Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Broken Girls

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

66 reviews

imfixintoread's review

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

5.0

I could not put this book down! There is a lot in this book -- mystery, paranormal activity, historical references to the Holocaust and Ravensbrück, murder, attempted murder, dual timelines, multiple narrators. And yet, Simone St. James absolutely nails this. It was incredibly well written and one of those books that I'll think about for a long time. There were a few times where the hair stood up on the back of my neck. Truly a great read.

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sandysmith's review

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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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colourado's review

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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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growfromit's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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lampbee's review against another edition

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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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literarykitten's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

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fatimaelf's review

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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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