While I tried really hard to enjoy this book, I felt that there were too many issues that I couldn't look past. The life-altering accident that the lead character, Libby, was in was, in short, written off - or so it felt - by the other characters, making them intensely unlikeable. I guess that though it elicited a reaction, I can't really offer much more feedback.
I want to thank Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Libby's dreams are stopped in their tracks. She has to rethink where she wants to go in her life. Her journey to discovering it includes solving the mystery of what happened to her. Story is steady paced.

I really enjoyed this story. Libby is on her way to the Olympics when a skiing accident takes her out. When she wakes up she finds herself paralyzed from the waist down. Faced with a life changing event, Libby is forced to re-evaluate her life, change her mindset and figure out what to do going forward. She meets Harley in rehab who is a competitive swimmer and has lost her leg. Harley's personality is infectious and she is exactly what Libby needs. There is a mystery mixed in the story with who was responsible for the skiing accident and it is quite the twist. I also loved watching Libby's mom be so vulnerable with Libby. Excellent story!

I really wanted to like this one, but unfortunately, there were a number of issues I ended up having with it. First and foremost, was the way the other characters treated Libby. It seems like most of the book takes place in the 6-8 months after her accident. That's not a long time for such an enormous life change, and a good deal of that time was spent in the hospital or in rehab. So it's really only 4-6 months that we really see Libby trying to adjust to her new life. And that was the problem: it wasn't a long time, yet I felt like all the other characters--and Libby herself--tried to force Libby to live as though it had been 4-6 years since her accident. Everyone kept trying to force her not to stay stuck in what had happened, and to see the new life she could live and all of the opportunities still available to her. On its own, that would of course be a fantastic thing, but I felt like the extent to which they did it, the time frame of it, and the words used to describe her when she didn't meet expectations (coward, whiny, etc.) made what could have been encouragement instead a very negative thing. They pushed her so much to get better that I felt they didn't give her the opportunity to actually heal.

Because of this, I struggled to connect with Libby. She was in a stage of grieving, of struggling and healing, which again, on its own, is fine. But because she kept being pushed to do things, like drive again, join a ski and a rowing team, accept her parents' new relationship, etc., she spent a lot of time angry. After what happened to her, anger and grief are very reasonable emotions. But instead of being allowed to accept that anger and deal with what had happened to her, she was often framed as the bad guy, as a coward, whiny, or selfish. She constantly had her emotions thrown back at her instead of being allowed to feel them. I felt like that was very unfair, and because I didn't get time to know Libby before the accident and she was never allowed to put herself together emotionally after the accident, I struggled to connect with her. There's a time close to the end of the book where we get a glimpse of what Libby could be if given the chance, but it felt forced to me because I wasn't there for that journey. The book portrayed a physical journey of her recovery, and a psychological element in the mystery, but not the emotional healing needed after that kind of trauma.

Finally, the mystery itself fell flat to me. The culprit was too obvious for most of the book, and the plot twist at the end just didn't hold any water in my opinion. There were so many red herrings laid in another direction, that when the plot twist came, there was almost nothing to support it.

I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately, it just didn't work for me

I'm not a YA (Young Adult) reader, but I will read anything C. Lee McKenzie writes. Her stories are always about a teen faced with impossible situations that would defeat most of us--even most adults--except McKenzie shows us how to survive, even thrive.

In Shattered (Evernight Teen 2021), high school senior Libby Brown is a shoo-in for the US Olympics team until she’s run over by a snowboarder during a practice and paralyzed from her waist down. Now she must figure out how to move on with her life without being bitter for what she's lost. Fear not. Though a traumatic situation, the story is upbeat with a positive message for recovery and renewal.:

"Prove to me that handicapped is just a word, not a punishing life sentence."

"My sweet girl, you do not disappoint me. You only disappoint yourself."

"Please let me sleep. Barring that, let me die and get out of here. Please."

Did I mention the twist at the end? Completely unexpected and totally satisfying. Highly recommended

I enjoyed this book because it was a challenging read that offered a satisfying ending.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to review this book.

Libby Brown is not a character I could relate to at the beginning of the story, but by the end, I think she's someone I wouldn't mind meeting and spending some time with. Her transformation is drastic, yet she's still the same person, just a more mature and well-rounded person. Aside from the obvious tragedy Libby has to deal with and overcome, the biggest struggle for her is culture shock. Her reality shifts from being one of the beautiful and privileged of the world, who only has to worry about making her personal dreams come true, to becoming like everyone else- the other, the not so privileged, the marginalized, etc...

It's easy to get caught up in how much this character whines about her situation but if the reader is honest with themselves, they will recognize that they too would act the same way if their reality all of a sudden shifted. Whether that be learning how to live with paralysis, or learning how not to live with a lot of money, or learning how to live in a place where you don't speak the language, or learning how to live in a place where the ruling class has a skin color different than yours, etc... it's a challenge to navigate culture/reality shock and find a way to thrive.

My main issue with this story was the best friend. She's my favorite character but has a major flaw. To me, she wasn't very realistic. I think if she had shown just one moment of vulnerability, it would have made her so much stronger. I love the fact that she was optimistic and inspirational, but she could have as least said something like, "I wasn't always this way..." If this was in the book, it wasn't significant enough for me to remember.

The mystery was a great secondary plot to keep the reader interested when wanting a break from Libby. The ending still has me reeling. I understand that it was for the best, but that's a story I'd like to get more into. The aftermath of that choice would be an interesting book. I can't imagine what it would be like to destroy a family but that's all I'll say. Don't want to give too many spoilers.

Highly recommended!

Shattered takes the kind of situation that seems like it might crush a life and strike fear into anyone, especially, as in this case, an athlete, and turns it into a hopeful story of one girl's struggle to overcome her depression and anger about what has happened to her into a life where she has choices. They're not the choices she starts with, of course, but by the end, her character has undergone a change that will stand her in good stead for life.
Moving swiftly from the accident that paralyzes this Olympic standard skier, through a series of other disasters, twists, and turns, Libby becomes someone we would all hope to be. A key factor in this is the new friend she makes, Harley, who is a character a reader can warm to immediately. Libby resists the friendship at first, but soon sees that Harley is pushing her to be her best self.
The mystery at the heart of the initial accident is handled well and has an unexpected twist at the end. I kept trying to put the book down to do other things I was supposed to do, but had to pick it up again as it raced to its satisfying conclusion.
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC

As a former high level college athlete, this book brought to life one of my biggest fears that haunted me for a very long time. When you are an athlete, just the thought of something happening to you where you can no longer compete in the sport you love is terrifying. This nightmare becomes a reality for our protagonist Libby in Shattered.

Libby is 19 an Olympic hopeful skier and just before the trials she is involved in a horrific accident that damaged her spine and leaves her paralized from the waist down. Now that her dreams are no longer in reach, she must find the strength to accept her new world and adapt to this life.

I really enjoyed the mystery to this. We are given random chapters called “the arrangement” that give clues to the fact that Libby’s accident wasn’t an accident after all and was actually orchestrated by a rival skier (or was it?)

I liked the character growth we see in not just Libby but some of the side characters as well. This story felt real and painful and I honestly was hooked from the first page.

The twist ending made my thriller self very happy and in the end this was a really heartwarming story.

Thank you Netgalley, Evernight Teen, and the author for an advanced reader copy.

Unfortunately this is a DNF at 19% for me. I had high hopes for this book, thinking it would be similar to Scars Like Wings by Erin Stewart and Faceless by Alyssa Sheinmel. As a disabled person myself, I’m always looking for stories of disability that are skilfully and sensitively told. Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of those for me.

Within a few chapters, I’d picked up on quite a few ableist sentences. When Libby becomes paralysed following a skiing accident, she tells readers, ‘I might as well be dead if I couldn’t walk or ski or do anything that I loved. I couldn’t imagine how it would be to be trapped in a wheelchair the rest of my life, and I willed that image to disappear.’ This immediately set off alarm bells for me as I’ve had so many people devalue my own life since becoming disabled, people telling me that they’d rather be dead than live as I do. I really didn’t like the idea of being ‘trapped’ in a wheelchair given that wheelchairs offer freedom to so many disabled people that they wouldn’t ordinarily have. Still, I persevered with this book. I thought maybe this was just Libby’s mindset at the start of her journey as she was still coping with her new reality. I was hoping to see a transformation in her mindset and her acknowledging that her earlier thoughts were harmful and ableist.

I don’t know if this does happen, as I stopped reading at chapter nine. The above quotes were around chapter three, but by chapter nine we had more ableism and I simply wasn’t enjoying the story. Reading was feeling like a chore. Another instance of ableism I picked out was this one, which Libby uses when ‘evaluating’ her new room mate at the rehab centre: ‘More to the point, how could a one-legged swimmer have three boyfriends and the attitude of the Dali Lama?’ Just, urgh. She uses the term ‘one-legged’ in a clearly negative way here and she’s just so judgemental of her new ‘friend’, only seeing the disability.

Leading on from that, I didn’t find Libby likeable, yet I also felt like I didn’t know her. There wasn’t a great deal of deep characterisation for her or any of the characters, in my opinion. And the writing was kind of clunky. The very first paragraph tells us about a girl, Etta, who wasn’t then in any of the first nine chapters again. There’s no mention of a first-person narrator in that paragraph, so I assumed at first that Etta was the main character and that it was a third-person narrative. That seemed like a really poor opening to me.

There was a lot of repetition of phrasing too. We’re constantly told that voices interrupt Libby’s thoughts when she’s in hospital, and so many chapters began in similar ways. For my day job, I work as a developmental editor for a publisher and I’m a writing teacher, and there were just so many little things like this that I would’ve flagged if I’d been editing it. These things just meant I couldn’t get into the story to enjoy it.

And there were some big pacing issues—the characters constantly refer to important things that have happened off-page that the reader doesn’t actually witness. One major example of this is how suddenly were told Libby has a boyfriend when she’s at the rehab centre and sees her roommate with hers. I didn’t spot any mention of Libby having a boyfriend prior to this, but then we’re told that all this time the boyfriend had been trying to get in contact with her. That seemed like an afterthought and I couldn’t work out why this hadn’t been incorporated more smoothly into the narrative earlier on.

And then Libby and her boyfriend break up. Take a look at this passage:

“It’s okay,” I said quickly. “I asked you here to tell you that since things are so, well, different” —I held onto the arms of the wheelchair like a lifesaver— “I’ll understand if you have to move on. Your degree. Your life. You know.” I had to stop so my voice didn’t catch. “Hey, but thanks for coming by.”
For the first time our eyes connected.
“I’m sticking if you want me to.” Now his voice sounded pinched, maybe panicked. He’s afraid I’ll take him up on his offer. It wasn’t so much how he’d said those words as it was the way he sat pulled away from me, ready to bolt for the door that made me flinch.
I shook my head. “No.” The word came out sharp and final. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”
[…]
“I’m really sorry—”
And that’s all you can come up with? Sorry was such a limp word.
I shook my head. “Not your fault. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” I couldn’t help wondering what would have happened if Ben had pulled himself out of bed that morning and gone with me. He might have taken the hit instead of me. He might have heard the snowboarder coming at us and shoved me out of the way.
“I know, but I, well I’m just—”
“Don’t be.” I did not want to hear the word sorry from him. I hadn’t expected our meeting to go this way. I’d expected him to protest more. I hadn’t expected my heart to shrink when he turned his back and vanished out the door.

This was the point that really got to me, Like, I understood Libby’s feelings. I’d felt that before, being convinced no one would want me for my disability—but I wanted either him to fight for her here or for her to just be angry or something. Instead, she’s just accepting of it. I don’t know if we get more on this later, if I’m fact Libby does realise she still has worth. But this, combined with the earlier ableism and the pacing issues, just meant I couldn’t read any further.

In fact, the only thing that had kept me reading that far was the mystery element, that we know that the ski accident wasn’t an accident. Someone had paid a guy to cause the accident. I loved that, but it just wasn’t enough to keep me reading.

I feel bad giving this book one star, but it read like an unedited draft to me and the ableism was a big problem.

Though slow at first as it picked up? So. Much. Fun. I had so much fun reading this and the characters were super interesting including the dynamics the characters have created. I really loved this!