Then - Penelope Wendall was only fourteen when she gave birth to her baby daughter Reina. Because Penelope and her older sister Lindsey had grown up in the care system, Penelope had really wanted to give her daughter all the love that Penelope had never received from her own parents. But from the moment that she was born,all Reina did was scream and Penelope found that she couldn't summon up any love for her chld. In fact, she hated her daughter and she felt that the feeling was mutual. Penelope was convinced that there was something wrong with her daughter,something evil but no one would listen to what she trying to say. Then one morning, Reina mysteriously disappeared and Penelope found herself the number one suspect in a murder investigation.
Now - After changing her name to Nell Way, Penelope is living with her loving boyfriend and is the best selling author of two true crime novels. She hasn't told her partner the truth about her tragic past and never intends too. But when she goes to interview the woman who is going to be the subject of her next book, Nell is shocked when the woman asks her about her missing daughter. Then Nell and Lindsey are the victims of some terrifying incidents. Who would want to hurt the sisters? Could it be Lindsey's violent ex husband? Someone who was upset by one of Nell's controversial books? Or someone who knows the truth about what happened to Reina ten years ago?
The chapters of this utterly enthralling thriller flip back and forth between then and now and is voiced entirely from Penelope/Nell's perspectives. I couldn't help feeling a lot of empathy for Penelope during the chapters that were set in the past. I was eighteen when I gave birth to my oldest son,I brought him up on my own for five years and didn't have any support. Although Penelope and Reina lived with Reina's father and his parents,she also didn't have any real support. The father was able to carry on attending University whilst Penelope was trapped all day,every day with a screaming baby,no friends,no life and nobody listening to a word that she said. Essentially she was a child,who was trying to raise a child whilst going through the hormonal change that we all experience when we are teenagers. It raised the question,was both mother and daughter damaged in some way? Did Reina sustain some type of brain injury during her traumatic birth and no one could see it but Penelope? As for Nell in the chapters that were set in the present day, I had mixed feelings about her character,just like I had mixed feelings about her sympathy towards the mother who murdered her children in the bathtub. As a parent, I was horrified that Nell refused to criticise the woman's abhorrent behaviour but as a fan of crime thrillers,I know that there has been cases where parents have gone into dissociative fugues, have killed their children and then been shocked and upset when they discovered what they had done. There are many grey areas where mental health is concerned, there is a very thin line between sanity and being criminally insane.
The Broken Ones is a extremely well written debut thriller from a obviously very talented new author. I was hooked in from the first page and didn't want to put this brilliant book down. It is a mesmerising story of families, siblings, manipulation, deception, mental health and secrets which has some intense danger scenes, keeps the reader guessing and frantically turning the pages. The swapping between the two time frames is smooth and at no point interferes with the flow of the story. I loved this brilliant thriller and would have given it far more than five stars if I could. This is definitely going to be one of my favourite reads of this year. Very very highly recommended.
PUBLICATION DATE: 5th March 2020
PRINT LENGTH: 416 Pages
PUBLISHER: Viper
ASIN: BO7Z9NYFF
GENRE: Crime Thriller
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