Reviews tagging 'War'

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

27 reviews

yvo_about_books's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.25

Finished reading: January 15th 2025

"That was what the books did—they turned off your thinking for you, put their thoughts in your head so you wouldn't have your own."

I'm a fan of Simone St. James' writing and I love a good historical gothic thriller, so I'm honestly still not sure why it took me this long to actually pick up my copy of The Broken Girls. I'm definitely kicking myself now though, because while not my absolute favorite story written by her, I still ended up having an excellent time reading it. This book uses a dual timeline structure, switching between 1950 with four different POVs and 2014 with one POV. I personally did feel we didn't need the POVs of all four girls in the 1950s timeline; it made it harder to connect to them and I would have much preferred a focus on just one or two of the girls instead. That said, I did enjoy the 1950 timeline with the school setting and the paranormal/gothic/ghost element is well incorporated. I confess that ghost stories don't always work well for me, but I really like what this element added in The Broken Girls. The 2014 timeline focuses on Fiona, who is a journalist with a complicated past. It did take me some time to warm up to her and she could get frustrating at times, but I liked the investigation into Idlewild and the way certain facts were slowly revealed. The two timelines are initially only connected by location rather than the characters, but everything comes together in the end. I did see some of the twists coming, but there were also a couple surprises and as a whole I really enjoyed my time with this story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lbrumler's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Hate crime, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and War

Moderate: Genocide

shedevls's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

i don’t think st. james can do any wrong. if she writes a book, you can bet i’m going to read and love every word of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Antisemitism, and War

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

emunnyhunny's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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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Content Warnings

Moderate: War

Minor: Child abuse and Sexual assault

eerieehobbit's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Genocide, Violence, Antisemitism, and War

colourado's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Antisemitism, Suicide attempt, Murder, and War

lampbee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-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

4.0

I like her books. Ghost mysteries sound stupid on paper but the way she does them makes them entertaining :) It wrapped up so well in a way I wasn’t necessarily expecting but one that was satisfying. Vivid imagery and solid characterization of what a girls school is like. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Torture, Violence, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Genocide, Police brutality, Antisemitism, and War

Obviously a lot of the book centers around how one of the school girls

was put into Ravensbruck for aiding her mother in the allied resistance of France

Her description is moderately graphic , there really should be a

holocaust content warning option

Also I walked into it thinking there would be copaganda but it was actually in the reverse which was crucial to liking the book.

fatimaelf's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

This book was devastatingly sad. There’s no getting around the fact that it centers around two murdered girls: one from the 50s, and one from the 90s. To be honest, for much of the book I was far more interested in the flashback period, where the book focused on the boarding school and the four girls’ relationship within it. The boarding school enduring what they believed to be persistent haunting, the generations of girls passing wisdom to each other in their textbooks, the delinquent students clashing with each other while only having each other to rely on — this was far more compelling for much of the book than the return to modern times. Fiona’s story really only became interesting about halfway through, because though she purportedly had a purpose (to find out what really happened to her sister, and to figure out why someone was restoring the grounds upon which her body was found), the purpose seemed non-urgent considering her sister’s murderer was in prison, and there didn’t seem to be much of a story behind the school’s restoration. Once the book picked up, though, it really did pick up. I liked the mystery surrounding Mary Hand, the ghost — the question of how real she was, what she could really do. Mary Hand’s story ended up being

fairly banal: a girl birthing a supposed stillborn child out of wedlock, accusing her parents of murdering the baby, then being locked out in the cold to her death. I suppose, though, that the ordinariness of the story is the point.

Too many girls had their stories end that way, their anger so great it seems impossible death would defeat it. And in fact, in many ways, death didn’t defeat these girls’ fury. Not in 1950, not in 2014, and not in the 19th century, when Mary Hand died. I liked the twist at the end, that

the ghost wasn’t doing any of the killing, but if you saw her coming for you, her face masked the real killer’s.

The addition of the Holocaust was unexpected but done very well, as was the handling of the police force. Initially I thought the book would be copaganda, since Fiona’s partner Jamie was part of the police department, but it became very realistic very fast

by exposing the corruption of many small town (and even big city) law enforcement agencies.

Beyond that, though, it truly is a sad read. It’s always incredible to think about how one decision begins a cascade of others that may result in tragedy.

If Sonia hadn’t gone to her great-aunt and great-uncle’s house, if she hadn’t left early, if she hadn’t changed her ticket at the travel agency…if Helen had told more people about Tim, if Deb hadn’t gone in his car, if someone had spoken up, or done something; if powerful people weren’t granted special immunity, if terrible people weren’t allowed to go into hiding.

A series of events, entirely preventable, somewhat coincidental, that hurt so many and shaped so many lives. Because of its thought-provoking nature and despite its sadness, I think the book is worth reading, and probably in the future I’ll go back and reread it to catch the little things I know that I missed. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Minor: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and War

ajay913's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Police brutality, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Antisemitism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction and War

rae_em's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Murder

Minor: Child death, Rape, and War