It's Kinda Like Gotham
The Brokenhearted
By Amelia Kahaney
# Pgs: 352
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Overview:
Amelia Kahaney's The Brokenhearted is a gorgeous, gritty, and imaginative take on the superhero story, perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer's Cinder and Marie Lu's Legend.
Anthem Fleet, talented ballerina and heir to the Fleet fortune, is closely guarded by her parents in their penthouse apartment. But when she goes to a dangerous party in the wrong part of town, she meets the handsome Gavin and is immediately drawn into his forbidden world. Then, in a tragic accident, Anthem falls to her death. She awakes in an underground lab, with a bionic heart ticking in her chest. As she negotiates her dangerous new life, she uncovers the sinister truth behind those she trusted the most.
Set in the ruined fictional landscape of Bedlam, a Gotham-like city, this tale of heartbreak and revenge is both gripping and cinematic—and is sure to sweep readers away.
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Review:
Before we begin with the actual book review, I have a très importante question to ask you: Are you familiar with... Batman? Who am I kidding, of course you are! You know, by day he's playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne and by night he's The Dark Knight, Batman; a vigilante crusader who parades around in tights and a cape saving the day with a billion different expensive toys all with the prefix Bat-. His city is Gotham; overflowing with psychos and currupt officials who thrive on greed.
The only reasoning I'm mentioning this is because Amelia Kahaney's The Brokenhearted is set in a city that, from beginning to end, reminded me much of Gotham. Except, while reading this book, Bedlam seemed so much worse despite existing in a world that does not have the Joker.
You may not know this about me, but aside from my love of paranormal, sci-fi, historical, and fantasy fictions, I also am absolutely with anything "superhero". So, reading this book, of course I fell in love. But I'm going to have to be honest about it, being that this is a book review, and try my best to stay impartial.
Being that The Brokenhearted is set much in a world of it's own, the strange way that it's written is understandable. The book follows a different sort of timeline, and we're just the viewers. I'm a little unsure in exactly what setting this takes place, however. Sure, it takes place in a rough city named Bedlam, but where? I kinda wish Kahaney embellished on the city more.
You have to give this book props for having a somewhat original idea-the main character, Anthem Fleet, died-but kind of like Frankenstein she was revived and given a second chance at life with a new heart. Reading the overview and looking strictly at the cover makes her heart seem like it is completely cybertechnic, but actually reading the book I found that it's not. It's somewhat of a mix; part machine, part humming bird hybrid. I thought that was kinda cool. I've never thought of someone gaining their heroic powers through a humming bird before.
Anthem's character was strong and interesting, someone I could relate to despite not being a ballet dancer or, you know, dying. She's just herself, not Anthem Fleet, and certainly not her dead sister. But throughout the book, she grows in strength from someone unsure about who she is to someone who embraces her strengths and weaknesses and fights for the world despite them. She was, overall, a likeable character.
The book was very confusing at parts, as it seemed to jump from one bit of facto to the next in an almost rushed manner. I'm used to patiently reading books, so it was a relief to read one that was so easy to read without going to roundabout methods of discriptions. However, one example of details being too rushed, could be examined in the romance de facto of the book. Anthem jumped from one character to the next character to another character before going back to the first character while pining over the second character before finally settling on the last character. And two of those characters, at the beginning, seemed to be carbon copies of each other. It was somewhat ridiculous and overall exasperating to read.
I was a little unsure in the book exactly what the history behind everything was. Is it a somewhat post-apocalyptic era? Why was every other building so run down or taken over or stuffed with secret, deadly things when it seemed like the state of the world was still strong enough where it shouldn't have been that way? I'm just confused by some aspects of the book, and other aspects were too predictable. I knew just after a certain nameless event happened exactly what was going to happen for the rest of the book. I didn't understand the importance of one of the characters at all other than a source of distraction from all the heroism that took place at night. I kind of with the relationship between the main character, Anthem, and her parents or Serge or her cook (whose name escapes me) were better developed than they were. Her parents were a key reason for taking the actions that she did, but so few times we actually interacted with them through Anthem. They were just there, kind of like one of the other distracting characters.
With all the little complications and wishes I had with this book considered, I still enjoyed it. I just wish it were better developed because it is such an interesting idea, even if it doesn't entirely make sense. So, in my personal opinion, I'd rate this book a three of five. It was good, just not enough. Still, I'm interested in reading the next book in the series, because this was very intriguing.
What do you think?
You have to give this book props for having a somewhat original idea-the main character, Anthem Fleet, died-but kind of like Frankenstein she was revived and given a second chance at life with a new heart. Reading the overview and looking strictly at the cover makes her heart seem like it is completely cybertechnic, but actually reading the book I found that it's not. It's somewhat of a mix; part machine, part humming bird hybrid. I thought that was kinda cool. I've never thought of someone gaining their heroic powers through a humming bird before.
Anthem's character was strong and interesting, someone I could relate to despite not being a ballet dancer or, you know, dying. She's just herself, not Anthem Fleet, and certainly not her dead sister. But throughout the book, she grows in strength from someone unsure about who she is to someone who embraces her strengths and weaknesses and fights for the world despite them. She was, overall, a likeable character.
The book was very confusing at parts, as it seemed to jump from one bit of facto to the next in an almost rushed manner. I'm used to patiently reading books, so it was a relief to read one that was so easy to read without going to roundabout methods of discriptions. However, one example of details being too rushed, could be examined in the romance de facto of the book. Anthem jumped from one character to the next character to another character before going back to the first character while pining over the second character before finally settling on the last character. And two of those characters, at the beginning, seemed to be carbon copies of each other. It was somewhat ridiculous and overall exasperating to read.
I was a little unsure in the book exactly what the history behind everything was. Is it a somewhat post-apocalyptic era? Why was every other building so run down or taken over or stuffed with secret, deadly things when it seemed like the state of the world was still strong enough where it shouldn't have been that way? I'm just confused by some aspects of the book, and other aspects were too predictable. I knew just after a certain nameless event happened exactly what was going to happen for the rest of the book. I didn't understand the importance of one of the characters at all other than a source of distraction from all the heroism that took place at night. I kind of with the relationship between the main character, Anthem, and her parents or Serge or her cook (whose name escapes me) were better developed than they were. Her parents were a key reason for taking the actions that she did, but so few times we actually interacted with them through Anthem. They were just there, kind of like one of the other distracting characters.
With all the little complications and wishes I had with this book considered, I still enjoyed it. I just wish it were better developed because it is such an interesting idea, even if it doesn't entirely make sense. So, in my personal opinion, I'd rate this book a three of five. It was good, just not enough. Still, I'm interested in reading the next book in the series, because this was very intriguing.
What do you think?
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