Broken by A.E. Rought - Ashley's Pre-reading

*I received this book as an eARC from Strange Chemistry/Angry Robot on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

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Title: Broken
Author: A. E. Rought
Year Published: 2013

Synopsis: Imagine a modern spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where a young couple’s undying love and the grief of a father pushed beyond sanity could spell the destruction of them all.

A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry's boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetery and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.

When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she's intrigued despite herself. He's an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely... familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel's.

The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there's something very wrong with Alex Franks. And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks' estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.

Why?: I always love a good retelling, and this sounds so interesting. I haven't read a good Frankenstein retelling yet, and I'm really hoping this one does the original story justice while putting a new, modern spin on it.

Expectations: I expect a very dark novel, filled with lots of secrets and mystery. I don't really expect the mystery to be too in depth or very tangled, but I do expect there to be some things that are harder to figure out. Plus, some romance and some sort of zombie-like creatures.

Judging a book by its cover: This cover stands out quite a bit with all of the red, and I would probably at least pick it up off of a shelf. I think the girl looks a little too cartoon-ish though, so that probably could have been done a little bit better... but I love the cemetery and the gothic feel of the whole thing.


--Ashley