[Review] All Our Broken Pieces - L.D. Crichton

Summary: Lennon Davis doesn't believe in much, but she does believe in the security of the number five. If she flicks the bedroom light switch five times, maybe her new LA school won't suck. But that doesn't feel right, so she flicks the switch again. And again. Ten more flicks of the switch and maybe her new stepfamily will accept her. Twenty-five more flicks and maybe she won't cause any more of her loved ones to die. Fifty more and then she can finally go to sleep. Kyler Benton witnesses this pattern of lights from the safety of his tree house in the yard next door. It is only there, hidden from the unwanted stares of his peers, that Kyler can fill his notebooks with lyrics that reveal the true scars of the boy behind the oversize hoodies and caustic humor. But Kyler finds that descriptions of blond hair, sad eyes, and tapping fingers are beginning to fill the pages of his notebooks. Lennon, the lonely girl next door his father has warned him about, infiltrates his mind. Even though he has enough to deal with without Lennon's rumored tragic past in his life, Kyler can't help but want to know the truth about his new muse. (Pub Date: May 07, 2019)

A mix of Beauty and The Beast, Phantom of the Opera, and Romeo & Juliet, plus a real talk about how to live mental health issues, especially OCD.

Lennon has OCD and this only got worse when her passed away in a car accident—for which she feels responsible.She now needs to live all the way in Los Angeles with her father's new family, which includes an evil stepsister and a charming mysterious neighbor. Enters Kyler, whose face has a horrible scar from a fire he survived when an infant. The two get each other and soon a romance develops, to the distaste of both families, who believe it's not healthy for either of them.

I'm torn between calling this interesting and a bit boring. Because I thought how both teenagers' issues were presented to be interesting yes. But then we're left with this weird romance, constantly compared to R&J's tragedy. Which really put me off. (Don't get me wrong, their personal issues were indeed big, but the drama wasn't about them, but about how their parents didn't like them together... BORING!)

Considering the intended audience are teenagers and I remember liking some drama back then, I can see it not bothering them. For me, I wasn't ever into emo culture and I'm past all that drama too, so it just made me go, WHYYYY??? It just seemed too little for too much reaction, especially considering all the real problems they'd been through before. Though I'm probably that bothered because way more than half the book goes on and on and on about the same (non-)issue, I'd prefer it if it took less space in the story.

But this book has many up sides. Lennon's stepmother is my favorite character. She punctuates from the beginning she's no evil stepmother, and the book shows that to us again and again how cool she is. Kudos! And I liked the parts about music, the lives. Above all, the approach on mental health. They focused on how people treat those with those issues and it was an eye-opener to me. I really like it in the beginning when Lennon explains to her little brother how she feels about OCD and mentions how her father definitely didn't know how to explain it. That was a very memorable scene.

I do think there's a public for this and it did add something, but it could have been much more with better editing.


Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.


Rating: 3 out of 5.