Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - The Broken Girls

Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

46 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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mjabel's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

4.75

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shedevls's review

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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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kcrockford's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

3.75

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jordantls's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.25

Fiona was a dummy, cops need to be eradicated. I did end up enjoying our group of girls from Idlewild, especially at the end when they were older, it was cute. The historical angle was interesting but the mysteries were a flop for me. Both resolutions to both murders were meh. Jamie's daddy needs to BURN

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luluhasnolife's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

Sorry English isn’t my first language
So I apologize in advance

It is incredible, I stayed all night reading this book. They are some heavy topics in this book but they are never full on detailed about it, I would keep this in mind if you are easily triggered about the tags warned…because those are the main one that are briefly discussed.

Another thing I want to point out in my rating about diversity, this book has characters with incredibly different backgrounds and personalities it’s magnificent but all of them are white if I recall, that’s why I put it’s complicated. It makes sense that they are all white but still.

Now positive!

I love how they brought actual historical events into this book, it made it feel more realistic

The whole ghost thing without spoilers is so juicy and sad at the same time. It keep me on my toes ngl, my dog moved and I would get startled

Some books can’t don’t time skips and changing pov but this author does an incredible job at it this.

The way there’s always sudden hints and foreshadowing in this book ties everything up in a beautiful bow

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sandysmith's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

3.5

I'm gradually adding books I've read in 2021 to give a true reflection of the books I've read since keeping records. This was the first book I read in 2021, and is what kick-started my reading journey having put reading on the back burner whilst bringing up the children, previously being an avid reader. It's a modern ghost story, switching between school girls at a boarding school in the 1950's and 2014, a journalist looking for answers concerning the death of her sister on the same boarding school site, Idlewild Hall. Journalist Fiona Sheridan and the school girls CeCe, Katie, Sonia and Roberta, and the ghost Mary Hand. I'm not really into ghost stories but I liked it never the less and I'm glad I read it.

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ems_rxlibrary's review against another edition

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5.0

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colourado's review against another edition

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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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fatimaelf's review against another edition

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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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