Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Beautiful Broken Girls. This is my honest opinion of the book.

Mira Cillo and her sister Francesca are found, wrapped around each other, drowned in the quarry. Days later, when Ben receives a note in the mail from Mira, he embarks on a quest to seven places as Mira attempts to explain why.

Mira's recollections are delivered in the form of flashbacks to particular times and places, which is a good way of imparting background information to the reader. The problem with Beautiful Broken Girls, however, is the fact that the plot should have been compelling but fell flat. Francesca's suffering comes across without passion and Mira's attempts to help her sister are just matter-of-factly expressed. I had high hopes for this book, but the premise never came together in a meaningful way. I never felt like I gained a foothold and found it difficult to keep reading, despite the relatively short number of pages.

Beautiful Broken Girls was unlike anything I have ever read. It was disturbing. It was haunting. It was beautiful.

I love The Virgin Suicides and so when I started reading this and starting noticing the similarities between the two I knew I was going to love it.

We follow two girls who lives suddenly end tragically. Did they fall? Were they pushed? No one knew until Ben suddenly received a note from Mira after her death.

Beautiful Broken Girls is broken down into 7 parts. Each note tells Ben to go to where he last touched a certain body part on Mira. Each location brings him closer to the truth.

Don't pass this book up because you're scared of the subject matter. You truly will miss out on not a phenomenal book but also a very talented and amazing author that weaves a tale of suspense, intrigue, love and loss while still having you begging for more.

I'm beyond sad to say that I didn't love this book. I REALLY REALLY wanted to, but I just couldn't make that happen. I read After the Woods last year and thought it was phenomenal. Such a strong debut full of interesting characters, a twisty twist, and a smartness that blew me away.

Beautiful Broken Girls is not cut from the same cloth. This book is about an obsession that a town has with these girls-- the reason?? It's anyone's guess. The next door neighbor, Ben, has a particular fascination with the older sister, Mira. And when they take their lives by jumping off the quarry cliff and drowning, it's all a big mystery as to why.

Mira wants Ben to know because she's mailed him a letter sending him on a scavenger hunt for 7 other vague notes. Eager to find these notes (and relive the moments he and Mira shared in the hiding spots), Ben goes on the hunt.

Are you with me so far?? I was mildly on board with the story up to this point too. I mean, I thought it was creepy that she would send him on a scavenger hunt to places where he "touched" her. I get it that you love the girl, but are you really getting a boner over touching a girls hand or cheek??

But THEN-- the book takes this crazy U-Turn into Religious town. It's all Catholic rituals and Saints and Martyrs. It was hard for me to take it seriously, but when the characters in the book were taking it so seriously-- that's when I got confused.

There were times while reading the book that I did fall into the mystery of wanting to know WHAT THE HECK WAS GOING ON. And I did like that it veered into some theories that were promising, but ultimately wrong. I definitely thought at least 2 other things were going to be the suicide reason, and I was totally wrong-- and I love when I'm wrong.

The second biggest problem was Ben. He wasn't a strong enough character to carry the book. And we didn't get to delve into his issues enough. I still don't know what exactly happened to him as a kid-- and clearly he needed help, but never got it. I felt like the mental health issue wasn't handled as well as it could've been. There's nothing wrong with therapy and/or medication when you've been through something like *I think* he has.

His only characteristic is-- unhealthy Mira obsession. I mean, who imagines the insides of someone's organs as a turn-on?? ("He imagined glistening blood cells, villi waving like sea anemone, velvety mucosa. Turn Mira inside out, smear his hand inside." If that's not grounds for a restraining order, I don't know what is). I wish he (and the other dudes in his friend group) had more going on than 2 manic-pixie-dream-girls.

Did I like this book?? Meh. I wanted to and at times I did, but there was just a little too much weirdness, unexplained happenings, and lack of leading characters for me to say it was a recommendable book.

AND THAT ENDING. Just no.

OVERALL: I wanted to love this because of After the Woods, but it didn't live up to my expectations. I didn't like the religious/mystical place that the book went, and I didn't feel the main character was developed enough to lead the book. It's interesting in that it tries to do something different, but ultimately it wasn't for me.

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.
Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the opportunity to read and review Beautiful Broken Girls by Kim Savage. Ben lives next door to the Cillo family, who has recently lost their two daughters, Mira and Francesca. Ben secretly loves Mira and he's devastated by her death. Mira left notes for Ben to find and to help him understand the mystery of the sisters' deaths. The book has a confusing story line that jumps back and forth between characters and from past to present, sometimes randomly. For some reason, Francesca has bleeding holes appear in her palms and the causes of Connie's allergic reaction are never stated. The story is based on possible delusional teens and the consequences when they believe one is a saint and things don't work out as planned. The writing is well done and the characters feel pain and compassion but the story is just not my type, 3 stars.

When Mira and Francesca are pulled out of the quarry, their stiff limbs entwined around each other and rocks weighing down their pockets, Ben makes it his mission to determine what led his neighbors to kill themselves. But as he attempts to avenge the sisters' deaths, he begins to learn that there is more to the story than he'd been allowed to see. The chapters alternate between Mira and Francesca in the months leading up to their deaths, and Ben dealing with the aftermath. Savage weaves a convoluted web of deceit and false assumptions, making it difficult to know which characters are telling the truth or misinterpreting a situation at any given time. The characters (especially Mira and Francesca) aren't necessarily realistic, but they're written to appear as though they're somewhat above everyone else. The mystery surrounding the girls' deaths is plotted out with perfect clues, which are revealed at exactly the right times.

I was really intrigued after reading the description for Beautiful Broke Girls. This was my first book by Kim Savage, though I had been wanting to read "After the Woods" for quite some time.

The story beings in August 2016 after the tragic deaths of the Cillo sisters. Mira and Francesca Cillo rode their bikes, then walked for about 15 minutes in the darkness to the quarry.

Not long after that their bodies are pulled from the quarry.

Their neighbor, Ben was in love with Mira and grieving the loss of her.

Was it suicide? Did they fall? Or was it something else?

Then a few days after their bodies are found he receives a note. It is from Mira. This first note sends Ben on a hunt for seven more notes that will apparently explain what happened. Each note represented a part of Mira's body that Ben had touched palm, hair, chest...The story is broken down in each of these seven parts.

"Everyone wanted to touch us. Including you. So remember the seven places you touched me. It's where you'll find the truth. Start at the beginning "

With each note Ben discovers more and more about the sisters and their strange lives. He finds himself with more questions than answers.

"Everything is in God's plan"

I liked Ben's character and the story-line was interesting, though I ached for him and what he'd been through. I was really into this book at first but then I started to feel a bit overwhelmed. Honestly, it was very different from what I was expecting after reading the description. There was a lot going on in this novel. Magic realism, religion, and saints. It's kind hard to explain as I don't want to give anything away.

The novel has some dark subject matter and I felt some things were romanticized, things that in my opinion shouldn't be. But at no point did I want to stop reading, I was invested in the story. I did enjoy this novel, just not as much as I was expecting. Though some things may not have worked for me, they may not bother other readers.

I do look forward to reading more from Kim Savage, as she is definitely a talented writer.

Thank you to NetGalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Kim Savage for an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

This book was incredibly difficult to get into for me. I persevered through it though, and the next thing I knew it was done. It was written very well, and is a great story. Told from the perspective of Ben and Mia, with a satisfying ending. You definitely leave this book feeling like you know the whole story.

Based on the description of the book provided to me, I was expecting more of a thrilling murder mystery, something that was a little dark and unsettling. However, that was not what I got with “Beautiful Broken Girls”, instead I found a story that was oddly religious and kind of boring.

The beginning of the story does start out exciting, and hooks you into wanting to find out more about the mysterious and beautiful Cillo girls, the local obsession of all the town boys, and discover what happened to them. Initially, I thought this was going to be a story in the vein of 13 Reasons Why, and while there are similarities between them, mainly dead girls who leave clues, readers should not pick up this title thinking they have found a “read-alike”. Unfortunately, when we do get to the revealing of the why, I found it to be very anti-climactic and by the time I discovered reason I found myself not really caring anymore, to be honest.

The story also felt a little unfinished to me. There were several story lines that sort of ended, or were hinted at but never expounded on, which left me with so many questions. Like, was there anything inappropriate going on in the Cillo house, and if not why was the father so creepy and overprotective? Where did the stigmata come from, was it real or created by Francesca and if it was fabricated why? Was she emotionally disturbed or just desperate for attention from her church leader crush? I just felt the story could have been a little tighter and more interesting if these questions had been answered by the author. Ultimately, this one is a pass for me.

hauntingly amazing book that kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time

The only positive thing I can say about this book is that Ben's storyline was at least interesting.

Now onto the long list of things I did not like about this story.

Firstly, the characters. None of them were developed and they all featured one large character trait that constituted their entire personality. There was the two crazy ones, the mean one and the sorta nice one, there was the grossly stereotyped fat character, the stoner one, the main character, the teacher-like figure, and that's it. Every other character had no personality and were utterly undistinguishable from the other characters, especially Ben's group of friends. I honestly could only name the fat character whose name is Piggy by the way and how he's a sleazy, pervert like 75% of fat characters in literature. The rest of them I've already forgotten about. None of the characters served any sense of development throughout the story. Clearly the author was trying to write a story about unlikeable people, but it never felt like she commented on the fact that they were all crazy. Instead, her overly flowery writing just romanticized them all to high hell except for the characters that the main characters deemed undesirable (i.e. fat, homeless, or ugly characters.) There are times in the text when characters have horrible thoughts or voice horrible thoughts and not a single other character ever contradicts them in any way. I'll talk more about this later on in my review when I get to the romanticization of Ben's childhood molestation.

The next thing I strongly disliked about this story is that it was very different from what the synopsis said it would be. Since I did receive an ARC of this, I could have gotten an incomplete synopsis but this synopsis made it seem like the story would be a contemporary mystery in the vain of Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why. It's not. Instead, the Cillo sister's chapters which take up half the story are all magical realism with a hint of Christian fanaticism because one of the sisters thinks she's turning into a Saint. But really she's only doing this to impress the pastor character because she's in love with him. I don't feel like this book is marketed the right way because half of the story has this magical realism element that is never, in any way, ever explained. These "miracles" are happening to the Cillo girls, but you won't be getting any explanations as for why. None at all. Most of the book is just the pastor character telling them that "Everything is in God's plan." I can promise you that if I had known that I'd have to read that over 60 times throughout the book, I wouldn't have asked for it.

The storytelling and writing were just not good. So many reviews of this book call the writing beautiful and I just don't agree. There would be prose that were kind of beautiful and then the author would immediately take me out of that by talking about the insides of someone's body, but in a horrifyingly creepy way. Like this quote:

"More and more, he found himself thinking about the insides of Mira, healthy, pink organs and long, smooth muscle wall. The parts of Mira no one saw, whose actions were involuntary and unguarded. He imagined glistening blood cells, villi waving like sea anemone, velvety mucosa. Turn Mira inside out, smear his hands inside." (LOC 2108)

Yeah sorry but I don't personally find science textbooks to be "beautiful writing." I honestly can think of like nine more beautiful ways to explain that exact sentiment. And this was the only example I saved because I saved it for multiple reasons, including how stupid of a relationship Ben and Mira had.

My other point regarding the storytelling is that it isn't cohesive at all. Aside from the fact that the ending is anticlimactic and doesn't explain a single thing from the book, I'm talking about this one chapter in particular. In Part 5, the main character Ben meets with his friends to discuss a theory he has with them about the Cillo girls death. He meets and talks almost individually with every single one of his friends, including his friend Kyle (who, by the way, is a weed-smoker stereotype through and through.) Except in the very next part, he meets up with Kyle and it's stated that "they hadn't seen each other since the day Ben had knocked Piggy unconscious" (LOC 2307) which is a reference to a scene that happens in the very early part of the book. So at this point, I'm really confused because literally Ben and Kyle had a conversation the very previous chapter that took place after the events earlier in the novel. It's clear that chapter still exists within the story because Ben mentions it but for some reason I guess the author forgot that she made Kyle be there. From then on, I did pick out other inconsistencies in the text but I did not save them to my file.

I guess I'll mention the little bit about how dumb and uninterested in Ben and Mira's relationship I was. Mira writes these letters to Ben urging him to go to all the places they touched. We're supposed to read their great and secret love story through this, but honestly it's just seven cases of super horny teenagers touching each other. They talk once in the beginning of the novel and then the next time they meet in a flashback they're in love, with no romantic development whatsoever. Not to mention that both of them believe the other to be a manic-pixie dream girl, which is only briefly mentioned by a ghost at the end of the text. Though honestly I couldn't explain to you what was going in that scene because the author didn't really explain it at all.

And now to the largest point of all, the one that literally set my teeth grinding. Part of the story is about Ben's name being found on a list by a local coach who turns out to be a child predator. For that reason, every one constantly refers to Ben as being "special" and "touched," words that for me have a connotation of those blessed by angels and good fortune. For me personally, this topic was never handled correctly. In the first half of the story, Ben's trauma is never mentioned in more than one sentence and never with more feeling than one would comment on whether Ben had the flu. Now, as someone who actually has been the victim of similar trauma, you could see why this might bug me. A trauma that leaves many people with some level of emotional scarring. Fast forward to the end of the novel, where Ben's trauma suddenly becomes his only character trait. You can also see why that annoys me as well. Ben had the most personality of any of the characters and suddenly he's reduced to nothing more than anger he feels at this trauma that is never mentioned in more than one breath. No multitude of complex emotions like many survivors actually do feel. Nope, Ben's other characters traits disappear all so that he can move the plot forward with his anger. The final point I'm going to make is that Mira, Ben's love interest, is constantly romanticizing his childhood trauma.

The quote I pulled was this one, "Mira loved him more for the damage inflicted on him, the kind of damage that her touch might heal. Mira imagined that the bad couch had hollowed out parts of Ben for Mira to fill. A co-mingling that might suffocate Mira's own wrong urges"

Sure, the author used the word "wrong " that one instance. After the thirty-five romanticized words before it. It's not enough to have one word to describe the incorrect thoughts of your character, not when the entirety of the novel is made to make Mira look beautiful. Ben is constantly romanticizing her, talking about how she's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. Mira's own chapters, constantly pitch her as a beautiful, quirky soul who just wants to help her sister. There's a scene where she smothers a cat that's just totally glossed over. By not having Ben acknowledge how disturbed the Cillo's really were, the air of romanticism remains. There never was a realization that the girls were bad which meant that all Mira's thoughts remained beautiful and quirky in the eyes of readers. I'd like to point out that childhood molestation isn't beautiful or quirky.

I feel like that sums up all the things I hated about this book. Honestly, I don't think anyone should read this. Aside from my review, there are tons of one and two star reviews on this book that all talk about a lot of the same stuff as mine. Save yourself the time and effort and just skip this one.

An unusual and thought-provoking read. The beautiful broken girls of the title have a curious hold on those around them. Learning of what happened to them was intriguing, yet a little disappointing. Ben was so keen for there to be more to this story, and the ending felt curiously flat if we look at things from his perspective. This is the kind of book that needs a reread.

I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book tells the story of Ben Lattanzi, who gets a letter from his neighbor Mira a week after she dies. Ben was in love with Mira but she and her sister Francesca had died in what seemed very much to be a suicide (they had rocks in their pockets) at the quarry. Mira tells Ben to go find her notes to him in the 7 places that they had touched each other, to learn her story now after her death. And so Ben travels to the different places in town where they had touched, but each note he finds only confuses him more and more. Will he ever find out why Mira killed herself?
Overall this was not my favorite book. The story itself had a lot of potential and I especially liked the way the book was set up. Each chapter told Ben’s story of remembering where he and Mira had touched and him finding a new note and trying to figure out what the note means. Then the second part of each chapter is Mira telling her piece of the story from her life over the last year. I liked that format, it was just that for me the story had so many holes and so many extra parts that didn’t have anything to do with the story line. I didn’t feel like there was a lot of flow to the story line, it felt choppy and to be honest it was just overwhelmingly sad. And it felt like there was just a whole lot of extra crazy in the book and the characters. It wasn’t my favorite read lately, it wasn’t a bad story just didn’t appeal to me.

I enjoyed this book. Great suspense. Looking forward to read more books this author.

I'm currently finding it very difficult to review this book because
a) It was harrowing, deep and REALLY REALLY pulled you into the small town setting where two girls went into a lake and never came out.
And also b) While the writing in this book was deep and disturbing and EVERYTHING, I'm just not sure how I feel about the way the story ended.

Mira and Francesca Cillo are sisters. They are girls whose blood runs thicker than anything. What happens to one of them, happens to them both. Boys, Power and even Death.

Ben is the boy next door, and for the longest time, he's been in love with the younger Cillo sister.

A month after her death, he gets a letter addressed to him, a letter from a girl who jumped off a cliff with her sister and never flew up. It tells him to go to the seven places he touched here, the seven places where they hid what they were from prying eyes if he wants to know why.

If he wants to know why two beautiful girls with their whole lives ahead of them took their own lives.

Like I said before, what REALLY pulled me into the book was the writing - Kim Savage REALLY upped her game from After The Woods, and her writing KEPT ME HOOKED. It was heart-wrenching, filled with pain and beauty and unfairness and the underlying concept that WE DIDN'T KNOW EVERYTHING. I LOVED every minute of it - and I've never felt this was about writing style before. Ever.

Beautiful Broken Girls alternates between Ben's narration in the present and Mira's or Francesca's in the past - explaining how Ben finds the notes that Mira left him and what he thinks while it flashes back to Mira and Francesca, filling in the blanks.

For the first five notes, I WAS IN LOVE. It was a definite five star read, but soon after, I pieced together the ending and it all seemed kind of... off to me? I can't explain it, lest it ruin the book for you, but suffice to say that I wish the ending was something else.

A HAUNTED, HEART-WRENCHING BOOK WITH BEAUTIFUL WRITING THAT WILL LEAVE YOU THINKING ABOUT IT FOR A LONG TIME AFTER.

I tried really hard to like this book. It has such an interesting plot, and I got into it very quickly. But just as quickly I felt a lack of development and detail in the story that made it difficult to read. I think there was a lot of opportunity to explain some things or to develop characters, but that didn't happen. It felt entirely like dialogue and nothing else.

Did not finish. Written fine - just not a fan of religious type books, or those dealing with the undertones. Atmospherically beautiful from the first 50% that I did read though!

Kim Savage’s Beautiful Broken Girls is riveting but flawed

BEAUTIFUL BROKEN GIRLS by Kim Savage, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Feb. 21, 2017, Hardcover, $17.99 (young adult)

In Beautiful Broken Girls you meet Mira and Francesca Cillo are perfect by most people’s standards. They’re beautiful and popular, albeit overprotected by their father. They might be a little odd, but people don’t seem to mind too much. The world seemingly revolves around them until the night they disappear, drowning themselves in the quarry lake.

Days after Mira and Francesca’s deaths, Ben receives a letter from Mira. The letter sends Ben on a quest to find notes in the places where the two of them touched. You see, even though the Cillo girls appeared untouchable, Ben had broken through. He touched Mira’s palm, her hair, her chest, her cheek, her lips, her throat and her heart. As Ben collects Mira’s notes, he comes to realize how little of the girls he really knew. The Cillo’s had their secrets, and some secrets are better left alone.

Beautiful Broken Girls unfolds in the present and the past. You get to know the girls as they interact with friends and family, and Ben as he struggles to accept the position Mira has put him in.

I didn’t particularly like or care about the characters in Beautiful Broken Girls. Francesca seemed over the top; Mira too complacent; and Ben just kind of a mess. And yet, I couldn’t put the book down. It’s an unusual conundrum. I usually don’t spend my time on characters I don’t find compelling, but in this case, it’s the work as a whole that stuck with me.

What it comes down to is the masterful storytelling of Kim Savage. I read her novel After The Woods, in one sitting. The same is true of Beautiful Broken Girls. Kim has a way of capturing you and pulling you along for the ride, even if you don’t like where it’s going — as was the case with After The Woods — or question motives — Beautiful Broken Girls.

There’s a lot going on in Beautiful Broken Girls, and context can be slow in coming at times, but it’s still a strong mystery. Though I found myself swept up in Kim Savage’s story, it’s not one I’m likely to reread. I’d check this one out from the library before purchasing to make sure it’s something you really want to own.

Wow, if I'd known this book was going to be that good I would've read it a while ago. This book turned out to be fantastic, with plenty going on seeing the mystery unfold with each letter. The beginning was so great that as a reader I found it hard to put down.I loved getting that back and forth with past and present when it came to the girls. Then there was the different point of views,switching around getting to see things that were happening from different perspectives and seeing the secrets that were being kept.

I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I first picked up this book because I never read the description of. It had a beautiful cover enough to peak my interest, and I was also able to get a copy to review that I ended up decided to read this. With how interesting it turned out I'm going to end up going to the store to get myself a copy because a book this good needs to go on my shelves to reread some other time. Highly Recommend!

A book where everyone is broken. Great story development.