Indecisive Reader

What an incredible debut novel! As someone who has lived my entire life in a tropical country, one of my ultimate dreams is to see and experience snow. Yet after reading The Broken Places by Blaine Daigle, I fear that I may have developed an irrational fear of snow or wintry weather. The setting of an isolated, small town in the middle of the winter made the story believably creepy. As if that was not chilling enough, Daigle added random stares from the townspeople and strange behaviors from the wild animals. Through his lyrical writing, Daigle created characters with such depth and complexity; they felt like real human beings. Ryne Burdette and his two friends have gone through life-altering events in their life. How they tried to cope with grief, loss, and trauma were also well-depicted in the story. I found myself empathizing with them and hoped that they would overcome the horrible ordeal they faced. The story started slow, but when the feeling of dread set in, it was relentless until the very end. I’m at a loss for a better word to describe the ending, but it sure did break my heart a little bit more. I highly recommend this book!