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    The Brokenhearted
    The Brokenhearted
    The Brokenhearted
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Brokenhearted

    Written by Amelia Kahaney

    Narrated by Rebecca Gibel

    3/5

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    About this audiobook

    Perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles and Marie Lu's Legend series, 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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 8, 2013
    ISBN9780062280473
    Author

    Amelia Kahaney

    Amelia Kahaney grew up in San Diego, California, and Hilo, Hawaii. After graduating from UC Santa Cruz, she moved to New York City and received her MFA in fiction writing at Brooklyn College. Her short fiction has been anthologized in The Best American Nonrequired Reading and appears in several literary magazines. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and son.

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    Reviews for The Brokenhearted

    3/5

    32 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      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.
    • 1/5
      Anthem Fleet, ballerina extraordinaire, is privileged with having millionaire parents and a cushy apartment. She rarely sees the real world until she meets cute Gavin, who is poor and from the wrong side of town. After they illicitly sneak out a few times, she spends the night over at his place. In the middle of the night, a gang of criminals busts in, find out who she is, kidnaps her boyfriend, and demands that she pay an exorbitant ransom to get him back. She rushes home and ends up falling into a river and having her heart replaced by a machine.The premise is pretty cool and the writing is pretty engaging. Anthem Fleet is a horrible name, but I was willing to overlook it. The world building is nonexistent. I have no idea where it takes place or when. The only differences between the present and the book world is the weird gas mask gangs going around and gassing people and the horrible lingo for drugs. I read about the first 100 pages. Anthem got her new heart from a random illegal doctor who just so happened to have a bionic heart that fit Anthem's body. She wakes up a few days later and sneaks away, totally fine. Not slowed down at all by the very major surgery that REPLACED her heart. She runs home and no one thinks to have her examined even though she was missing for days. Then, on top of this other ridiculousness, the new heart somehow makes her crazy beautiful and have super powers. The whole thing is also based on Anthem being head over heels in love with Gavin, which I just don't buy after so little time and development. I didn't hate the book, but since logic didn't play into the story anywhere, I just put it down and started a new one.
    • 4/5
      This did not turn out the way I thought it would and wasn't what I expected, which was a love story mixed with some other stuff. What it really turned out to be about was a pretty tough girl named Anthem Fleet who ends up becoming a pretty ka character. As a result of what happens to Gavin, Anthem uses her new found powers for revenge, and the remainder of the book is pretty dark. It definitely does not feel like a stand alone title. I hope, if there is a second, that it comes out soon because I don't want to forget all the details of this one. Too long, and I might since there wasn't enough stickiness to make it gel in my mind indefinitely. I liked it though.
    • 3/5
      When I first read the summary for this book, I was so excited. Superhero stories have never really been my thing(I’ve STILL never seen The Dark Night, Spiderman, the Avengers, etc.), but I did like the sound of this one and the comparison to Cinder, which is one of my all time favorite books. Then the early reviews started rolling in, and they were low, lots of 1 stars and DNF’s, so it was with trepidation that I picked up this book. And you know what? It wasn’t perfect, and it had a lot of problems as well as things I hate, but at the same time. . . I enjoyed it. I can see why others disliked it, and I won’t say it’s the best written story ever, but it entertained me.

      So let’s start with the problems, and then I’ll talk about why, despite those things, I liked this book anyway. The world-building in The Brokenhearted left a lot to be desired. Basically, the world is this: Athem Fleet belongs to a rich family from the good side of town, and the bad side of town–well, let’s just say it’s not someplace you want to ever find yourself alone. There’s a large crime syndicate that controls most of that side of town, and you can’t walk almost a step with something being stolen. Fair enough. But even though I read this entire novel, the world-building pretty much NEVER goes past that. How did the town become so split? I don’t know. Where’s the rest of the world? I don’t know. So yeah, the world-building, not so great.

      The second problem I had was with the secondary characters. Anthem was an interesting enough main character. She wasn’t the most intriguing person ever and she was definitely playing the part of annoying main character at times, but I did like her character development as she comes to term with what her new heart means and the power it gives her(though, I have to admit parts of this were sketchy too. There were certain things Anthem could do with her new heart that she couldn’t before, and a lot of them required suspension of disbelief). But most of the other characters were written as stock characters. I didn’t find it awful, I just didn’t think they were well-rounded. They were all just there to fulfill a purpose in the story and then move on.

      And finally, the last major problem in The Brokenhearted was the insta-love, which I think is by far the biggest turn-off for many people. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say The Brokenhearted has the BIGGEST case of insta-love in any book I’ve read, ever, and it almost made me DNF in the beginning. Fortunately, the plot later on kind of deals with that and it became less of a problem, but it’s by far my least favorite thing about this book and the first quarter was hard to get through for that alone.

      After all those flaws, I know it’s amazing that I didn’t hate this book, but I really didn’t, because I still found the plot really engaging. Well written? Not necessarily. But fun. Some things were cliche and made me roll my eyes in disbelief, but I still enjoyed it because I just found the concept of a bionic heart so intriguing and watching Anthem turn into this girl who really knows NOTHING about the world around her to being the girl going around handing out justice because she has the means to do so now. And while sometimes reading The Brokenhearted was like reading a B movie, cliche and stilted dialogue in all, it was still fun.

      I actually really enjoyed the ending of The Brokenhearted as well. I’m normally so good at predicting plot twist that few books give me a jaw-dropping moment, but this one TOTALLY did, even if later I thought I should have seen it coming. So that surprise factor was enough for me alone! And the ending was a bit vague and seemed to be leading to another story, so I’m intrigued. I felt that Anthem had gone on a journey in The Brokenhearted, and I liked it.

      Final Impression: The Brokenhearted was one of those books that had SO many flaws that could have made it a terrible read, but I did enjoy it anyway! It’s not going on my favorites list anytime soon, don’t get me wrong, but I did like the plot and Anthem’s character, even if so much of it was cliche. Major problems, of course–lack of world-building, not the best character development, and perhaps the worst, insta-love, but it was a fun read for the month. I can’t say I’d recommend buying this one, but I found it better than I expected.
    • 3/5
      It wasn’t earth shattering amazeballs but it was okayAnthem (I hate her name so much) Fleet is a promising ballerina in the most elite dance company with a super hot boyfriend Will also known as the mayor’s son, a witty best friend, and she also happens to be the daughter of one of the richest power couple in the city. Like a normal teenager she decides to sneak out to the shady side of town with her best friend to go to a party which is where she meets the sexy and mysterious Gavin. A relationship quickly develops (within a week, not even kidding) and she falls HARD for him (ultimately giving her virginity to him…after a week of knowing him smh), unfortunately the gang in the novel known as the Syndicate gets whiff of rich girl Anthem hanging out at Gavin’s place where they’re resting after some “sexy times” and kidnap him for a ransom only she must pay. Stupid girl I mean Anthem freaks out and commits suicide by jumping off a bridge only to be resurrected by a crazy scientist who gives her a bionic heart that gives her more strength than she had before. Not to get all spoilery but something happens to Gavin and it sends Anthem into a whirlwind of sorrow and anger and she goes all vigilante against Syndicate’s butt by plucking off their members one by one.I feel so betrayed. It’s like when I take a mouthful of a chocolate chip cookie only to find that it was a nasty oatmeal cookie with raisins in it. Anthem could be compared to Batman in the sense that she became a vigilante after a traumatic experience and similar to Cinder in the fact that they have synthetic body parts but IT IS NOT EVEN CLOSE TO ENTERTAINING OR THOUGHT PROVOKING OR ANYTHING. I wouldn’t tell a person not to read this book but if you want an action pact romance novel go read Cinder instead. Or if you want a crime fighting dramatic novel go read Dark Knight or even watch the Batman films instead because this book was really disappointing. I would not suggest it at all. I knew Anthem was stupid from the start and I was glad Gavin died for her stupidity almost to the point that when it turned out he was the big boss of the whole damn operation I laughed for hours, like I cracked a smile when I thought about it at work and didn’t care that everyone looked at me like I was plotting a murder. I mean there was even a small arc about her dead sister being a part of the anti-gang thing called The Hope but it was just kind of an afterthought…kind of like the world building in general… It’s a shame the idea wasn’t executed better because it could have been a really good story.
    • 3/5
      When seventeen-year-old Anthem Fleet is suddenly transformed into an all-powerfull superhero, she must balance her old life with the dark secret of who she has become.
    • 4/5
      Title: The BrokenheartedAuthor: Amelia KahaneyRelease Date: October 8, 2013Publisher: Harper TeenSource: Edelweiss DRCGenre(s): YA Science Fiction, YA Fiction, Superheroes, Pseudo-Dystopian FutureRating: ★★★☆☆Review Spoilers: High (Get a very brief, spoiler-free review in the first paragraph)The Dark Knight meets Cinder in this gripping and cinematic story of heartbreak and revenge.With a tagline like that how can you go wrong? Let me say up front that the Brokenhearted certainly didn’t ‘go wrong’ and it was an enjoyable read – even if it did try a bit too hard to be Batman at times. It was really nice to see a female superhero kicking ass and taking names – we don’t have hardly enough of those. And it was interesting to watch Anthem’s transformation and how she dealt with the things in her real life and her ‘other’ life. It was, however, very stereotypical at times as a superhero origin story. Other than the fact that we’ve got a heroine instead of a hero it was a lot of the same old same old. The resolution of the main conflict in the book I sort of called but it’s nonetheless effective and the actual end leaves things open for an interesting sequel. I’d definitely recommend it to fans of the genre and girls desperate for a heroine of their own.That’s about all I can really say without giving too much of the story away. So from here on out the brief summary of the main conflict and the comments I’ll make will probably spoil a LOT of the book.So, YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.The Brokenhearted introduces readers to Anthem Fleet, a wealthy teenage ballerina in a crime-ridden, Gotham-esque city called Bedlam. She starts out – as a lot of superheroes do – as a the naive, wealthy sort whose life is changed in some violent, devastating event.For Anthem – as with most YA female protagonists – it all starts with a boy. Not her son-of-the-District-Attorney boyfriend, Will, but the down-on-his-luck, poor-starting-artist Gavin who she meets while on the wrong side of town at a party with her friend Zahra. She falls head over heels for this upbeat, bad boy with his motorcycle and sensitive, artistic means of expression. Then one night it all goes wrong. Gavin is kidnapped and held for a ransom her parents won’t pay. It ultimately gets him killed. And it nearly gets her killed, too. While heading home after the kidnapping she meets a guy named Ford who initially freaks her out unintentionally which then causes her to fall off an overpass and almost die.Hell of a way to start a friendship, you know? And it’s also a pretty sad origin story. Which makes it a bit funny and comical. Anthem wakes up to find out that Ford took her to some back alley tech genius who gave her a mechanical/hummingbird heart that basically makes her super fast, super strong, and super bad ass. The whole ‘science’ behind the heart and how exactly it was made (and what exactly it was made of, too, even) weren’t really well explained or anything. Plus, I mean, who just opens up some random person and shoves an suped up, awesome heart in them just because your street rat friend brings them to you?I think it’s moments like that which would have worked great in a comic book but in an actual book it’s a bit flatter and a bit more probably needs to be said/explained. That’s the biggest weakness of the book as a whole. It leaves out a lot and tries to be just a little bit too much like a Batman story.All in all, though, the story worked itself out in a very satisfying way. The story has some really awesome action moments and the big “OH EM GEE” moments at the end were well placed and the build up to them was great. Ford was a fantastic supporting character and I’d like to see more of him in the next book. And as much as I like Serge the driver I have to wonder how much he really knows about things that Anthem does not.I guess we’ll find out in the next book!
    • 3/5
      Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.Quick & Dirty: This book had some major faults but overall I felt that it was a really fun read, with good action, and a good story.Opening Sentence: A girl, alone.The Review: Anthem Fleet is your normal over privileged girl. She grew up in a rich family, went to private school, and is training to be a ballerina. She has never gone without when it comes to physical stuff that money can buy, but she has always felt like she is a disappointment to her parents. Her sister died before she was born, and she was brought in this world to replace her. She is always trying to gain her parents approval, but nothing ever seems to quite be enough. But she tries to play the part of a perfect daughter, be the best that she can. One night she decides to take a break and go to a party with her friend, there she meets the gorgeous, mysterious Gavin.Anthem finds herself drawn to the boy from the wrong side of the tracks. He is sweet, and she can’t help but fall for him. Soon she is skipping dance and sneaking out to see him since her parents won’t approve. He lives in a really rough area of town and one night soon after they meet something goes terribly wrong. Someone follows them and knows that she comes from a family of money, and they decide to kidnap Gavin and hold him for ransom. Anthem is so distressed after the experience that she runs away into the night alone in a bad part of town. An accident happens before she makes it home and it ends with her falling to her death. But fortunately for Anthem she is saved, but she is left with a bionic heart that has many side effects.Anthem is our protagonist in the story and I had really mixed feelings about her. For the first part of the book she was pretty annoying. She was really naïve and clueless. She meets Gavin at a party and basically after only knowing him a week she is totally head over heels for him. I felt that the romance between these two was way too fast and it felt really artificial. Once Gavin is taken, Anthem pretty much shuts down and is useless. She lets people walk all over her and it really drove me nuts. Luckily about half way through the book she finally wakes up and becomes an interesting character. Because of her new heart she has started to develop superpowers. She decides to use these powers to track down Gavin’s kidnappers and get revenge. She starts to train and she sculpts herself into a sort of superhero. I like the kick butt version of Anthem. She is fun and witty with a good heart. While I didn’t really like her at the beginning, by the end I was a fan of hers.This book was a really fun read for me, but it did have some major flaws. One being is that it was pretty predicable. I had the plot figured out about 25% through the book. While I did enjoy the story, the writing could have been a little more descriptive, and the worldbuilding could have been much better. I felt that the action was really fun and entertaining, but the romance could have been better. Even though this book had a lot of problems I still read through it really fast and genuinely enjoyed it. I don’t know if there is going to be another book, but it ended on a pretty big cliffhanger so I hope that there is another book. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes superhero stories or YA Paranormal books.Notable Scene: My heart racing, I take stock of him. He’s tall and built to hurt. My eyes flick past him, toward the South Side. No way am I going back there. I’ve got to get across the bridge and head north.Adrenaline flooding my veins again, I do the only thing that makes sense. I pirouette around on the narrow pedestrian walkway, and I run.“Really?” he shouts, incredulous. “Hey! I’m not going to hurt you!”I sprint harder than I ever have before, my lungs burning with every step. Behind my own ragged breath and the slap of my shoes on the cement, I hear him following me.“Wait up!” He catches up to me easily and grabs my hand. “Calm down, I’m not—”“No!” Itwist desperately away from him, lunging backward toward the bridge’s worn stone railing. The stone has crumbled into nothing, leaving a gap in the railing that puts me on the edge of the bridge. “Get away from me!”His eyes wide with alarm, he offers his hands to me again. “I’m sorry I scared you.” His voice is quiet, no longer playful or irritated-sounding like before. “Come away from the edge, okay?”“Walk far away from me, and I will.” I shudder and almost lose my balance before I grab onto a section of the railing to my right. The chemical decay of the river hits my nostrils. He shakes his head again and backs away, raising his hand to show he means no harm.Just as I’m about to move away from the edge, the corner of the stone railing I’ve grabbed onto breaks off in my hand. I look down at it, dumbfounded, as a strong gust of wind pushes me backward, sending my right foot out from under me. I flail, my arms reaching wildly in front of me as my body careens into thin air.I try to grab onto the bridge again, but my fingertips barely graze it. I see the jogger’s face twist in horror as he races to the edge, and then all I see is the starless sky.He’s too late. His hands clutch at the air, his mouth a black circle of shock.I turn midair to meet the greasy gray-green of the Midland churning beneath me, its surface dotted with small chunks of ice.My scream is one long, shrill cry of horror.And then I’m falling, falling, falling through the empty moonlit sky.FTC Advisory: Harper Collins provided me with a copy of The Brokenhearted. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.