Broken by A.E. Rought

Broken

by A.E. Rought 

Imagine a modern spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where a young couple’s undying love and the grief of a father pushed beyond sanity could spell the destruction of them all.

A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry's boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetery and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.

When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she's intrigued despite herself. He's an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely... familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel's.

The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there's something very wrong with Alex Franks. And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks' estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.

I love re-tellings. I mean. Love them.  I love it when Authors take something that is a beloved classic, and twist into something totally different that a new set of readers can love. So When I saw " Modern Spin on Mary Shelly's Frankenstein."  I immediately thought " Must read!" 

I started reading Broken and immediately felt.. depressed. But thought to myself. " this is a good thing, it means that the readers emotions are effecting me deeply." But the feeling never left. Throughout the entire story I just kept thinking, this is sad, this is depressing.

Then there were the parts that simply annoyed me. Emma keeps mentioning her Gothic Fiction reading hw. But NEVER says the name of the book. It felt.. so... awkward and fake! Any reader could guess. It's terribly obvious. It just felt like the author was.. trying too hard, to hide the title of the book, and it came off simply annoying. 

Here is the thing. I kept reading. I kept wanting to know what happened. So I can't say that I hated this book. because I didn't hate it, I simply.. didn't really enjoy it. 

I have decided to share my thoughts from goodreads, because these are what I was feeling as I was reading broken, and immediately after finishing it. So they are just gut feelings, not something I pondered over for days trying to find the perfect way to say it in a review: 

Overall. Broken by A.E. Rought wasn't for me. It was predictable, and depressing, and though I felt drawn to get to the end to see the outcome, I just didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. But hey, i'm also a weirdo who doesn't like Dark Chocolate, so there is bound to be readers out there who's opinion varies from mine.

Rating: 2/5