trust him and he works with them, taking them to the soup kitchen to volunteer, out camping/stuff like that. The girls are all half in love with him and Francesca was one of those girls who was into him. The adults of the town also loved him and despite not being from there, he was new, they all took to him.

Which makes me wonder about the adults in that town. After having one coach who liked to abuse kids, did NO warning bells go off about this guy?!? Granted, from what the reader can see, he didn't hurt the kids, but it strikes me as odd that he seems to try SO HARD to connect with the kids, to be cool, to be the one they go to when they have problems. It sounds like predator grooming to me, or at least kind of odd. You're telling me that not ONE adult in the community thought it was a tad strange? Add to that the fact that he was a Youth Group Leader for the Catholic church and while being a leader in the Catholic church does not mean that one is also a child abuser, it unfortunately has that connection.

So the only explanation I have for how any of the characters acted is industry toxin exposure via the watering hole. That could have been a good and topical twist. Instead, we have... I don't know what we have. Something that makes no sense and from what I understand, won't make any sense by the end either.

I probably read this wrong. I do that. The positives of the book are that it is very dramatic and has an interesting hook. I wanted to read to the end to find out what happened, but I tend to read bad reviews and spoilers so if it's not worth getting to the end for me, I DNF. Too many books, not enough time to read them all. From what I could tell, the mysteries in this book aren't explained, the characters do horrible things and nothing is really resolved. So I threw in the towel at 48%.

I feel that I read enough to judge this book via a star rating, so 1 star it is. I really didn't like it and while I wouldn't tell someone not to read it, neither would I recommend it. There is a book for every reader and while it was not my book, it very well may be yours.

[Rainy Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is not really my cup of tea. I expected something more though. The story from Ben and Mira's point of views on the death of Francesca and Mira Cillo. Before she died, Mira had left Ben some notes for him to find around the places where he had touched her. So the story was all about Ben in the mission of finding those notes and unraveled what had happened to the Cillo girls.

The story from Ben's narratives were quite a bore for me and some parts, unnecessary at all. It was more on him ramblings on nothing in my opinion. And Mira's notes! Don't get me started on those. The notes were too short and not much insight about what she wanted to tell Ben. Mira should write the notes longer.

I think only Ben considered the Cillo girls as "beautiful". I don't think so, no. I found it quite disturbing on how mentally ill Francesca was (and probably Mira too) that it costed the life of their cousin, Connie and their own. I bet Mr. Falso already noticed the changes in Francesca but he did nothing. He didn't help her get help she needed, he just described Francesca as "exhausted" from the events that surrounded her. Francesca's and Mira's bodies were both found in the depth of the quarry, tangled together. What maybe I can conclude to this was maybe Francesca thought it was an act of martyrdom (because she believed she was a saint) thus she jumped into the quarry. I don't know about Mira though and I can't think of why she also followed Francesca and jumped into the quarry. Sisterly love maybe?

[Trisha · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Here's what we learned: when you touch things, they can break."

I really struggled with this one. Ben is a likable character, for the most part. He seems swept away by a girl, Mira, and her recent death has sent him spiraling. He's missing work and not hanging out with friends. He discovers a small note from Mira that sends him on a scavenger hunt and suddenly he has a reason the leave the house again.

As he ran around town, I was a bit swept up in the story. His heart pounding chase to find the notes and to try to understand what happened. The premeditation to leave clues and words behind should run through his mind but he's too worried about how he will get to the next one.

But as the reader, with each new note also comes some horrific scene. If Ben isn't beating the crap out of some random guy, he's watching another almost slice his finger off. And with each note comes my worry that so many people missed so many clues. This undercurrent sub-plot is not hooking me as much as the overriding issues that I would rather label - ones that are unsafe, horrifying and wholly unaddressed. I wish I had loved this one more.

[Michelle (Pink Polka Dot Books) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 sad stars.

I just....... I don't even know what this was.

I'm beyond sad to say that I didn't love this book. I REALLY REALLY wanted to, but I just couldn't make that happen. I read After the Woods last year and thought it was phenomenal. Such a strong debut full of interesting characters, a twisty twist, and a smartness that blew me away.

Beautiful Broken Girls is not cut from the same cloth. This book is about an obsession that a town has with these girls-- the reason?? It's anyone's guess. The next door neighbor, Ben, has a particular fascination with the older sister, Mira. And when they take their lives by jumping off the quarry cliff and drowning, it's all a big mystery as to why.

Mira wants Ben to know because she's mailed him a letter sending him on a scavenger hunt for 7 other vague notes. Eager to find these notes (and relive the moments he and Mira shared in the hiding spots), Ben goes on the hunt.

Are you with me so far?? I was mildly on board with the story up to this point too. I mean, I thought it was creepy that she would send him on a scavenger hunt to places where he "touched" her. I get it that you love the girl, but are you really getting a boner over touching a girls hand or cheek??

But THEN-- the book takes this crazy U-Turn into Religious town. It's all Catholic rituals and Saints and Martyrs. It was hard for me to take it seriously, but when the characters in the book were taking it so seriously-- that's when I got confused.

There were times while reading the book that I did fall into the mystery of wanting to know WHAT THE HECK WAS GOING ON. And I did like that it veered into some theories that were promising, but ultimately wrong. I definitely thought at least 2 other things were going to be the suicide reason, and I was totally wrong-- and I love when I'm wrong.

The second biggest problem was Ben. He wasn't a strong enough character to carry the book. And we didn't get to delve into his issues enough. I still don't know what exactly happened to him as a kid-- and clearly he needed help, but never got it. I felt like the mental health issue wasn't handled as well as it could've been. There's nothing wrong with therapy and/or medication when you've been through something like *I think* he has.

His only characteristic is-- unhealthy Mira obsession. I mean, who imagines the insides of someone's organs as a turn-on?? ("He imagined glistening blood cells, villi waving like sea anemone, velvety mucosa. Turn Mira inside out, smear his hand inside." If that's not grounds for a restraining order, I don't know what is). I wish he (and the other dudes in his friend group) had more going on than 2 manic-pixie-dream-girls.

Did I like this book?? Meh. I wanted to and at times I did, but there was just a little too much weirdness, unexplained happenings, and lack of leading characters for me to say it was a recommendable book.

AND THAT ENDING. Just no.

OVERALL: I wanted to love this because of After the Woods, but it didn't live up to my expectations. I didn't like the religious/mystical place that the book went, and I didn't feel the main character was developed enough to lead the book. It's interesting in that it tries to do something different, but ultimately it wasn't for me.

My Blog:

[Erin Entrada Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was beautifully written. Loved the mysticism. Very reminiscent of The Virgin Suicides.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ben loves the girl next door, but their story is a tragic one. Princesses in their tower to be hidden from the rest of the world is what Ben imagines life is like for Mira and Francesca Cillo, daughters of the an overprotective father who also happens to be the most influential man in their small town. The girls have always been put on a pedestal by everyone they know because of their beauty and their father's authority, though people also whispered how strange it was they were so untouchable. Ben and Mira are at the beginning stages of their secret relationship when tragedy strikes and the girls' cousin, Connie, dies unexpectedly causing them to completely withdrawal from the outside world. Now that Connie, their sangue-- their blood, is gone and they have secluded themselves, all anyone can talk about it their strange demeanor. It's still a shock when the girls turn up dead at the bottom of the quarry, a popular swimming hole for teenagers. Ben was left in the dark after Mira went completely cold to him, and now that she is gone, he is plagued by her memory. When a letter addressed to Ben comes a week after the girls' bodies turn up, he receives the shock of his life to learn Mira wrote sent the letter before her death and has planted seven notes around town in significant places for him to find so he can learn what really happened. As Ben slowly uncovers the truth, he learns that what everyone thought was a tragic accident is a cover for dark secrets Francesca and Mira were hiding causing Ben venture down a dangerous path of suspecting people he has known his whole life.

When I saw the cover for this book, I instantly wanted to read it, though I will admit I thought the girl on the cover was pregnant and holding her belly. I figured out I was completely wrong pretty early on, and the cover just shows the hand of a girl or both girls grasping onto a watery dress that becomes significant in the story. I also knew I wanted to read the book because I really enjoyed Kim Savage's other suspense novel, After the Woods. Pretty much any book that is dark and suspenseful, sign me up. beautiful-broken-girls
The book opens with the bodies of Mira and Francesca being dredged from the bottom of the quarry, so I was captivated from the beginning. Excluding the prologue, the book is broken up into seven parts to represent the seven places Ben touched Mira and also where she left his notes. Each part is told in present day from Ben's POV and then flips back in time to Mira's POV to better explain what is happening and to give more backstory. I don't think I've read a book written this specific way before, so it was very unique and refreshing to experience.

The story takes place in a small town outside of Boston with a large Catholic Italian-American influence. The people there value their blood family above everything else in a very Sopranos sort of way. All of the character names are Italianesque, and there are even Italian phrases occasionally used. The author is very descriptive, so it was very easy for me to close my eyes and picture the town where this takes place.

It isn't obvious exactly where the story will lead from the get go. As more and more gets revealed and Ben gets more suspicious, you think get thrown for a few loops. I had a general idea of what the twist was, but there ended up being more to it than I originally thought. While there is a mystery aspect, it isn't so much a "who-done-it" versus a hauntingly sad story of two sisters who are very troubled. If you enjoyed The Virgin Suicides, you will most certainly enjoy Beautiful Broken Girls.

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me an advanced copy of this book.