OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "From What's Broken" by R.M. Demeester.]

Losing a loved one is hard; losing a child while another one is on the way is unimaginable. Before the loss of their daughter, Ivory, Matthew and Amanda are your typical happy married couple. The pair are expecting another daughter to add to their already perfect family. This happiness shatters once Ivory dies, leaving both parties feeling that the other is to blame. Overtime, their marriage disintegrates, and they go their separate ways. Matthew rekindles a romance with his ex-fiancée, Rebecca, and Amanda begins a sexual relationship with her boss, Roger. On paper, they seem to have moved on. However, feelings and history, both good and bad, can’t evaporate overnight. R.M. Demeester’s From What’s Broken explores the tragedy of the death of a child and how it can forever change a family. The book keeps you wondering if Amanda and Matthew can ever recover and what their futures hold.

Demeester artfully depicts the myriad of emotions Matthew and Amanda experience following the loss of their daughter. I really enjoyed how the author broke the book into parts dedicated to each character. This allowed for me to connect with them and see their unique situations. Through Amanda’s eyes, she views Matthew as being indifferent toward Joy, his newborn daughter, and happy with his new living situation. Once we shift to Matthew’s perspective, we realize that Matthew is hurting just as much as Amanda. I also appreciated the depth Demeester added to Rebecca. While she was vindictive toward Amanda, this behavior was understandable. Years ago, Matthew was engaged to Rebecca, but left her to start a relationship with Amanda. This triggers a sense of insecurity that plagues Rebecca for the rest of the novel.

The only area for improvement that I can think of deals with the beginning of the book. Demeester dives right into the aftermath of Ivory’s death and the destruction of Matthew and Amanda’s marriage. While the author does allude to life before these tragedies using flashbacks and musings of the characters, I feel that more could have been done. To add impact to these events, the novel should start by describing their family before the loss of Ivory. This allows for readers to connect with the family more and feel more heart-broken when its imminent destruction arrives.

Unfortunately, From What’s Broken contained grammatical errors. The most common mistakes involved missing commas and incorrect word usage. For instance, one error included the use of “then” instead of “than.” While none of these were severe enough to seriously take away from my enjoyment of the novel, they do indicate that it would benefit from another round of editing.

Considering all of this, I rate From What’s Broken 3 out of 4 stars. While I would love to rate this book higher due to the author’s heart-wrenching depiction of loss, the presence of errors prevents me from doing so. I would recommend the novel to readers who have experienced the loss of a loved one. Demeester does a wonderful job of depicting the numerous emotions a person may experience after such an event, making the book an appropriate read for this group. At the same time, those who recently dealt with this kind of tragedy may feel that the subject is too raw for them.

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From What's Broken
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Thank you to the author for this book. After reading the review I understand that this book was wrote for the people who loose someone dear. I like this kind of genre but not always, because it is a tragedy when you loose the person you love and it is better not to remind about this. We have to live the life. And this book is making people more painful

I enjoyed reading your well-written and in-depth review. I am quite inclined to shy away from reading books on such a subject because I can't bear even to imagine a loss like this; however, this does sound like a great book.

Wow I would love to read this book. People deal with losses differently. For some couples, death of a child would have brought them closer. I saw one in real life. The couple had separated but when their first born died due to sickle cell anaemia, they reunited for the sake of the other 2 kids. Eventually they became one happy family again.

It takes a lot for a family to weather the storm of losing a child, and like Gathoni said, people deal with it differently.

Any kind of tragedy is often hard for a marriage to recover from. You'd hope it would bring you closer, but that isn't always the case. This one sounds quite intense, and it's not something I think I want to read. Still, I enjoyed your review, and it sounds like the author has done a good job with the subject. Thanks.

I like novels with flashbacks..

Tradegy genres are enticing because you always want to know the story and how people cope with it. Thank you for an informarive review.

It is such a hard thing to loose a young child whilst expecting another. I can relate to this story from a distance. Thanks for the review!

Sure, the loss of a loved one often means a difficult time for most people. Human beings have varied ways of coping with such a misfortune and one can learn a lot from the death story in the book. In the end we all die and I believe that the review offers a great eyeopener that helps people to relate to a lot that regards the demise of a person, especially when it occurs in a family that is looking at another looming lose of life. Thanks a lot for the insightful review of the book.

This sounds like really emotional book. I know you can't put spoilers but I wish I knew what happens at the end as I don't think I will read this book. Great review!

What a tragic story of loss. Thank you for such a well written and in-depth review! Sounds like a beautiful story.

The author has presented a true-to-life situation. The death of a child so often tears a marriage apart and the couple, instead of comforting on another, end up casting blame on their mate. This would be a hard story to read, but it seems like the author understands the reality of this type of tragedy. Thanks for your excellent review!

I enjoyed this book as well. Good job, lavellan.

This sounds emotional and dramatic as the father of the dead child left the fiancee for the woman he now has kids with.This twist adds spice to the story rather than it being plainly about the dead child and the unborn unloved child.The latter would mean the book would be too sad to read.