Lauren Oliver's Broken Things
Ok, I loved this book, except for one minor thing that made me FURIOUS, which I will get to in a moment. Now here is the usual stuff: I think Oliver is a great author and this has been getting a ton of really interesting buzz, so I was super looking forward to it. And it is soooo up my alley—it’s about two middle school girls who were accused of the murder of their best friend, because it was done in a ritualistic manner that was straight out of the fan fic they wrote for an obscure portal fantasy novel. But there was really no evidence against them, so now it’s five years later and they’re total outcasts in their town, and one of them thinks she’s found a clue to the real murderer. So they get together with a motley assortment of friends and love interests to see if they can figure this thing out. And it is GREAT.
Now here is what made me mad—one of said friends is a teen plus size Instagram model, which is awesome. But Oliver says she is 5'4' and 180 pounds, which is . . . not that large? And both she and her best friend talk about how fat she is, in a negative way, not in a reclaiming the word way. Like, maybe the numbers didn’t need to be specific here? Don’t girls have enough issues without seeing a fairly normal number and then characters saying the girl is FAT, has pre-diabetes, etc.? So judgy!!
Anyway, that was a minor thing, and I really liked the rest of this. A/A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on October 2nd.
Content warning for graphic violence to an animal.
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