Reviews with content warning for Addiction - The Broken Girls

Very little point to the ghost, "Mary Hand". She only served as a "spook factor". The book could have easily been written without the supernatural element and have been just as impactful. It had nearly no bearing on the story at all, other than to create the spooky atmosphere of a haunted boarding school.

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toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

The Broken Girls is a historical fiction that goes back and forth between a boarding school for troubled girls in Vermont 1950 and the same town in Vermont 2014, following a journalist whose sister was murdered and dumped at the school. It's a murder mystery, it's a paranormal story, but above all, it's a story about sisterhood both biological and found.

There is so much to like about this book. First and foremost, the students at the boarding school were excellent, by far my favorite characters, Katie and Sonia especially. There were moments between them that were just so genuine and beautiful that it broke my heart. I thought the paranormal element of the story was very spooky and I loved the historical details that were there throughout. The 1950 chapters were my favorite because I loved the gothic boarding school setting and the haunting that came with it.

On to some negatives: The first 50 or so pages were a little slow and it made it hard for me to concentrate. I feel like this book would have benefitted greatly from some first person narration. I didn't like how detached the third person made me feel at times. I think that seeing at least one of the girl's from the first person perspective would have made a difference. I also thought the relationship part of the plot with Fiona and her boyfriend was annoying and took me out of the experience whenever it was being focused on. Additionally, during Fiona's investigations, a lot of things seemed to come to her very quickly and conveniently, which more than once made me, out loud, go "really?" It just seemed like she should've had to work a little harder for information that seemingly fell into her lap.

Overall, because of how much the characters overall meant to me, I gave this a 3.5. It was a perfect spooky wintry book for December!!

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soobooksalot's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

"Mary Hand, Mary Hand, dead and buried under land. She'll say she wants to be your friend. Do not let her in again."
Spooky October reading excellence!
I loved Simone St. James's The Sun Down Motel last year so I saved The Broken Girls to enjoy this year's pre-Halloween reading. And it was a total win!
This is a dual-timeline story, starting in 2014 as freelance journalist Fiona Sheridan prepares to write a story about the renovation of Idlewild Hall, once a boarding school for troubled girls. It's also where Fiona's sister Deb was found murdered 20 years earlier.
We are then taken back to 1950, to the heyday of Idlewild and it's students. One of their own disappeared under circumstances never explained.
Both timelines include sightings and stories of Mary Hand, a spectre and legend of the area; as well as the real-life horrors of the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp.
It's a detailed and atmospheric story, one that's easy to get caught up in. The Broken Girls is both a crime thriller and gothic mystery - a great combination! Recommended!

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libraryghost's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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a_novel_craving's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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kait_sixcrowsbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was my second book from Simone St. James — my first being The Sun Down Motel — and it blew me away. It threaded together so many different things — the toxic “good ol’ boy” culture within police forces, forced institutionalization, how so very little women and girls are believed are taken seriously — and it did so in such a way that made for a tense, thrilling, ultimately sad read. While the end seemed a bit rushed to me, I believe that the meandering plot before the climax more than made up for it for it.

I definitely recommend this book if you’d be into something that, while spooky sometimes, is mostly a critique on how little thought is given to women and girls and their experiences, both currently and historically.

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colleenward_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

wowza.
I absolutely love when a mystery moves at a pace that you can follow, and actually lets you feel like you can be a detective in the story. Expletives were shouted when my suspicions were confirmed; I love love LOVE when that happens!

I had very little knowledge of the plot when starting this book but quickly became attached to the story of four boarding school girls: Sonia, Katie, CeCe, and Roberta. I also really enjoyed the switching of time periods and the connectedness of everyone living in this little town in Vermont.

The Broken Girls has a little bit of everything - spook, thrill, mystery - and I’d strongly recommend it to anyone who is looking for an extension of spooky szn right about now!

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