I really wanted to like this book. I've loved others by this author but I found this dull and could not get into it. It did get a bit more interesting around half way through but I still could not feel what the main character was feeling. I didn't understand why she was so obsessed with the story of the broken bridge.

When Ginny comes home from school one day near the end of the summer term there's a stranger talking to her dad. With recent media about a single dad abusing his daughter she's anxious that the stranger thinks this is happening to her because she lives alone with her dad. This is exactly how a teen would think (in my experience). It's not until her best friend's sister shares something that Ginny can confront her dad for the truth and what she finds out turns her world upside down.

I loved Ginny's character. She appears self-assured although underneath she's seething with questions about love and kissing and where she belongs. Looking at the world through her artist's eye was inspiring. Ginny's ability to live in the moment, the sights and sounds I found quite uplifting (and a reminder to slow down and take notice myself!). I loved her determination and spirit. She is callous at times but for me fits perfectly with her age and the independence she's experienced growing up.

The isolation of the setting and the small community of Llangynog is perfect for the social barriers to play out. It often felt like Ginny was on the edge, confusion between straddling her school friends lives and the adult lives. The myth of Pont Doredig (the broken bridge) becomes a fascination for her leading her to a confrontation. Linked with finding out more about her Haitian heritage, this scene raised the hairs on the back of my neck!

The secret that is revealed is only the beginning as more unfolds. Ginny remembers some experiences as a child and these flashbacks had me trying to fit everything together. Intrigue! I couldn't help the tears when Ginny's dad shared his own childhood experiences with her. Very emotive.

The Broken Bridge has a great pace and interesting characters. A reminder that not all is as it seems on the surface and how we do others a disservice with our preconceived notions. It's a story about roots and family and how far we're prepared to go to try and make things right and how that affects the future. It's about finding out where we belong and who we are. I loved it!

Thank you very much for allowing me to read this title; I am trying to read as widely as possible ahead of the Carnegie/Greenaway nominations and awards for 2018 and your help is much appreciated.
As a Carnegie/Greenaway judge, I'm not allowed to comment about my opinions on specific titles so I can't offer an individual review on any title as I stated on my profile.

An astounding piece of fiction for the young-ish reader - Mr. Pullman provides another nuanced, intelligent, and intelligently drawn female protagonist struggling with herself and her place in the world. Excellent.

I didn't realise this was an old book being reprinted, but it wasn't a book that really engaged me at the start. I think Pullman has definitely developed a lot as a writer, as an engaging writer, since the publication of this book and his flagship series His Dark Materials. The felt dated and bit tired, and didn't have the kind of charm I expect from Pullman these days.

I am always very annoyed when I end up reading an old book that has been re-released. This is no exception. Maybe it seems like that shouldn't be a problem, but context (like when this was written) changes how I view things. This does not read well in 2017.

Some more fantastic work by Philip Pullman. Interesting premise, well written and the character of Ginny was so much fun to read from.

I liked this book, but I didn't love it, and to be honest that's probably entirely my fault and not Pullman's.

First of all, I didn't really look too much into what this book was about; I just saw Philip Pullman and was like hell yeah I'll read this because 'His Dark Materials' is one of my favourite book series of all time, and I was convinced if Pullman had written something then it must be amazing.

This was a coming-of-age contemporary, and although Ginny was 16, the novel felt more like a middle-grade book to me than a young adult. Maybe it was because of the simplicity of everything, and the fact that the storyline reminded me of a Jacqueline Wilson book (maybe because of the focus on family? idk).

Contemporary family dramas just aren't really my sort of thing. I feel like I have walked into an episode of Eastenders, and I just... don't really see the point in them. There wasn't anything particularly gripping about the plot, and it was only Pullman's glorious writing that made me like it even a little bit.

There was a hint of fantasy, which really irritated me because it seemed extremely out of place, especially as it wasn't picked up again later and was just kind of, left alone. The reader isn't even sure if it was something fantastical or just Ginny's imagination, which may have been the point I don't know, but I didn't like it. If you're going to put an aspect of fantasy or magical realism in a book, don't do it in one throwaway passage and have the reader going "Wait, what the hell was that?!?!?!" for the rest of the book.

One thing I did like, though, was the exploration of the mixed-race psyche. I'm biracial and honestly, if I hadn't known Pullman was white, I would have thought he was mixed-race himself because of the way he described the protagonist's feeling of both belonging and not belonging; of not being able to truly connect with the non-white part of your ethnicity due to growing up in a white country like Britain. So yeah, that was good; Pullman has a gift for writing characters and their psychology.

I think iI might have liked this more if I was younger, maybe about thirteen or so. As i said, it reminds me a bit of a Jacqueline Wilson book, so I think it would appeal to the middle-grade demographic. I guess I'm just too much of an old fogey to like this sort of thing anymore?

Conclusion: You'll probably like it if you like middle-grade contemporaries, but it just didn't do that much for me personally.

The Broken Bridge was initially published in 1990. Taken with this context, it's clear that Philip Pullman has always been ahead of his own time.

His consideration of what it is to be female and young, black and living in an entirely white area with a white father and no real knowledge of your own mother or cultural background, is great. I particularly liked his expression of the grief and loss felt by a girl who thinks her family is falling apart, who has to grow up very quickly after years of a repetitive and calmer life.

Bearing in mind that the book was written before mobile phones and social media, the characters still feel alive- vibrant, genuine and real, with their own complexities. The inclusion of LGBT characters and the corresponding naivety around sexuality by the narrator was a high point for me, because I think it's a solid reflection of growing up in the early 90s.

This is a cleverly woven story, full of complex relationships and cultural considerations. I'm really glad I had a chance to read it- it was a quick read, but it didn't slop over any of the delicate plot points Pullman had established.

I had no idea this was in Pullman's back catalogue or I would have hunted it down sooner. Part coming of age drama, part mystery novel, the broken bridge is an engaging and fast paced story about family secrets and the teenage sense of disconnectedness and disenfranchisrment from a life that expects them to know and abide by all the rules when they're still liable to be treated as children. Rrally gripping and wonderful to see a mixed race MC. Thouroughly recommend.

Wow. This is perhaps one of the best books about identity and race that I’ve ever read. Ginny is half Haitian, half Welsh and lives in a small, isolated village where the overwhelming majority of the population is white. She experiences a steady stream of racism and feels trapped in a grey area between black and white. As a mixed woman I found myself relating to Ginny on a deeply personal level, having gone through the very same struggles in my youth.

The first half of the book is admittedly slow, it took a while for me to really get into it. The writing was good, exceptionally so, but the plot felt lost. I realized why this was once the story really got rolling: the plot seemed lost because Ginny herself feels lost as she searched for her place in the world. To cope Ginny creates her own world through art, but even in the world of painting she finds herself dealing with questions of race.

The second most important aspect of the story deals with familial relationships. The struggles between husband and wife, the bond between parent and child, the companionship between siblings, and the blurry line between friends and lovers. The relationships in this small town are complicated, the people are complex and incredibly flawed. The characters are constantly challenged to face their mistakes, to learn to forgive themselves and to forgive others, and to begin rebuilding the broken bridges between family. This book is an absolute treasure.

Originally published in the 1990s The Broken Bridge is a gorgeous adolescent coming-of-age story. Although very different to his fantasy novels you still get those wonderful three dimensional characters that Pullman has become known for.
Ginny is sixteen and lives in a small seaside town in Wales with her Dad. She feels different to everyone else. Her Haitian mother died when she was born and she is one of only two black kids that she knows in their small community. She comes alive through her art and it is a connection to her mother who she knows was a painter.
Her idyllic summer holidays are disrupted when a visitor turns up from Liverpool for her Dad. Discovering that she has a half-brother almost the same age as her is distressing and Ginny starts to question everything that her Dad has ever told her about their life and her family. It sparks a relentless search for the truth for both Ginny and her new brother Robert.
There is a certain innocence to this story in that I had to keep reminding myself that it was pre-internet and Ginny couldn’t just pull out her phone and Google her mother’s name. It was the age of Directory Enquiries and Libraries. Research being done the old fashioned way. This doesn’t detract from the story at all but might be confusing for younger readers!
Supplied by Net Galley and Open Road Media in exchange for an honest review.

There was just something so resonating about this work. I can't quite place my finger on it, maybe it wasn't just one thing but the combination of masterful story telling and captivating characters. Not only was there a family mystery to be uncovered, along with all the skeletons that brought forth, but also Ginny had so much to uncover about herself. Taking this journey with her was addictive, and I found myself reading this book straight through, into the wee hours.

Capturing the essence of that crucial time in life between innocence and knowledge, The Broken Bridge seemed to pull from my own childish insecurities as I desperately empathized​ with Ginny, despite our differences. This was a wonderful read, the kind that will stand up to the test of time as the emotions it compels are timeless and universal.
~George, 5 stars

This story is told through Ginny’s viewpoint as the summer holidays stretch ahead of her after her exams. It is a beautifully told tale with passages of lyric beauty as Ginny explores this seaside setting with an artist’s eye – and no, that isn’t reviewer-speak to warn you of a literary offering where the pace crawls along at the speed of a dozing snail. This tale cracks along at a fair clip as Ginny’s world is upended after a social worker suddenly appears up asking a lot of questions that has Ginny questioning former so-called facts, as well as shaking loose some uncomfortable memories…

This coming-of-age book has plenty of tension and effectively raises questions that all teenagers are confronted with – questions that we as adults shouldn’t let slip through the cracks of our oh-so-busy lives, because they go on mattering throughout our existence. This book deserves to be far better known than it is for it’s a gem. The story raises all sorts of gnarly questions about our society without any tub-thumping or syrupy sentiment – what happens to children when families can no longer cope? What is normal and who gets to decide? How do you decide what really matters to you – and what do you do when following that dream hurts the people around you? Pullman doesn’t necessarily offer the answers, but he certainly explores the issues around these questions in a wonderfully non-judgemental manner.

Though I found myself weeping when Ginny’s father was describing his childhood, I wouldn’t want you to go away with the idea that this is some worthily dreary read – there is also plenty of humour, with a couple of laugh aloud moments around the antics of Ginny’s friend Andy. In short, this one blew me away and is one of the best books I’ve read this year.

While I obtained the arc of The Broken Bridge from the publisher via NetGalley, this has in no way influenced my unbiased review.
10/10

The return of her half brother turns Ginny's world upside down. Her life in Wales is difficult enough, from her Haitian mother dying when she was only a baby, to the challenges of growing up with a mystery in her past. Although I tried to finish this book, it ended up as being my first DNF of 2017. I just failed to relate with any character and the plot did not hold my interest. Only my opinion.

Another great Phillip Pullman story with strong characters and an interesting story. I will be recommending this book, and I am looking forward to the next one, some subtle characterisation helps lift him from the normal.

I found it really interesting to read one of Pullman's earlier works. This tells the story of Ginny, a 16 year old living in Wales with her dad and the fallout from a long kept and recently revealed family secret. I liked Ginny a lot. She's pretty self-obsessed, but not to her detriment and she does display true empathy and kindness when push comes to shove. The plot is good, with enough twists and turns to keep the reader interested, while at the same time, being a fairly gentle family drama. There are some good explorations on the nature of race, homosexuality and a really interesting focus on art and artists, which I found particularly compelling. His Dark Materials this is not, but then it never pretends to be and I think it is a perfectly good YA novel as is.

I received a free ecopy of this book in return for an honest review. Many thanks to Netgalley and and the publisher for the opportunity.

I've read His Dark Materials so I was curious to see what Philip Pullman would do with a non-fantasy based story. The lead character in The Broken Bridge, Ginny, lives an idyllic dream like life with her father in small town Wales, until previously unknown family members start dropping out of the sky. I've known people who have been through that shock. There are so many other themes explored in this book, though. Ginny is a black child in an almost exclusively white community that includes her own white father. She wants to explore her heritage but is also afraid that being black will mean no-one will want to date her. She finds out her dad may have been in prison. She experiences early memories that she doesn't understand. Originally published in 1990 it was written pre-internet which I kept forgetting. The search for information is a much simpler process now. It is refreshing, though, to read a real-world story about teens that is uncomplicated by mobile phones and social media. If you want to read a story about a teenager discovering the world is a much more complicated place than she realised and that her parent had a life separate from being her dad, this is the book for you.

The Broken Bridge is a great coming of age story where our protagonist, Ginny, must come to terms with life, fear, and betrayal. Her character is by far the best aspect of the novel as she learns and grows.

The Broken Bridge is a story about unraveling the mysteries of our origin. Ginny is at a point in her life where everything she has ever known she has taken for granted. However, now she must grow up as she is asked to live with her new half-brother. What was strongest, to me, in Ginny’s story is her personal transformation in two regards: accepting the faults in our parents and wanting to uncover the truths of our past.

The realizations she makes and ways her character evolves is my favorite part of the book. I only have a few minor complaints on Ginny’s ethnicity, the writing, and the pacing. All in all, this book was an enjoyable read that speaks to the power of honesty and the way the truth always manages to escape. Ginny’s journey takes us through her summer of discovery, mistakes, and uncomfortable truths. Hers is a personal journey to make peace with our past and the ghosts you never knew you had.

To be honest, I was disappointed by this one. I don't know if it's me misremembering how good Philip Pullman's writing is, or it's because this is an earlier one of his than His Dark Materials, but I was just underwhelmed by it.

The Broken Bridge tells the story of a mixed race girl growing up in a small, Welsh village in the 1990s. One day, she finds out that her dad wasn't married to her mother, as she had thought, but instead to another woman, and he'd had a child with her, before meeting Ginny's mother (meanwhile, not having divorced the first woman). And that revelation takes up the first half of the book. It's pretty tedious, to be honest. I was expecting some fantasy aspect to the book, but there was none.

It's understandable that if you're writing about a mixed race child growing up in a small, presumably relatively isolated, village in the 90s, you're going to have to touch on racism and microaggressions at some point. That's surely to be expected. Except every time Pullman approached the subject, he managed to make a mess of it. There is some clear internalised racism going on, made especially so when Ginny, who's mother is Haitian and studied art, refers to Haitian artists as "primitives".

"The lady from Haiti? They have a lot of painters there." "Yeah," Ginny said, "primitives. Peasants. I know about them. But she wasn't like that. I can't be, either. See, once you know about Picasso and stuff, Matisse, all the modern painters, well, you can't pretend to be a peasant who's never seen them.... You're stuck, really. You can't go back; you've got to go forward. My mother, she was studying art properly, like I'm going to do." "European art," Stuart said.


Ginny, herself an aspiring artist, should surely know better than to value the European artists over another style of art, let alone refer to that different style of art (coincidentally one with non-white artists) as primitive or lesser. It also seems that Pullman is using Stuart, a white guy, to tell her that this is a dubious opinion to hold. Especially when he goes on to tell her about Haiti, from his perspective (granted it's because she doesn't know because she's never been, but couldn't she have read about it at least?).

At this point, I just gave up. Coupled with the fact that the other black character, a boy who has been adopted by white parents, refers to himself as "a white kid with a black face" - which I get is intended to reference the fact he doesn't feel like he fits in anywhere but instead feels uncomfortable coming from a white author - I just had to stop.