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A review by ashleycolwell
Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber
1.0
Ok, so let's get into this. I was excited about this book because I had only heard good things about it and the series in general! I first saw it on TikTok from a reviewer who has never done me wrong in the past, but at the end of the day...I think this sucks.
There's probably a more eloquent way to put it, and I have some elaborating to do, but there's no better way to put it really.
Going into this, I knew it was a YA novel, but I wasn't expecting it to feel so juvenile. I mean, I read YA stuff all the time that grapples with mature themes and has compelling, well-written, complicated plots, but this was not that. The plot was alllll over the place. I was having the most challenging time getting into it because as soon as I had buy-in, we suddenly were moving onto something else, except we didn't even really figure out the last thing either? And it's not like, oh this is going to come back later in a really clever way. If things did come back up, it was like ok? This set up was kind of like wack and not super interesting. And the maturity level...I mean I feel like if this is YA, it's for a very, very young adult. Don't get me wrong, I would've EATEN this up when I was in 6th grade.
Also, Jacks?? This is y'all's man??????? I hate him. He's not even like mean in a "Oh, I'm mean and rude you because I'm secretly into you way." It's stated multiple times throughout the book that he doesn't understand human emotion and kills people on the reg? Also, he's like high key barely in this book.
I usually don't finish books that I don't like, but I was so hopeful because of all the praise this book has received. I probably won't read the second book in this series.
There's probably a more eloquent way to put it, and I have some elaborating to do, but there's no better way to put it really.
Going into this, I knew it was a YA novel, but I wasn't expecting it to feel so juvenile. I mean, I read YA stuff all the time that grapples with mature themes and has compelling, well-written, complicated plots, but this was not that. The plot was alllll over the place. I was having the most challenging time getting into it because as soon as I had buy-in, we suddenly were moving onto something else, except we didn't even really figure out the last thing either? And it's not like, oh this is going to come back later in a really clever way. If things did come back up, it was like ok? This set up was kind of like wack and not super interesting. And the maturity level...I mean I feel like if this is YA, it's for a very, very young adult. Don't get me wrong, I would've EATEN this up when I was in 6th grade.
Also, Jacks?? This is y'all's man??????? I hate him. He's not even like mean in a "Oh, I'm mean and rude you because I'm secretly into you way." It's stated multiple times throughout the book that he doesn't understand human emotion and kills people on the reg? Also, he's like high key barely in this book.
I usually don't finish books that I don't like, but I was so hopeful because of all the praise this book has received. I probably won't read the second book in this series.