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Beautiful Broken Things

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About this listen

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 realizes, and Caddy is about to learn that downward spirals have a momentum of their own.

Read by Charlie Sanderson, Beautiful Broken Things is a moving story of friendship from debut author Sara Barnard, shortlisted for the YA Book Prize and selected as part of Zoella's Book Club.

 Difficult Situations Family & Relationships Fiction Friendship Growing Up Literature & Fiction Funny

Critic reviews

I felt like I was living this book.
This book is exquisite, and exactly what YA needs. Books about female friendships! I still can't get over how REAL this story was, every single part of it was perfectly realised. It was so sophisticated in how it was written, with beautiful BEAUTIFUL prose, and yet it never once dragged and I raced through it. It deals with difficult topics with sensitivity and humour, and doesn't once patronise the subjects it tackles. I am so excited to see what Sara writes next. This author is one to watch!
If you loved Jennifer Niven's 'All the Bright Places' this is a book you need to get your hands on. . . This is a book where you just love the characters, you ache at the complexities of their feelings, you read with baited breath, just wanting what might be impossible, for everything to be ok.
Teenage girls are a mystery - even when you've been one! This tale of three such creatures - Caddy, Rosie and Suzanne - attempts to unravel their secrets and the result is quite something.
A moving, exhilarating YA novel about teen friendship... any reader who wants warmth, hilarity, vivid highs, lows and heartbreak should grab this book, which proves that feminist doesn't mean humourless and female-focussed doesn't mean lightweight.
All stars
Most relevant
I've heard people talking about this book for a while, having only heard good things about it, so when I finally got round to picking it up I opted for the audio version as it was narrated by Charlie Sanderson, I've listened to other books she's narrated and I love the emotion she brings to the story.
This is my first book by Sara Barnard though so despite the recommendations I really had no idea what to expect.

I loved Caddy right away, I think many years ago I was Caddy, longing to experience all the things the world tells us we should be experiencing, wanting to be more interesting, but not knowing how to do that. But I felt like Caddy was lost, looking for purpose. When Caddys best friend Rosie first introduces her to Suzanne Caddy is incredibly insecure, worried that she'll lose Rosie to the more confidant, more beautiful Suzanne. But when Caddy learns Suzannes secret she begins to realise that perhaps maybe there's room for another friend in her life.

Beautiful Broken Things was indeed a fantastic read, filled with the highs and lows of friendships, happy moments, sad moments, utterly heartbreaking moments and all the real moments in between. Barnard has given us an in-depth look at the lives of three girls who have more than just boys on their mind, despite Caddys determination to lose her virginity, and has gotten to the nitty gritty of Suzannes secret, but without sensationalising it or diminishing its impact. And without waving a magic wand and making it all better. I will certainly be looking to purchase a paperback copy for my shelf and will be looking out for more from Barnard.

Hard to put down

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narrator Is phenomenal and the story is smooth and steady with great highs and lows

loved it

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