A review by kblincoln
The Shattering by Karen Healey
5.0
Karen Healy impressed me mightily with her YA contemporary fantasy Guardian of the Dead, but ultimately I found the second half uneven in plot and pacing.
The Shattering shows none of these issues. It is a tightly woven story of three, broken friends: Janna who uses boys to make herself feel good but hopes for music to make her famous, Sione who lives in his popular, dead brother's shadow and isn't quite islander enough for other islanders, and Keri, whose abrasive personality and obsessive planning hide fear and loneliness.
These three all have something in common; their brothers committed suicide after spending New Year's Eve at the small, West Coast town of Summerton.
Into the compelling mystery of the brothers' deaths Healy weaves issues of "outsider-ness" for each character. They are all non-mainstream in various ways, including race, sexuality, and religion. Each of them looks for relief from loneliness in various ways, but it isn't until each one uses their "weaknesses" as a weapon do they find a way to stop the darkness that took their brothers.
I gulped this story down almost in one night. From the moment Janna tells Keri "come with me to find out who murdered your brother" until the exciting conclusion, the ever-tightening circle around the villains of this story kept me turning pages. We get each of the main characters' POV, and unlike so many other shared-POV stories I've read recently, I get a saturated sense of each of them. They were all separate and finely drawn.
Finally, the ending isn't easy. There is no happily ever after. And that is what gets this book the fifth star. So few authors deal with the aftermath, and Healey shows us the toil of post-trauma while still giving us hope.
Bravo.
This Book's Snack Rating: Garlic Parmesan Kettle chips for the unable-to-stop-reading flavorful plot on crunchy, satisfying characters.
The Shattering shows none of these issues. It is a tightly woven story of three, broken friends: Janna who uses boys to make herself feel good but hopes for music to make her famous, Sione who lives in his popular, dead brother's shadow and isn't quite islander enough for other islanders, and Keri, whose abrasive personality and obsessive planning hide fear and loneliness.
These three all have something in common; their brothers committed suicide after spending New Year's Eve at the small, West Coast town of Summerton.
Into the compelling mystery of the brothers' deaths Healy weaves issues of "outsider-ness" for each character. They are all non-mainstream in various ways, including race, sexuality, and religion. Each of them looks for relief from loneliness in various ways, but it isn't until each one uses their "weaknesses" as a weapon do they find a way to stop the darkness that took their brothers.
I gulped this story down almost in one night. From the moment Janna tells Keri "come with me to find out who murdered your brother" until the exciting conclusion, the ever-tightening circle around the villains of this story kept me turning pages. We get each of the main characters' POV, and unlike so many other shared-POV stories I've read recently, I get a saturated sense of each of them. They were all separate and finely drawn.
Finally, the ending isn't easy. There is no happily ever after. And that is what gets this book the fifth star. So few authors deal with the aftermath, and Healey shows us the toil of post-trauma while still giving us hope.
Bravo.
This Book's Snack Rating: Garlic Parmesan Kettle chips for the unable-to-stop-reading flavorful plot on crunchy, satisfying characters.