Comments for Broken For You

Broken For You: 01/12/14

Broken For You by Stephanie Kallos is about Margaret Hughes trying to piece together a family for herself on learning that she has a terminal illness. The first of her new family is a young woman, Wanda Schultz, who has come west in search of her wayward boyfriend.

Along with these broken families and broken people coming together, there is the theme of broken things. Or rather, taking the risk of breaking things as part of living life to the fullest. Here, the things are the many mementos (most of them fragile) that Margaret has filled her house with.

While I normally love books about oddballs coming together, this one was set up with too much earnestness. It reads like an after school special for the mature set. There's no drama, no conflict — just an overwhelming conceit that the reader should care about the coming together of these characters either because it's literature or because it's heartwarming.

For a better version of an unusual cast of characters coming together under one roof to form an unconvention family, I recommend Penny Dreadful by Laurel Snyder.

Two stars

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