Heyo Bookaholics!
New Year, Same Books, New TBR!
Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by Pan Macmillan Australia and #OzYABloggers as a review copy for a blog tour.
I’m back! This isn’t part of our usual scheduled programming but I promised to deliver you a review for Fierce Fragile Hearts by Sara Barnard today. This book made me laugh, cry, and contemplate life in different ways.
ABOUT THE BOOK: Fierce Fragile Hearts is the stunning companion novel to Sara Barnard's YA bestseller Beautiful Broken Things. It is about leaving the past behind, the friends who form your future, and learning to find love, in all its forms. Two years after a downward spiral took her as low as you can possibly go, Suzanne is starting again. Again. She's back in Brighton, the only place she felt she belonged, back with her best friends Caddy and Rosie. But they're about to leave for university. When your friends have been your light in the darkness, what happens when you're the one left behind?
Piggy-backing off of yesterday’s post where shared with you an interview I had with Sara Barnard, the author of the novel I will be reviewing today. I was lucky enough to receive this novel from Pan Macmillan Australia as a part of a blog tour for the release of the novel which came out today!
THE REVIEW!
I’d give this book every star in the world if I could. The raw emotion packed into this novel hit my heart in a place that mad it feel things that deep down I didn’t want to and open up old wounds that I wanted to stay closed but it also healed everything in the process. Sara Barnard knows how to write a knockout, crying in bed at midnight novel that both tears the reader apart and puts them back together again while teaching them something valuable about love, life and relationships of both the toxic and precious kind.
A small PSA here about Suzanne the protagonist and how she speaks of herself. If you don’t know what you’re going into when you start this book, I will warn you that her self talk is negative and may be relatable to some readers. I found that I related to some ways in which she spoke about herself and found it very confronting in the fact that it was such a raw and real way, that I never knew it was possible for someone to put those words that are spoken in one’s mind on to paper for another to read. It wasn’t all in her words but in her actions. As someone who is stuck in their own head, you become so self-absorbed with your own self-hate and false reality that it becomes truth and it’s not until someone forcefully expresses their concern things begin to change. Slowly; and not without many many relapses and mistakes. I love how in the end, Suzie learnt ways in which to get out of her own head and better herself.
I loved being able to see all sides of the friendship (even if it was all in Suzie’s point-of-view) it worked especially well since it was so realistic. Suzie’s friends had stood by her through everything, even those times when she ignored them entirely. The fallouts and recovery of the friendship created so much tension and was enjoyable to read, as opposed to being boring and one-sided like other books I’ve read. The friends weren’t cut from Suzie’s story and this conflict actually helped her grow and be ready for when things did fall back in to place.
Her character development happened through an unexpected friendship by allowing her to be selfless and caring for someone other than herself. This gave her purpose and taught her to care for herself by caring for another. She grew and learnt over the course of the novel yet she had relapsed into bad habits but this only made her stronger and more determined to make a conscious effort to better herself. At times, if she wasn’t holding on for herself, she did it for others. For love, family, and friends that love her and she came to accept and understand their love. I love the moral of learning through relapsing because recovery isn’t always going to be easy.
Finding an unlikely friend took her to unexpected places and allowed her to meet new people, put herself into unexpected situations which in turn lead her to find her purpose in life. This ended the novel on the happiest note. Nothing cheesy, she didn’t magically get better or not relapse ever again. No, she is imperfect but working towards getting better and that’s what makes her perfect.
FYI I cried so so much and that just made me love he novel even more!
★ RATING! ★
I rate this novel a massive 5/5 stars ★★★★★! I want to read the first book in the series Beautiful Broken Things and I hope it breaks my heart as much as this one did!
THE INTERVIEW!
You can read my interview with the author Sara Barnard by clicking on the image below or on this link!
Pick up FFH tomorrow and let me know your thoughts as soon as you finish!
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With Love Bree xx
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