Broken

Title: Broken

Author: Daniel Clay

Genre: Adult Fiction

Synopsis: Until that fateful afternoon, Skunk Cunningham had been a normal little girl, playing on the curb in front of her house. Rick Buckley had been a normal geeky teenager, hosing off his brand-new car. Bob Oswald had been a normal sociopathic single father of five slutty daughters, charging furiously down the sidewalk. Then Bob was beating Rick to a bloody pulp, right there in the Buckleys' driveway, and life on Drummond Square was never the same again.

This book was amazing. I loved it from the very beginning and to the very end. 

Daniel Clay grabs your attention from the very first page when he reveals that the main character, Skunk Cunningham, is in a coma! Clay pulls a Quentin Tarantino as he jumps back to the beginning and the reader is left to wonder, "How is the brutal beating of one teenage boy eventually leave an eleven-year-old girl in a coma?" 

It was such an amazing and unique style to read along and find how everything was connected, leading to Skunk's unfortunate state. It's a style I've only seen before in the TV show Seinfeld where several seemingly random events actually build off each other.

It made the reading highly enjoyable and exciting. So much so that it actually ties with Ghostgirl as my number one favorite... And it's his first novel!!

Skunk Cunningham

Strangely named after her mother's favorite English Rockband, Skunk Anansie, Skunk is the opening narrator by way of her thoughts. As we skip back to the beginning the point-of-view switches to the third person, with the exception of a few thoughts and elaborations by Skunk.

She may be fictional, but I love little Skunk Cunningham. She is so cute and innocent, with crushes, short-term thoughts, and a blunt view of the world. In just a matter of pages, you're hooked by the heartstrings.

Clay does a fantastic job sharing this little girl's mind with the world. There's no way the reader won't care about Skunk, which makes her condition hit you hard. 

Rick Buckley

Oh my God. Poor "Broken" Rick Buckley. His story has to be the saddest one I have read since Go Ask Alice. Clay takes you on a terrifying and heartbreaking journey through Rick's mind as he slowly loses his mind after Bob Oswald's brutal attack. 

It's really tricky to write a character that has gone through a trauma, especially if they develop a mental illness afterwards. Clay, despite this being his very first novel, does it flawlessly. He'll help you understand what Rick is thinking or imagining, while at the same time never explaining what is wrong with him. While a thought process may be revealed to the reader, we're still left at a loss trying to understand him.

Kind of like trying to understand the Joker. You may get the fact he thinks in chaos, and wants to "break" the Batman but you never fully understand him at all.

That is exactly what it's like reading about Rick Buckley.

This was such a fantastic novel, and to think it's a debut of Clay's work makes it all the better. Broken is my new favorite novel of all time, while Ghostgirl remains my favorite humorous/light-hearted novel.

I highly recomend everyone to pick the book up. It will blow you away. The only warning I can give as far as reading it is to take note of the genre: Adult Fiction. So be ready for heavy language (mostly from the Oswalds) and sexual content.

Pick this book up online at Barnes and Noble or (for all you Floridians) at your local Virgin Megastore!

I happily award Broken a perfect 5 out of 5 stars!!

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Next chosen read: INCANTATION by Alice Hoffman