Broken by Alyxandra Harvey-Fitzhenry

Author: Alyxandra Harvey-Fitzhenry

Category: Contemporary
Release Date: October 1, 2008
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Everyone has felt broken at one point in their lives, some more broken than others, but broken none the less. Ash Perrault has felt that way since her mother died, but now her world is changing and she has every reason to be angry.

Her father’s fiancée, Ella, is moving in, with her two daughters, Katie and Julia; Ash’s best friend, Mouse, is keeping a secret from her; and Seth, the guy she is “seeing,” is embarrassed to be seen with her. But on top of all that, she has the problem of glass breaking around her when she’s not even near it.

Alyxandra Harvey-Fitzhenry has tried to make Broken a modern-style Cinderella story, but that attempt wasn’t quite successful. The only character that was well developed was Ash, and the only character that was even enjoyable was Mouse. The rest just seemed like people to fill in holes of chaos in Ash’s world.

Even Ash is kind of a cliché, aside from purple hair and 90s clothes, she is the outcast, art student who is misunderstood and gets in trouble. Seems like the typical teen angst novel. The writing is average at best and jerky at worst. Seth is the normal high school jock, at the top of the school, cheerleader ex-girlfriend. Ella gets called her stepmother, while Katie and Julia are called her stepsisters, even though the marriage hasn’t take place yet (that just irked my nerves).

The storyline isn’t even all that original, the outcast girl, she gets the football player (why are they always football players??), and she’s tormented by the cheerleading mean girls. It seemed like the author watched Mean Girls (Lindsay Lohan/Rachel McAdams, movie we’ve all watched more than once, even if we won’t admit it) and Clueless (Alicia Silverstone/Brittany Murphy, a movie every 90’s kid has seen 100 times) way to many times. Honestly, who really says “as if” anymore?

I like the cover, the idea, and the fact that it was a really quick read, but the story was pretty bland and typical. Plus the fact that there wasn’t really a resolution or even an explanation to the breaking glass thing, just really irks my nerves too. If there had been a resolution and better character development, then I could have gotten past the mediocre writing, but there was none of that.This may be something that other people like, but personally it’s not my thing. I would rather count ceiling tiles than sit through reading Broken again…and that in my opinion is just bad.