Title: Beautiful Broken Things
Author: Sara Barnard
Rating:
Best friends Caddy and Rosie are inseparable. Their differences have brought them closer, but as she turns sixteen Caddy begins to wish she could be a bit more like Rosie – confident, funny and interesting. Then Suzanne comes into their lives: beautiful, damaged, exciting and mysterious, and things get a whole lot more complicated. As Suzanne’s past is revealed and her present begins to unravel, Caddy begins to see how much fun a little trouble can be. But the course of both friendship and recovery is rougher than either girl realises, and Caddy is about to learn that downward spirals have a momentum of their own.
(Goodreads)
Wow. This book deals with some difficult and heavy subjects. I hope more people read this book because it touches upon mental health and how it affects the people around you.
Our main character, Caddy, is a bit of an average Jane. She goes to an all girl’s private school, but not with her best friend, and to be frank, she’s a bit of a snooze. But I found it (alarmingly) easy to recognise parts of myself in her.
Caddy wants adventure, she wants to grow as a person, to get a boyfriend and “do it”. But that’s not easy when you’re not the biggest extrovert.
So when Suzanne shows up and instantly bonds with Caddy’s best friend Rosie, Caddy is forced to act, but the way she goes about it is probably not considered the best way possible.
This book really focuses on how mental illness can affect the people closest to you, in all the ugly ways you can imagine.
I’m not good at talking about mental illness because I don’t know a lot about it, but I really liked the way it is portrayed in this book and how raw and real it is.
That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I read it rather fast. The story itself is a bit slow-paced as there is not exactly an exciting plot to move it forward quicker. But all in all a good read that more people should consider reading.
Do I recommend this book?
Yes, I do.
To whom?
To anyone wanting to read a book with heavy subjects and not the happiest of endings, but much more realistic.
