The Museum of Broken Things

by Lauren Draper

I didn’t always live here. Not so long ago I was living in a thriving metropolis with more than one coffee shop on each block and four full bars of reception. I went to Heathmont High School, home to one thousand students, two best friends, a deeply average orchestra, and one cursed statue. Well, allegedly.

Reece still isn’t used to living in the small beachside town of Hamilton: she misses her old school, her old friends and her old life. She can’t go back and she can’t move forward: nothing feels right anymore. Not that she’s trying very hard—she hasn’t even unpacked yet, and the only new friend she’s made is a middle-aged barista.

But when Reece inherits a strange artefact that belonged to her beloved grandmother, she begins to unravel a mystery that might change the way she feels about everything around her, including her charismatic classmate Gideon…

A lively, witty novel about letting go of the past and finding your place in the world, The Museum of Broken Things introduces a dazzling new voice in contemporary fiction.

Genres: Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary, Young Adult Romance, Young Adult Contemporary, Mystery, Grief

394 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published May 31, 2022

Reviews

[Lauren Draper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave this book five stars, but also, I wrote it and might be biased?

[K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: death of a grandparent, death of a friend (in the past), grief, hospitalisation of a parent, chronic illness, car accident (in the past)

I've been putting off reading this for months because it was just so stinking long and I struggle to pick up long books, particularly YA books. And then I flew through it in like two reading sessions. Go figure.

Anyway, this was kind of a strange read because it was almost equal parts romance and the protagonist working through her own grief over the loss of both her best friend and her grandmother. I liked the friendships that develop and the romance was sweet. I did find that I was UTTERLY baffled about where this was set because, like, it read very country Victoria to me except then they all talked about crocodiles like they were a distinct possibility and that says north Queensland. But the city is only a four hour drive. But also it's on the coast. But no one mentions humidity at any point in time and people regularly wear jackets and talk about how cold it is. All in all, I was just really stinking confused about where this was meant to be set...

Don't get me wrong, I really liked it, and I'll definitely be looking out for more from this author in the future! But also, WHERE THE HELL IS THIS SET I AM SO CONFUSED.

[Ella Missen · Rating 4 out of 5]

i can’t even tell you guys how much i cried throughout this book. it started off SO CUTE and then just progressively got sadder and sadder and more sadder. it’s getting 4.5⭐️ cause i feel like the ending stopped abruptly, but i think that might just be me wanting to keep reading lol. loved this!

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is very much a character driven narrative, because plot-wise there’s not actually much happening. Reece is dealing with her grief, and not doing it very well. She’s in a new town, and her beloved grandmother has recently died, bequeathing her a mysterious locked book.
The mystery side of this book is very minimal, and it’s forgotten about for most of the story. It only really picked up on the mystery thread in the last 70 pages or so, so by that point it didn’t really serve much purpose.
It’s more of a slice of life story where the main character happens to be falling apart, with a dash of family legacy thrown in. 3.5 stars.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adored this book! It made me laugh and ugly cry (be prepared with tissues for chapter 19). The characters are so well written, I didn’t want to put the book down because I was desperate to find out what happened next.

I can’t wait to read what Draper writes next!

[Tom Hutchins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m almost 30 and I loved this book, does mean I’m still a young adult???

[Sarah Dalton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven’t read a book that I couldn’t put down in a long time so was excited to find this gem. The character development had me intrigued until the end. Loved it!

[Jacqui · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up for a sweet, if cheesy addition to Aussie YA.

[Text Publishing]

The following book reviews have been shared by Text Publishing – publisher of The Museum of Broken Things

‘A clear-eyed, absorbing and atmospheric story of loss (and love) that pulls you in, then warmly holds you there.’
Rhiannon Wilde

‘Lauren Draper’s The Museum of Broken Things is a warm, heartfelt debut that masterfully explores the lingering pain of grief and the power of love, family and friendship.’
Gabrielle Tozer

‘Lauren Draper’s debut YA novel immediately had me hooked...The well-crafted dialogue is filled with humour and emotion, while romance, friendship, family—and everything in between—help build our heroine’s confidence and self-worth. Fans of Nina Kenwood’s It Sounded Better in My Head and Lisa Walker’s smart and sassy character Olivia Grace will not be disappointed by Draper’s highly detailed coming-of-age mystery.’
Books+Publishing

‘Grabs your attention and emotions right from the start…A story with a lot of heart and some great humour. Highly recommended for ages 14+.’
Alexa Dretzke, Readings Monthly

‘[A] well-crafted story dealing with teenage friendship and romance as well as a psychological journey into grief and the struggle of dealing with trauma.’
ReadPlus

‘A totally absorbing first novel by Lauren Draper’
Magpies

‘This is a very engaging novel, full of twists and turns…[recommended] for anyone who is looking for a book that explores love, loss and everything in between.’
Olivia (Year 7), Good Reading

‘A heartfelt and heart-warming debut.’
Ranges Trader Mail

‘It feels like a mystery, it feels like a love story…it also feels like you’re actually in the room with characters Reece and Gideon, which is an absolute credit to Lauren’s lovely writing. Pick this up for an exploration of grief—and the challenges of moving forward—executed in a wonderfully witty way.’
Samera Kamaleddine, Herald Sun

‘A generous, kind, thoughtful voice, one which is sustained on each page of [Lauren Draper’s] debut novel…The Museum of Broken Things is an admirably candid, honest and reflective account.’
Mark Thomas, Canberra Times

[Becka-Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book from the title & cover alone
but it is SO good! I was hesitant at first when I started, but as you can see it grew on me

🌷YA
🌷Aussie small town setting
🌷friends > lovers
🌷Iconic friendship group
🌷Beautiful family bonds
🌷Sibling banter & Aussie references are

To elaborate:
The crocodiles, drop bears, gum nuts, Aussie tv references, the lack of a working AC, cow tipping, kangaroos & the list goes on! I mean-I live in Australia buuuut, I felt like I was truly in a seaside Aussie small town whilst reading it!

I really enjoyed how everything unfolded, it felt wonderfully paced & the characters are magic! I loved all the different personalities, dynamics & angles that kept me guessing & wanting to know more!
Detinitely a page tuner, but at the same time just enjoyed the journey as much as wanting to know what happened next.

The journey of loss, grief, regret, broken friendships, hopelessness etc was explored beautifully & was incredibly moving. Self discovery & the beauty of a fresh start was so refreshing.🤍✨

[Roberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! I’m not usually a big YA reader, but was hooked from page one. The writing is the standout element of this book, and I love the blend of both humour of mystery. The characters are so much fun, particularly Miles, Ava and Theo. This is a page-turning read that’s great for people of all ages.

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this warm hug of a debut YA book! I fell so deeply for this setting and these characters. Mystery, romance, heartache and all the teenage summer nostalgic vibes. I particularly love the badass Nan character, who is such a great female role model for young girls. A beautiful story wrapped in an ombré dream of a cover. Highly recommend.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

utterly regular

[Meg Dunley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lauren Draper's book 'The Museum of Broken Things' is a beautiful thing! It has everything that a great coming-of-age book needs: flawed characters, love, grief, anger. Draper deftly deals with heavy topics such as grief, broken friendships and self doubt while interspersing these topics with joy, love and laughter all while threading a great mystery along. It is a brilliant debut that will be in high rotation in school libraries. Bravo Lauren!

[Kiri Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that normalised every emotion following tragedy…sweet, sad, romantic and realistic. Absolutely loved it!

[Kelly Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! Heartwarming characters and a mystery that kept me reading to the end.

[Suzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. An engaging YA story with plenty of angst but just a little too much romance for me

[Aelin Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

A moving YA tale about a girl dealing with a severe trauma in her final year of high school. Adjustments are made and she and her family moves to a small Australian beachside town and has to deal with the loss of her much loved Grandmother . Relationships, friendship , family and grief are pivotal to this story. This book sensitively deals with a plethora of emotions from the heart of Reece as she navigates new experiences and deals with a life she left behind . This book is perfect for young adult readers and has a serious view on life in a small town with interesting and thoughtful characters . Gideon is a beautiful leading male who has his own tragic story that he keeps hidden. His budding relationship with Reece is sweet and wholesome. Reece’s brother Theo is adorable and he is a perfect compliment to the story . Finally Miles is a fantastic friend who is generous and quirky. I loved the relationship Reece has with her grandmother and her quest to find answers to her special gift . At the end of year these friends and family will deal with many choices that impact their lives and relationships .

[Sharon J · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Museum of Broken Things by Lauren Draper is a light and enjoyable read. This is a YA debut novel which explores some significant issues for teenagers/young adults in a sensitive and at times, amusing way.

Reece is in the final year at school but she and her family move away from the city to a beach side, small town four hours away where her grandmother lives. She is lonely and desperately misses her old friends and life but she unable to move forward. Things become even worse when her grandmother dies and leaves her a mysterious artefact which takes her onto a different path and she starts to reconnect with other people. Reece is a whirlwind of emotions even though she calls one of the city friends, Nina, a hurricane. The story has many twists and turns that make it easy and enjoyable to read (even if not in that age group!).

Loved the location and the language which clearly show this is set in Australia on the east coast somewhere.

There are quite a few curious characters including Frank who runs a second hand book store and a lovely middle aged lady Mrs Kostadis runs the Beach Bean cafe with her two children Miles and Ava. Then there are Gideon and his mum Grace as well as the parents of Reece and her brother Miles. Actually all of the characters add depth to the story.

Highly recommended read.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher Text Publishing via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a coming of age story. It's also a story of grief, pain, and love. It's a story of a strong woman's life and how her actions had lasting effects. It's a story of first love. It's a story of friendship and found family. And most of all, it's a story about knowing yourself and doing what makes you happy.

Life is difficult and bad things happen to good people. The characters in this novel have to come to terms with this. But they also learn how to enjoy life's many moments of happiness. Broken things can be fixed;sometimes it's the cracks that make you stronger.

This novel had me smiling, laughing and sometimes crying. The characters were dynamic and even the side characters had depth. Was it a flawless novel? No, it many ways it was predictable. But, it was enjoyable, emotional, and earnest. I truly wanted things to work out for these characters.

[The Honest Book Reviewer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is on the long list for best YA book in the Indie Book Awards, hence why I read this book.

What did I think? Well, it didn't grab me really. The blurb hinted at a big mystery. The mystery itself made an impact in the story towards the end. Did it alter the trajectory of Reece, the protagonist? Yes, it did, but in indirect ways. So, it's a plot device that didn't grab me as important. I think much of the story could exist without it.

Instead, this story is more of a family drama. I don't think I'd even call it a slice of life story, because it's focus is a bit too broad. We follow Reece as she is still dealing with the death of a friend, and also moving to a new town. Honestly, I didn't engage with the way Reece was presented in this book. The character was too inconsistent, and the emotions too forced. It lacked the organic feel and subtlety that I've read in other YA books with protagonists dealing with change or emotion, such as the Darius books, or Everything is Fine. I know a lot of YA is melodramatic, but I still need to engage with the character.

I also felt that the author injected a lot of character detail just to make this story feel edgy, but failed to give those parts of the story enough body. For instance, Reece's younger brother being gay. It's in the story, but it could have been much more. And Theo is not a minor character.

What we end up having are too many characters that are too quirky. It started to irritate me. For the love of all that is good fiction, give us some characters who are just plain normal to make this feel balanced. I don't need every character to be like a character from Glee. Sometimes normal is okay, especially if you want to make the reader engage and empathise with the characters. Too much quirkiness drowns out the important moments in the book, and it did that for me this time.

[Nisha-Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

My god, I loved this book so much. Enough that I devoured the first third, so taken by the vivid style and the humour and the emotional depth, and then forced myself to slow the fuck down and space out the reading sessions just so it could last longer. It’s such a joy to find good new fiction instead of rereading old good fiction and numbing my brain with shitty new fiction. The deftness of this writing felt like a balm to my brain.

There’s so much darkness and pain in this story, and though I absolutely could not relate to her grief response, I still felt such sympathy for poor Reece rather than be immensely irritated by her. Which is testament to the writing, and the very good inclusion of someone calling Reece out on her over-reactions and lack of self-regulation.

But there was so much grief I could relate to, and unexpectedly the resentment and self-sabotage. So much nuance of characterisation in a way that felt so real because all the characters were fully fleshed out the way they should be.

The feminism was such an excellent thread running through the whole story. I particularly liked the sense of history, of learning and preserving female stories and taking them into the future instead of merely preoccupied with the present moment.

Wonderfully vivid descriptions here and there, enough that made me want to highlight the sentence but I was too caught up in the story to stop. The blend of sarcasm and eroticism made me so damned happy, I may have smiled at those bits.

The final chapter did feel a little rushed but it was understandable after such a long rich journey.

Why do I feel like I know a Lauren Draper? I know so many Laurens. So many.

[annabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Reece was very believable and the romance aspect was very cute. The grief Reece experiences is accurately portrayed. There is some drinking (not really underage,) making out, and a lesbian couple, as well as a gay couple. There is some swearing, but it's minimal which I liked.
An awesome book on whole!
I read it once then started again straight away.

[Sharon Sartori]

Everyone has a story. A story to tell and a story to keep. Sometimes they collide. Beautiful characters and a real story.

[✨ Brianna Raquel ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

the character development alone is 3 stars and that's crazy

[iwannashelterya · Rating 4 out of 5]

maybe it’s the depression manifesting, but i cried the whole way though and I loved it

[Christine Yunn-Yu Sun · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fourth in a series of six reviews featuring the 2022 Readings Young Adult Book Prize.

The Museum of Broken Things, by Melbourne-based author Lauren Draper, is a story of healing from loss and grief. The protagonist Reece is in her final year of high school. She has recently lost her grandmother, a former renowned surgeon who once inspired her dream of pursuing a medical career.

Worse, having moved from the metropolis to a small country town, Reece desperately misses her old life. We learn that something occurred, causing the teenager to have left her best friend Nina without saying goodbye. As she struggles to make new friends, The Terrible Thing That Happened remains a secret.

Another unknown is what Reece intends to do with the large collection of historical medical books left by her grandmother. Now that she sees herself failing school and having no clear future and career, not to mention becoming a brilliant physician, she contemplates giving away the incredibly rare and valuable medical texts.

But the story’s backbone lies in the mystery surrounding an unusual artefact among Reece’s inheritance. In the process of trying to find out what it is – and why her beloved Nan specifically gifted it to her – the teenager discovers a series of clues that connect her grandmother to the death of some young women in the 1940s.

Reece’s investigation not only unravels a dark page of the town’s history, but also reveals how the past can and continues to impact on the present. More importantly, the journey helps her realise The Terrible Thing That Happened is not her fault. That she is perfectly capable of forging a new life ahead, thanks to the love and support of her family and friends.

The Museum of Broken Things is a fine and fluent read, conveying a sense of humour and resilience even when Reece feels emotionally distraught. Her friends are some of the most colourful and endearing characters in the book, each with their own unique problems to deal with in terms of family and future.

Perhaps the cleverest bit of writing is that Reece persistently tries to contact her other friend Willow, which can appear as a flaw in the plot. When The Terrible Thing That Happened is finally revealed, any careless reader would think it unplausible that Reece is so desperate for a response from Willow.

But when one examines the text really, really carefully – which this reviewer eventually learned to do – it becomes clear that the “flaw” only exists to illustrate the overwhelming sense of loneliness and isolation that Reece experiences. It is moments like her pleading for Willow’s help that demonstrate her powerlessness to either go back or move forward.

The Museum of Broken Things is a heartfelt and heart-warming debut, about young adults losing their way yet somehow finding the courage to map it again. A great example of how something that looks like a “curse” can turn out to be a blessing.

Note: This book review was originally published under the title “A story of healing”, Ranges Trader Star Mail, December 13, 2022, P.30.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

📖Review: The Museum of Broken Things📖
By: Lauren Draper
Genre: YA contemporary
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ • ✨ / 5
Publishing date: 31st of May 2022
Provided by: Text Publishing
[TW: death of a friend, car accident, death of a grandparent, caring for a parent (Parkinson’s disease), hospitals/medical details, grief, panic attacks, depression]

🟢 What I liked:
↪️  Writing: Lauren’s writing was excellent! The characters all felt very lively and I enjoyed getting to know each and every single one of them. The setting was illustrated extremely well, and I loved reading about Nan’s house and the second hand bookshop, in particular
↪️  Pacing: although on the slower side, the pacing was done well and there was always something happening that made me want to read just one more chapter
↪️  Nan’s character: she was seriously cool lady!! I really enjoyed Reece’s recollections of her grandmother, especially uncovering more about Nan’s work as one of the first female surgeons. The mystery elements surronding this really added to the book, and were written extremely well

🔴 What I didn’t like:
↪️  Cliche: the best-friend-died-in-a-car-accident-and-the-main-character-suddenly-had-to-move-to-a-small-town-without-saying-goodbye-to-her-only-other-friend trope was in this book … although it was written well, I’ve read so many YA contemporaries with this trope that it lacks the originality and emotion for me

🟡 I recommend for:
↪️  People who want to read a wholesome contemporary

[Angell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Terrible title.
I’ve been following the author for a while and felt like the book was a good one to invest in; but the title did make me drag my metaphorical feet in starting it. I thought it was going to be awful and grim and a trudge... Yes the heroine has experienced The.Very.Bad.Thing (referred to this way far too many times!) that it takes far too much of the book to reveal, and there is eventually a smattering of engagement with a museum, but that’s not the point, the heart or even the direction of the story. Reece is starting over, recovering from TVBT and the story opens on the day of her beloved grandmother’s funeral. She’s learning to adjust to loss and change, finally making connections in a new place and crushing on a handsome boy. It’s the Bildungsroman of those last few weeks of high school, of navigating the hard ways to move forward after a loss and being to live with the scars. A nice smattering of mysteries to be solved, characters with a decent amount of backstory that fleshes out the story as it’s enriched and a decently satisfying ending.
Just ignore the title.

[Kei ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

"And if there are no more secrets, maybe I can start laying the foundations of a new life, one that feels a little sturdier beneath my feet. Maybe I can live. Maybe I can breathe again."

What a quaint little book. I loved every minute of my reading journey. It was so unapologetically Australian and that just made me so happy.
Reece's story takes us on a whirlwind ride of emotions. It was written so well to show how everyone deals with grief in their own way. A story of new beginnings as well as a mixture of the past all rolled into a senior year of high school. I was happily reminded of my last year of school, not knowing where I was going after, finding new love and new friends.

If you're ready to take a journey back in time while sneaking a little mystery and young love, this book is absolutely for you! It is safe for younger readers, but would probably be better enjoyed by those late into high school or older.