The Broken Girls
By: Simone St. James / Narrated By: Rebecca Lowman
Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
I can see where others might have found this trope-heavy, but I listened to it all in one sitting!
Okay, so I understand where other reviewers may’ve had problems with The Broken Girls. It takes place in Vermont and follows parallel timelines, first in 1950, later in 2014, and it all features a ghastly boarding school, haunted and operating in 1950, then completely defunct, in shambles when a gruesome discovery is made in current times.
in 1950? Yes, it’s a group of four friends, and each fits a stereotypical “victim” of circumstance mold. All suffer in some way from PTSD, whether it’s by Mom almost drowning them, by seeing way too much trauma, or even by coming from one of WWII’s lesser known (At the time) concentration camps. And in 2014? There’s the bad guy who spills it all to the soon to be victim, how he did the earlier evil deed, why he did it, blah blah blah. Yeah, I get it: It could all add up to an eye roller of a story. Then you’ve got the cops vs. journalists issue, and perhaps it was all too much.
Ah, but for me, that’s where author Simone St. James kinda sorta showed some good writing chops. Because for me regarding the group of friends, each was handled as an individual in her own right, with fears and doubts and a past already full of stuff that’ll haunt you, as each was developed in individualized chapters. The listener gets to know them as people first before they become friends, and one can see how they’d start to draw together in solidarity and form a bond. Further, the stronger their bond becomes, the less one sees them as victims. They become figures of strength and action and decisiveness. Regarding the tell-all bad guy, I was so taken with the haunting of the Idlewild Hall, and the unfolding events and actions, that I didn’t mind it. That said, however, perhaps I should remind one and all right here that I’m not a big Mystery reader and I don’t like reading with the trying-to-figure-whodunnit thing in mind.
The book opens with a 1950’s death as prologue, then goes into the first chapter where we see Fiona, the main protagonist, and we discover that she’s a woman who has NOT gotten over the murder of her sister 20 years earlier. She’s drawn to the decrepit Idlewild Hall, decides to do a story on its recent purchase, the plans to renovate it, and the discovery of a skeleton of a former student sets her up on a journey to figure out who the girl was and what happened to her. Then the book begins its back and forth between eras, where four girls suffer the oppressiveness and mistreatment at the boarding school.
And then there’s the ghost of Mary Hand, tying each and every era together, being seen and bringing visions to those she haunts, all as she glides in a black dress, black veil.
What I like about St. James is that story is first and foremost. Romance comes off as second, and the hauntings are just so much icing on a pretty good cake. Mary Hand is woven into the story, making things creepy just when you weren’t expecting it cuz you were just wandering along, immersed in what the characters were up to at any given moment then WHAM! Creepy black-clad ghost who shows you your greatest suffering.
So anyway, a good book about women becoming strong, learning to trust and lean on others. Rebecca Lowman does an admirable job with the narration, keeping things dramatic when they need to be, toned down when the story calls for that also. My only gripe with her is that her voices for the males, especially our 2014 hero, come off as rather flat and kinda scratchy; she doesn’t voice them as sensitively as she does the woman, all whom we come to care for.
I couldn’t wait to text my friend who suggested it as the story unfolded, as this is a satisfyingly spooky experience that ya want to share with others.
And Simone St. James? Well, I’d already been impressed with her when I listened to her Silence for the Dead, also where story comes first (Plus it has the AWEsome Mary Jane Freaking Wells as narrator!). So it just left me with a hankering to really get at another book from her. Seeing as she always, ‘twould appear, has strong leading female(s), I’d say Women’s History Month is a GREAT time to make the grand excuse that: I’m listening to another of her audiobooks cuz I’m taking one for the team!
I’m deLIGHTed to be of service…
And You’re Welcome!
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