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    Broken Things
    Broken Things
    Broken Things
    Audiobook9 hours

    Broken Things

    Written by Lauren Oliver

    Narrated by Sarah Drew, Erin Spencer and Saskia Maarleveld

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    With all the intensity and whiplash turns of Sharp Objects and One of Us Is Lying, this engrossing psychological thriller by New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver is an unforgettable, mesmerizing tale of exquisite obsession, spoiled innocence, and impossible friendships.

    It’s been five years since Summer Marks was brutally murdered in the woods.

    Everyone thinks Mia and Brynn killed their best friend. That driven by their obsession with a novel called The Way into Lovelorn the three girls had imagined themselves into the magical world where their fantasies became twisted, even deadly.

    The only thing is: they didn’t do it.

    On the anniversary of Summer’s death, a seemingly insignificant discovery resurrects the mystery and pulls Mia and Brynn back together once again. But as the lines begin to blur between past and present and fiction and reality, the girls must confront what really happened in the woods all those years ago—no matter how monstrous.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 2, 2018
    ISBN9780062417671
    Author

    Lauren Oliver

    Lauren Oliver is the cofounder of media and content development company Glasstown Entertainment, where she serves as the President of Production. She is also the New York Times bestselling author of the YA novels Replica, Vanishing Girls, Panic, and the Delirium trilogy: Delirium, Pandemonium, and Requiem, which have been translated into more than thirty languages. The film rights to both Replica and Lauren's bestselling first novel, Before I Fall, were acquired by Awesomeness Films. Before I Fall was adapted into a major motion picture starring Zoey Deutch. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017, garnering a wide release from Open Road Films that year. Oliver is a 2012 E. B. White Read-Aloud Award nominee for her middle-grade novel Liesl & Po, as well as author of the middle-grade fantasy novel The Spindlers and The Curiosity House series, co-written with H.C. Chester. She has written one novel for adults, Rooms. Oliver co-founded Glasstown Entertainment with poet and author Lexa Hillyer. Since 2010, the company has developed and sold more than fifty-five novels for adults, young adults, and middle-grade readers. Some of its recent titles include the New York Times bestseller Everless, by Sara Holland; the critically acclaimed Bonfire, authored by the actress Krysten Ritter; and The Hunger by Alma Katsu, which received multiple starred reviews and was praised by Stephen King as “disturbing, hard to put down” and “not recommended…after dark.” Oliver is a narrative consultant for Illumination Entertainment and is writing features and TV shows for a number of production companies and studios. Oliver received an academic scholarship to the University of Chicago, where she was elected Phi Beta Kappa. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from New York University. www.laurenoliverbooks.com.

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    Reviews for Broken Things

    4/5

    227 ratings16 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Once upon a time there were three girls. Mia was a gifted dancer and selectively mute. Brynn was a lesbian and a loner. Samantha was the broken foster child who drew them together because of her obsession with an obscure children's book called THE WAY INTO LOVELORN. The girls were 12 or 13 when Samantha was murdered and the Mia and Brynn and their friend Owen were suspected of murdering her. Mia and Brynn were never charged but Owen was charged and the charges dismissed because the police messed up the evidence. The experience tore the kids apart.Five years have passed. Mia's parents have divorced leaving her with her mother who has become a hoarder. She has lost her gift for dancing and is home-schooled because of the bullying she faced after Summer's death. Brynn spends her time in rehab because she finds it safe despite the fact that she doesn't have any addictions. Owen was taken away by his father to finish his schooling out of the country.They get together along with Brynn's cousin Wade who has a website about the crime to try to find out what really happened to Summer and find some closure and a way to move on with their lives. The story is told by Mia and Brynn in separate chapters in the current time and during the time when Summer died. There are also chapters from THE WAY INTO LOVELORN and the sequel that the three girls were writing. The story was complex and filled with emotions. The characters were well developed and interesting people. While the story is a mystery, as much attention on placed on the characters of each of the girls and their tangled and twisted relationships. I liked the way Summer was revealed in all her strengths and weaknesses through the course of this story.This was an engaging story that grabbed my attention and held it to the very end.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      If Mia hadn’t been so meek, the characters could control their emotions, if the Ms. Gray connection worked more, and if there weren’t so many monologues and useless descriptions, then this would’ve been better
    • 4/5
      A friend suggested it, and even though I don´t usually read thrillers, I was very entretained. Haven´t put it down since yesterday. The audiobook narrators are great!
    • 3/5
      Great author, so-so book...
      I love Lauren Oliver, however, this book just didn't feel as inspired as some of her other books. I made it through to the end but the plot seemed to plod along with little excitement. The premise is interesting but I would have appreciated more twists and turns along the way. As it stands, it seems to straddle the line between a thriller and your typical YA fiction without really nailing either.
    • 3/5
      This book had me, like really had me for the first 240 pages, and while I will admit I didn’t guess the who done it I still found the reveal underwhelming. I’m interested in exploring other works by this author but maybe from a different genre next time.
    • 5/5
      Loved it I would have never guessed what really happened to summer
    • 5/5
      The pace of this book was perfectly timed, and I loved the mystery. Oliver gives you everything you need to solve it on your own, and every character was multidimensional to a tee.
    • 5/5
      I have never read a book that so accurately depicted my childhood. I stopped once I got to chapter 36 so I could read it over again. I'm devastated that it's finished. Truly loved it. Thank you.
    • 2/5
      I wanted SOOOOO much more from this book, but it felt like it was so long and filled with just fluff
    • 2/5
      I was bored throughout about 75% of the story. Very adolescent.
    • 3/5
      This book was okay ish ??‍♀️ didn’t love it. Enjoyed it enough to finish it.
    • 3/5
      Broken Things by Lauren Oliver is not at all what I expected when I finally delved into it. I did expect a murder mystery, but I did not plan for the social commentary aspect of the story. I actually like the story more because it included the latter. The fact that Ms. Oliver is not afraid to tackle difficult topics like bullying, abusive relationships, and mental health adds not only complexity but also a layer of gravitas on top of something that would simply be another teenage murder mystery.In fact, you might argue that Broken Things is more social commentary than a murder mystery. As we dive into each girl’s life since the murder and discover how messed up they are five years after, the story becomes less a whodunit and more a closer look at the dangers of false accusations and unhealthy relationships with yourself and with others.What ultimately dooms Broken Things is the rather neat ending that seemingly ignores or glosses over all the messy details that make up the heart of the story. The happy ending is nice because the girls are so damaged. At the same time, the ending is too clean and too neat. The characters have too many rough edges and cracks for them to heal so suddenly, yet there is no doubt that Ms. Oliver leaves each character well on the path to a glowing future. For such an edgy novel, it deserves an edgier, more realistic end.
    • 5/5
      A broken girl. An obsession turned deadly. Summer was the glue that held Mia and Brynn together. But all that changed when Summer was brutally murdered. The two girls who had been her best friends became the Murders of Brick House Lane. It didn’t matter if it was true or not. The town is convinced they did it. Brynn commits herself to rehab after rehab, in an effort to avoid what has happened. Mia hides in silence, barely able to speak. When the two friends are reunited, they begin to search for the truth of what happened.Five years ago, the three girls began writing a sequel to their favorite novel, The Way into Lovelorn. They began to imagine being in Lovelorn, a world where they could leave behind all the troubles of their lives. Each of the three girls carried their own harsh realities. Flawed families, insecurities over who they were and dark pasts. Lovelorn was supposed to be their escape. As the story unfolds, the reader is immersed in a dark world where a simple story becomes an obsession. Being different in a small town isn’t easy, and Lauren Oliver immerses you in the lives of three misunderstood girls. I was lost in the words of dark memories and hidden truths, as Brynn and Mia strived to understand what happened five years ago. Walking in their shoes, reading as they were ridiculed and gossiped about in their hometown, made me feel how painful it was for them to lose someone. They had no one to talk to, no one to mourn with. The town blamed them for Summer’s death, and they had to bear the burden alone. It’s no wonder their lives spiraled as they did.This was a gripping read, intense and dark. It was more than just a murder mystery. It was a story about friendship, darkness, and obsession.
    • 4/5
      One of my occasional (often accidental) encounters with YA literature. It’s always interesting to drop in on Planet Millennial, even if just makes me relieved to return to Planet Middle Aged and my cardie and slippers at the end of it. Reading this I was forcefully reminded of my 19 year-old daughter patiently informing me “Mum, *everyone* is bi nowadays”.The novel’s premise was interesting - three teenagers get overly invested in a novel set in a fantasy land with black magic and child sacrifice. It all gets a bit heavy and one of them ends up dead with the others implicated in her murder. The depiction of teenage relationships - particularly the vile way teenage girls can treat one other - rang true, as well as the way that fascination with particular works of fiction can build to obsession and the blurring of the lines between fantasy and reality.I found myself wondering to what degree the author had planned out the fictional “Lovelorn” as well as the characters’ fan-fic version, or whether it was just a series of themes and brief quotes to introduce the chapters. Either way it worked convincingly as a book-within-a-book. I liked the energy with which it was written, though I found it hard to distinguish the voices of Brynn and Mia, the two narrators, both having a tendency to use ostentatious similes to depict body language. In parts it comes across a bit like an episode of Scooby Doo (and this is indeed acknowledged in the text) and one could probably follow the principles of that show to guess the culprit, though for my part I found myself not particularly invested in the whodunnit element of the story, more the atmosphere and the way it was written. Now...what’s happened to my slippers and my cardie..?
    • 4/5
      Everyone thinks Mia and Brynn killed their best friend after becoming obsessed and delusional over a novel, but on the anniversary of their friend's death a discovery pulls them back together to find out what actually happened that night.
    • 3/5
      I’ve read a lot of great thrillers lately, and despite the fact that this has a great premise (young girls accused of murdering their best friend five years ago, reunite back in the small town that still calls them the ‘Monsters Of Brickhouse Lane’), it just falls short. Putting it another way, this was a thriller that really did end up feeling broken. Five years ago, the case against Mia and Brynn is dropped, and Owen was acquitted in court, after they were accused of brutally killing their friend Summer in what looked like a ritualistic murder. Now that a memorial has brought them back together, the three of them (along with their new tag-along friend, and so-called YouTube fashion sensation Abby), plus Brynn’s second cousin Wade, are now going to solve the murder. This plot reads immediately like it has been done before and only recently (I do not like comparing to specific books so I won’t). I will however, point out how the girls’ obsession with the book ‘The Way Into Lovelorn’ (‘fan fic’ made me do it!), and the similarity of this obsession we see in the real life ‘Slender Man’ killings came off as all too familiar, and so it didn’t seem original or clever for me very early on. I also found myself wanting more from these passages from ‘Lovelorn’ as they gave me few answers as to why I should believe any behaviors should come from this book. As the crux of ‘Broken Things’, these passages needed to be way stronger for me to be convinced that it had anything to do with the killing, the girls’ obsession, and their friendships. Lauren Oliver is an established and fluid writer; conversations flow well, nothing really seems ‘wrong’ in terms of how the story ‘works’, but I had a hard time getting myself through this, and at times the story seemed to be meandering. Aside from the fact that Summer, the murdered ‘best friend’, seemed to be a nasty piece of work anyway, so I didn’t really care that the others may well have bumped her off, the twist and subsequent Scooby-Doo ‘unmasking’ gave me zero payoff. I felt badly that the characters hadn’t been given more action, especially with how long the book is. Many will enjoy this thriller but sadly I have to say it’s too long, and has too much jumping around between the two main characters, Brynn (who I just can’t believe would get away with ‘living’ in rehab like she did), and Mia, and the two timelines. The relationships are half way there, and the general ambiance is generally right, but this is a very full genre right now, so I had much higher expectations for this one. *Plus a cat was killed.