Horrible Toxic Girls

Review may contain very mild spoilers

Beautiful Broken Things
Written by Sara Barnard
Contemporary, Abuse, Mature Themes
Published February 25th 2016
322 Pages
Thank you to Pan Macmillan Australia
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★★
I was brave. She was reckless. We were trouble.

Best friends Caddy and Rosie are inseparable. Their differences have brought them closer, but as she turns sixteen Caddy begins to wish she could be a bit more like Rosie, confident, funny and interesting.

Then Suzanne comes into their lives, beautiful, damaged, exciting and mysterious, and things get a whole lot more complicated. As Suzanne's past is revealed and her present begins to unravel, Caddy begins to see how much fun a little trouble can be. But the course of both friendship and recovery is rougher than either girl realises, and Caddy is about to learn that downward spirals have a momentum of their own.
Caddy sees her almost sixteen years of life as a bland existence, comparing herself to those around her. Her sister Tarin is vivacious, outgoing and full if life but it hasn't always been that way. Tarin has been diagnosed with bipolar. while Caddy's best friend Rosie's father walked out on his family and her mother had lost a child. Two significant life events that Caddy believes has shaped their lives, making both Tarin and Rosie more interesting. And then Suzanne arrives in town. 

Suzanne and Rosie soon become friends, while smart, dependable Caddy feels as though she's been left behind. It isn't long before jealously has Caddy asking questions, why did Suzanne move and why does she live with her aunt? Suzanne represents a life Caddy wants, to find a boyfriend, lose her virginity and experience a significant life event. But as she asserts herself into Suzanne's life and leaves best friend Rosie behind, nothing could prepare Caddy for all the ways her life is about to spiral out of control.

Kelly's Thoughts... Err Rant

I'm a strong advocate for female friendships being represented in young adult novels, but this isn't what I had in mind. Beautiful Broken Things irritated me and I feel this is one book focused on the female teen friendships that readers could have done without.

The storyline is told through the eyes of Caddy, a wealthy private school student who's only complaint is that her life isn't interesting and her school uniform is hideous. She has two parents who care for her, she wants for nothing but yet compares herself to her older sister Tarin who is bipolar and best friend Rosie, having lost her infant sister and her father walking out on his family shortly thereafter.
'They're just horrible things that happened Cads. They don't make me more interesting than you.' But the thing was, they did.
For a girl who's supposedly intelligent, I'm not buying her excuse for a storyline. She was vapid, but she made no effort whatsoever to change her circumstances up until then. She envied her best friend Rosie with a jealously that set the tone for Beautiful Broken Things, and the storyline went downhill from there.

Her goals were to find a boyfriend, lose her virginity and experience a significant life event. Apparently being validated by male attention makes life more interesting. Who knew. So when new girl Suzanne arrives at the local public school where Rosie attends, the claws come out as Caddy is now feeling as though she's the third wheel. I can understand why she felt as though she was on the outer, she and Rosie have been best friends for over ten years and the new girl has impacted on their friendship. But Suzanne was lovely, she made the effort to invite Caddy along with her and Rosie, even when Rosie seemingly seemed to drift away from Caddy in favour of the new and exciting Suzanne.

There's a reason why Suzanne moved away from her parental home and now lives with her aunt. She's the victim of family abuse and neglect and Caddy takes it upon herself to investigate Suzanne online. She uses information she found through a Facebook update as a trigger, perhaps to embarrass the teen or as an act of revenge towards the girl who she felt had replaced her. It was so incredibly cruel and was used as a turning point for Caddy and Suzanne to become friends.

The crux of the stoyyline was the toxic and enabled friendship between the three girls, but especially that between Caddy and Suzanne. I liked Suzanne's character. She was multilayered and complex but needed a positive peer influence in her life. Unfortunately Caddy was not that influence.

Rosie begun to distance herself from Suzanne's erratic behavior, just when she needed a support network more than ever. She wasn't above slut shaming Suzanne for what seemed to be a casual sexual relationship while Caddy seized the opportunity to enable Suzanne, seeing her as little more than a fast track to making her life more interesting. It's made clear that Suzanne is using her bravado to cover up that she's unwell. She's been through an incredible amount of abusive trauma at the hands of her parents and needed professional intervention. But Caddy was toxic, both in her manipulation and enabling of Suzanne to push her further. I can't remember having loathed a character as much as Caddy before.

It was well written, which is in no way a criticism of the author herself, it was the storyline which I found troublesome and painted teen girls as such a fickle, toxic and dangerous beings.

The Final Verdict

Beautiful Broken Things just annoyed me. I just didn't feel anything for the characters seeing the storyline through the eyes of Caddy. She felt like a self entitled girl who latched onto Suzanne because she had a preconceived notion of what Suzanne was, a girl who chases fun and freedom when in fact, she was a broken soul who'd suffered at the hands of abuse. It painted teen girls as fickle, toxic beings who are basically dysfunctional codependents. Caddy wasn't just an enabler, she became incredible self indulgent and used Suzanne because she was new, exciting and was a fast track to her own significant life event.

While I could relate to Suzanne's upbringing in so many ways, the storyline would have been far more engaging from her point of view. Caddy wasn't boring, but her character just felt incredibly judgemental and cruel. Even being outside of the demographic of the intended audience, it just left me feeling frustrated and lacked a learning curve I was hoping the characters would achieve.

30 comments

  1. Ahh it's such a pity you didn't love it! I actually just borrowed it out from the library, and was kind of looking forward to reading it, but the characters just sound so annoying :S Hope you find something better!! <3

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    1. I hope you have more luck with it than I did Geraldine. It's well written, but the characters just grated on my nerves. Looking forward to seeing what you think of it.

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  2. Yes, see that's the thing I find with these type of stories. As unpleasant as the characters are, you at least expect some sort of learning curve. :( Pity it was this bad though.

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    1. There's the opportunity for the characters to learn and grow as individuals and I think had it taken advantage of that, I would have enjoyed it far more. But it just didn't seem to show character growth sadly.

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  3. Never been a fan of the Mean Girls mentality and thematics in books, so this hasn't reached my radar. Cady doesn't sound like a character worth knowing. I think I will get annoyed easily.

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    1. Me either Joy. Although I think it's important to have YA reads with a wide spectrum of friendships, when they're toxic and don't learn from their mistakes, I feel as though it's an opportunity missed and these three girls were horrid.

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  4. Wow, Caddy does not sound like an enjoyable character AT ALL - very immature and not someone I would want to read a story about. I'm sorry this didn't work for you. I do like friendships in YA novels, but a lot of them seem to be petty or back-stabbing like this book.

    -Lauren

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    1. She really wasn't Lauren. She was not only an enabler but also cruel and an opportunist. I love seeing positive friendships in young adult too, I think teens have enough to deal with that they don't need such toxicity in their fiction without characters learning about the consequences for their actions.

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  5. Ugh, this sounds like a mess! I hat ethat there aren't enough good female friendships in YA, so this book would definitely drive me nuts. Sorry this one didn't work for you.

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    1. We really do need more books with female friendships, but I just couldn't find Caddy likable or redeeming whatsoever. The storyline seemed to focus on Suzanne as being the deciding factor but for me it was Caddy and her jealousy and taking the opportunity to use Suzanne, even knowing she wasn't well. It frustrated me to no end.

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  6. Oh dear! I feel like the black sheep in actually LIKING this one. Although yep, I'd prefer POSITIVE depictions of female friendship any day. Still, I think toxic friendship is a big thing with teenage girls (speaking as still one of them...). But gah, good female friendship please!!

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    1. Oh no, I can't definitely see why you would have enjoyed it poppet. I loved the writing, it was the characters that just let me down. Even back when I was a teen, female friendships were the same mix of some being positive and uplifting and others toxic. But I think there still needs to be a learning curve too. Suzanne I feel did at the end, but Caddy seemed as though she was still pushing her right to the final page and I think that's what annoyed me most.

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  7. This sounds like a wreck, I wish there were more books about healthy female friendships, not mean girls. Thanks for your honest review, Kelly!

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    1. Thanks Ksenia. This one took me a while to mull over as I hate writing less than positive reviews. But the storyline just didn't sit well with me sadly. I'm in the minority though who didn't enjoy it and I'd still love to see others reading it and forming their own opinions on it. Nevertheless, it's a very powerful read.

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  8. I've seen this around, and you are not the first to mention the relationship between these girls. I'm going to be honest, I'm glad that I didn't pick this up. It sounds like something I would get frustrated and agitated with.

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    1. Most definitely frustrating sadly, but still a powerful read too. You might have a difference experience than I had with it though, as so many other readers have loved it's honesty.

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  9. Oh man, after Jenna's review I was sure that this wouldn't be for me but I am just in awe by the toxic female friendship presented in the novel. I mean Caddy sounds absolutely horrible and the fact that they bond over embarrassing another girl? This is just horrible all round. Thanks for the review Kelly, I'll be avoiding this one!

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    1. Sadly, I just couldn't find any redeeming qualities within the girls, especially Caddy. Suzanne was a product of her environment and her actions although troubled, felt like a cry for help. But Caddy, gosh she was infuriating.

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  10. I enjoyed this a lot more than you. I didn't mind the toxic relationship and kinda think Caddy's immaturity and naiveté was what made her so pliable. She SO wanted something exciting in her life (not realising what she had was fine!) that she fell under Suzanne's spell so easily.

    My biggest problem was that some of Suzanne's situation didn't entirely seem feasible and for a long time I questioned whether something really had happened with her father - why people hadn't intervened earlier etc...

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    1. I had thought the same actually, I kept expecting for more secrets surrounding her move to be released too. I interpreted the storyline a different though. I think Suzanne was so desperate to have a friend and that support, that Caddy was the one who took advantage of the situation. Not that being ill was an excuse for Suzanne, but Caddy just seemed to take full advantage and asserted herself into her life through jealously and then using her on her way to finding that significant life event. I was hoping by the end Caddy would have found that important life lesson, but even up until the last page it just didn't seem she grasped the toxic web of friendship she was in the middle of sadly.

      I'm so glad you enjoyed it though, it was definitely a powerful read.

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  11. Oh gosh — I'm lucky enough to never have experienced such toxic female friendships, so reading about Caddy and her manipulative ways makes me feel a little ill. I know that there are people like this in the world, and some may say, 'Oh they're just being teenagers'...but no. No one should rightly be behaving in this way, it all comes to their upbringing and being taught to distinguish between right and wrong. Caddy sounds like an awful human being...I don't think I would be able to stomach the whole book. Great review Kels!

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    1. Completely agree Joy. The issue with Caddy though, was that she seemingly had a wonderful upbringing with two very supportive parents, but yet took it for granted even after knowing what Suzanne had been through. It just wasn't for me sadly.

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  12. It's always such a shame when problematic plotlines go together with solid writing ... had that feeling with ACOTAR and it's so frustrating. *sighs* I guess sometimes we just prefer not to see certain things in books? Thanks for the candid review!

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    1. Thanks Alyssa. I found so many issues with this one but still encourage others to give it a try. Reading is so subjective and although it wasn't for me, I have no doubt many readers will really enjoy it.

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  13. It sounds like this would have benefited from being by Suzanne's POV and not Caddy's - who sounds like an awful lot of hard work for the reader when she's so unlikeable :(

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    1. I thought that same Wattle. It would have made for a more compelling read.

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  14. omg sorry to hear that..i saw this book at my local ibrary last month and i was attracted by the cover. i was about to borrow it! thanks for your review, now im not sure whether i should give this one a shot. maybe ill prioritize the other book first

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    1. The cover is absolutely gorgeous, but sadly it just didn't work for me. think I just prefer to see strong, positive female friendships in young adult and although I know these friendships can be toxic, there just didn't feel as though there was a learning curve there sadly. Looking forward to seeing what you think of it.

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  15. Una, it just seemed that you couldn't get into this one AT. ALL. The main characters sounds super annoying.. I. JUST. CAN'T. The fact altho she has low standard of herself and what she actually wants is what I have a problem with. She just seems to much just like the plot but the cover is pretty though. ;)

    Thanks for a lovely review/rant. I alway love hearing your thoughts. <3

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    1. The cover is really stunning, but you're right, I just couldn't get into it. At all. Just the way the friendships between the girls were portrayed and how quickly someone like Caddy went from bland and uninteresting to toxic mean girl didn't sit well with me.

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