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A review by londysaurus
The Broken Ones by Stephen M. Irwin
5.0
Fantastically creepy in all of the very best ways. It lingers. As I said while reading Ben Winters's The Last Policeman, these two novels resonate well together. I appreciate stories about folks of integrity in extreme circumstances. Something subtle I appreciated is how banged up Oscar becomes. Often in stories, the dings and bruises only last a few scenes. The protagonist is nominally wounded, but walks it off in coming pages. Oscar's wounds are, in contrast, cumulative. They carry over across misadventures. It demonstrated me how stubborn and durable and long-suffering our bodies are - how pain, disability and violence against the body are all parts of living. We can sustain quite a bit of damage and yet, not die.
I found myself wondering about the ghosts. Where they were in proximity to their people in any given scene.
I was often irritated by Oscar's dismissal of "the dead boy," and was deeply gratified when their relationship shifted. The later revelation about folks' relationships to their ghosts and our mystery felt a bit forced (doing some circumlocution to avoid spoilers...), but I still enjoyed the outcome. The Epilogue was nicely done, too.
Definitely dug this one. It's a slow burner, but the unfurling is lovely.
I found myself wondering about the ghosts. Where they were in proximity to their people in any given scene.
I was often irritated by Oscar's dismissal of "the dead boy," and was deeply gratified when their relationship shifted. The later revelation about folks' relationships to their ghosts and our mystery felt a bit forced (doing some circumlocution to avoid spoilers...), but I still enjoyed the outcome. The Epilogue was nicely done, too.
Definitely dug this one. It's a slow burner, but the unfurling is lovely.