I would like to read more stories in this setting. I loved this book, and shed a few tears over it. Since we know so little of her, some of her help came across as a small deus ex machina. I do want to know more about a mysterious character named Janeane who helped our characters in some mysterious ways. I particularly liked it when Michael’s visions would change on the fly as particularly dangerous moments arrived. When these two types of future perception square off, the results are unexpected and intriguing. It apparently comes in a near-term fine-grained variety that Michael has, as well as a broad, long-term version that takes the greater picture into effect.

The extrahuman abilities are fascinating, although we only see a sampling of them in this book. Even Monica, who comes along with Michael and Broken when her house is torched by rioters, turns out to be more interesting than she seems at first. Instead, she allows the reader to organically experience the world she has built for us through the story itself and the actions of the characters. She avoids the pitfalls of tedious world-building and long descriptive paragraphs that just drip with voice. Broken has a lot of depth to her, and a fascinating backstory. Susan Jane Bigelow is an extremely gifted writer who knows how to tell a story. The Black Bands come across as uniformly evil, but they aren’t the focus of the book. The characters in general in this book are quite good. He has no idea how to care for a baby, and Broken would rather drown in alcohol than help.

Despite his youth he takes on this enormous responsibility. He does his best to pick the options that work out the best, but sometimes he just has to hold on and hope that something or someone will have an impact he didn’t foresee. It doesn’t help that any time he looks someone in the face he sees dozens of possibilities spiraling off of them, most of them fragmented and confusing. Much like Cassandra of legend, people rarely believe that he can see the future. His ability has forced him to grow up quickly.

Broken by Susan Jane Bigelow