Book Rewind Review: All Our Broken Pieces by L.D. Crichton

ALL ABOARD THE FEELS TRAIN. Holy hell, this book slay’d me in ways I was completely unprepared for and now I am left with a complete book hangover and a need for everyone to read this book so we can talk about it! See why this book will top my backlist reads favs!

All Our Broken Pieces

by L.D. Crichton
Published by: Disney-Hyperion
on May 7, 2019
Pages: 405
IndieBound
Goodreads

"You can’t keep two people who are meant to be together apart for long...”
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 L.A. 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 step family will accept her. Twenty-five more flicks and maybe she won’t cause any more of her loved ones to die. Fifty times more and then she can finally go to sleep.
Kyler Benton witnesses this pattern of lights from the safety of his treehouse 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 oversized hoodies and caustic humor. But Kyler finds that descriptions of blonde 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.

Review

I should have known a book titled All Our Broken Pieces was going to take my heart, squeeze the heck out of it, and leave me smiling on the floor afterward. A story of trauma, love, and compassion, this story finds its way from the beginning and draws you in completely. I have not stayed up late to read a book in 5 years (no joke) and I stayed up til 3am and was up at 7am to finish this one. 

Lennon, one half of the dual POV, walks us through her world, one where she uses uneven counting to cope through the day. Terrified that someone will notice, she shies away from her peers. Thrown into a new life after tragedy strikes, I just wanted to reach through the pages and give her a hug. 

Kyler, the angsty boy next door, has a no-fucks attitude that followed after years of peer bullying. He wears his trauma on his face, literally, after a house fire leaves him burned. This boy is full of lyrics and love and I just.

As you can imagine, the inevitable relationship between these two is the main driver of the story, lead by music, a willingness to open up, and a treehouse. These two have a whole lot of emotional intelligence, and an unwillingness to give up, that the rest of us could benefit from learning. Readers will connect with them immediately and be left thinking about them long after the book is closed.

The mental health rep here is some of the best I’ve read. It’s tangible and the adults (parents, school officials, and therapists) handle it appropriately (at least with Lennon). This is more than a story of tragedy; it’s a story of finding the person who is willing to look past it. It’s deep and visceral and full of things I remember feeling as a youth (before critical thinking and experiences left me more jaded haha). I dare you to try putting this down once you pick it up!