Amelia Kahaney

Amelia Kahaney's The Brokenhearted is a gorgeous, gritty, and imaginative take on the superhero story. Anthem Fleet, talented ballerina and heir to the Fleet fortune, has always been closely guarded by her parents in their penthouse apartment. Lured by the handsome and dangerous Gavin, Anthem is drawn into the dark and exhilarating world on the wrong side of town. But when the couple runs into trouble, Gavin goes missing and Anthem winds up dead . . . only to awaken in an underground lab with a bionic heart ticking in her chest. Now she can run faster, jump higher, fight better. But the only thing that matters to her is getting Gavin back. And when she uncovers the sinister truth behind those she trusted the most, she is determined to use her newfound powers for the ultimate revenge.

Set in the ruined fictional landscape of Bedlam, a Gotham-like city, this tale of heartbreak and revenge is both gripping and cinematic.… (meer)

MANY-SPOILED REVIEW. ONLY THE WORST OF THE SPOILERS ARE CONTAINED IN THE SPOILER-CATCHERS. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Plot: 4/5
So, the first half of this book is slow and boring and really not interesting. First we meet our heroes: Anthem Fleet, her friend, Zahra, and her new boyfriend Gavin. And then we know Gavin for all of ten pages. And Anthem professes her undying love for him, very melodramatically. Then he’s kidnapped *dun dun DUN*. And then, our hero, Anthem Fleet is racing home to convince her parents to shell out the ransom money… then she falls off a bridge into an icy river. Fortunately, a kind jogger who knows a mad scientist happens to be there at the time and she is saved by the jogger’s mad scientist friend. And then much worry over boyfriend commences and takes up about a third of the book.
I was not very impressed with that third.
Then, Gavin *dies* and our hero, Anthem Fleet, falls into a depression which is not only boring but threatens to end her life due to torpor. Eventually, the friendly jogger Ford comes by and knocks some sense into her and THEN things start picking up. Our hero starts working her way down a list of the names of Gavin’s kidnappers, going all vigilante and basically trussing them all up for the police and generally being pretty badass.
And then, somewhere towards the end, there is a plot twist that just blew my mind. See, I’d sort of suspected that Gavin was working with the kidnappers, because he knew about that laughing gas bomb RIGHT BEFORE it went off, which made him seem kind of shady, and I just I also had this FEELING that it was all a plan that he and the kidnappers had concocted. But then he sorta died and I sorta doubted, but there was still that feeling. But I never, NEVER suspected that he was the leader of the ENTIRE FRICKING SYNDICATE! Anyways, this plot twist went back and made the entire first half SO MUCH BETTER. Like, I’m not even kidding, for PAGES after that plot twist I was still saying “Well, that—that just makes it all better.”
Yeah. So I mean, I’m sort of torn between giving this portion of the grade a proficent or and excellent. I mean the Plot Twist was excellent. It made everything about this book all shiny and glittery and amazing. But did it really have to be that boring for the first half? I don’t know.

Characters: 4.5/5
Anthem: Our hero. The, as the description tells us, ballerina/cyborg. Not quite cyborg and the ballerina thing really doesn’t play any sort of meaningful role in the plot, but whatever. For the first half, when she was all wracked with worry or mopey, I was really frustrated her. But then she became badass, and I like her now. Also, pretty ballsy of the author making a main character in YA book actually kill real people? Even if they were criminals? Ballsy, man.
Zahra: The classic best friend. Who, as best friends tend to do, got left out of the loop. WHY CAN’T MAIN CHARACTERS COMMUNICATE AND KEEP THE BFF’s IN THE LOOP?!?!?
Gavin: I’m going to talk about something that will seem completely unrelated, but it is, just bear with me.
I used to like Tyler from the Vampire Diaries TV show. He used to be cool, and play an active role in the plot, and have conversations with other characters and… well, he used to be character. But then, around the end of season three he left for the applachian mountains, I think it was. And since then, he’ll come back out of the blue once every ten or so episodes, stir up some trouble and promptly take off again. Because of this, I now HATE Tyler. He USED to be a character. Now, however, he is a plot device. I don’t like it when characters are used at plot devices and not characters.
This was Gavin. Unlike Tyler, though, he never was a character. From the moment we met him at that party to the moment he ‘died’ halfway through the book, he was a plot device. Although, I’ll admit, when we met him again towards the end because of the Plot Twist, I REALLY liked him
Serge: This was just such a cool person.
Ford: from the moment Gavin ‘died’ I pretty much knew that Ford was the REAL love interest. For one, he was a character. For two, he was a male. And for three, I just liked him, so yeah. That.
Jax: Classic mad scientist, and so cool!
Will: had the first truly GOOD line of dialogue in this entire book. The first line of dialogue that made me laugh out loud and just marvel at the wit. For that, I like him. Also, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I tend to really like, like, bad guys. I don’t what it is, but they’re all just so… cool.

The romance: 3/5
Eh… Well, like I said, I DID NOT like plot device Gavin. And while I did like Ford and the romance developed with him, it just… I don’t know, but it seemed weird. I can’t explain it.

Overall grade: 11.5/15
But, you know what, I’m going to change that to 12.5/15, just because of the fact that my mind was blown.
Will I read the next one? DEFINITELY.
… (meer)

Anthem Fleet has lived a privileged life on the North Side (the good side). She has trained her whole life to be a prima ballerina. One evening, she was supposed to go with her parents to a charity fundraiser, but was convinced by her friend to go to a party. Anthem meets Gavin, a poor artist who lives on the other side of town. The police target the party and fire feargas into the crowd, scattering the party goers. As Anthem begins to discover that the South Side is not what it appears and her life is in danger. Anthem is rescued and her life is forever changed because of a bionic heart. This bionic heart is experimental and no one knows how things will turn out for Anthem, including the doctor who saved her life.

This story is sort of a dystopian setting. It’s set in the future where the government and the police have a lot of power. Any rebellions are silenced and the undesirables are kept on the other side of town. There is a bit of mystery, adventure, action and romance. I think the characters are well developed and I like that some of the minor characters are crucial to the storyline. The reader struggles right along with the main character between the cultured world of ballet and the gritty world of the streets.

There are some references to drugs, prostitution, murder and sex, but not anything too graphic for YA fiction. I think this is a good addition to a high school library. It’s fun, fast-paced and entertaining. I think it could be used for book club or free choice reading. There is a sequel.… (meer)