I have gone around and around on how to rate Broken, and how to review it. Part of me wanted to rate it low because it’s just so insanely dark and graphic and disturbing and because of that, difficult to read.

But, Betsy Reavley has done a superb job of writing both an unreliable narrator and surprising me with one of the biggest twists ever, so no matter how much I had to skim because her writing wormed its way so far under my skin it wasn’t funny, it is an extremely well-written book. But - all my trigger warnings apply. All. Of. Them. Like, seriously. I’m saying it again, so you can’t say you weren’t warned.

Our main character, Annabel, is trying to find her way after being released from a mental institution. She finds her way to the Suffolk Coast, with the vague knowledge that girls have gone missing and turned up tortured and maimed beyond recognition. When she meets the handsome Jude, she starts to plan a new life, even while having disturbing and graphic dreams of pain and torture that she can’t quite decipher. Is her manic depressive out of control? Or have the stories of the murdered girls affected her that much?

I can’t say too much without giving the whole thing away, so I’m just going to send you back to those first two paragraphs. When this book flips the script, it’s simultaneously mind-blowing and horrific. I’ve read some dark stuff and my tolerance for the twisted is pretty high, so I really have to give Ms. Reavley all the props in the world for finally giving me something that really tripped my “nope” meter!