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A review by ladyheroj
The Broken Ones by Stephen M. Irwin
3.0
I kept flipping the pages, even though at times I couldn't tell you why. This is a splendid mash of so many genres and there's always something going on...but that also seemed to be its biggest draw-back. Irwin had so many ideas packed in here that not everything got explored as much as it could have. I picked this up because I liked the idea of everyone being followed by a ghost that only they could see. And it starts off great, setting that dystopian world up but then I started to feel like Irwin put that aspect to the side to develop more of a conspiratorial mystery. Yet even with his emphasis on the conspiracy, I still felt the ball was softly dropped to the floor regarding Haig's character.
Some of the events, like there being an actual monster goddess stalking Oscar, felt too over-the-top. Then I remind myself that this story takes place in a world where, again, EVERYONE SEES GHOSTS. So why am I complaining about monsters? But with only two attacks and then one hallucinatory death scene, that plot device just seemed like something the author thought would be cool so forced in. The story easily could've just been "hey, we're ghost-crazy and we thought gruesomely killing these girls would've done the trick but oh no, you caught us" and had the same results without monsters.
But to be fair, Irwin wrapped everything up much better than I thought he would. And it left me feeling like hey, maybe a sequel could happen. I'd be interested in reading that.
Some of the events, like there being an actual monster goddess stalking Oscar, felt too over-the-top. Then I remind myself that this story takes place in a world where, again, EVERYONE SEES GHOSTS. So why am I complaining about monsters? But with only two attacks and then one hallucinatory death scene, that plot device just seemed like something the author thought would be cool so forced in. The story easily could've just been "hey, we're ghost-crazy and we thought gruesomely killing these girls would've done the trick but oh no, you caught us" and had the same results without monsters.
But to be fair, Irwin wrapped everything up much better than I thought he would. And it left me feeling like hey, maybe a sequel could happen. I'd be interested in reading that.