Review – The Broken Room by Peter Clines (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 417 pages
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Release Date: March 1, 2022
ASIN: B09N7DYY1Z
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars
“You can still owe the dead.
Hector was the best of the best. A government operative who could bring armies to a halt and nations to their knees. But when his own country betrayed him, he dropped off the grid and picked up the first of many bottles.
Natalie can’t remember much of her life before her family brought her to the US, but she remembers the cages. And getting taken away to the Project with dozens of other young children to become part of their nightmarish experiments. That’s how she ended up with the ghost of a dead secret agent stuck in her head.
And Hector owes Natalie’s ghost a big favor.
Now Hector and Natalie are on the run from an army of killers sent to retrieve her. Because the people behind the Project are willing to risk almost anything to get Natalie back and complete their experiments.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a eGalley of this from NetGalley to review.
Thoughts: This was an odd read that was engrossing, hard to put down, and very fast-paced. I ended up enjoying it a lot. I am not sure if this ties in with Clines’ larger Threshold Universe, but it could…it has many similar elements about breaching other planes of reality.
The premise is that a young girl named Natalie finds an ex-special ops man named Hector and calls in a favor from one of Hector’s dead friends. Suddenly Hector is back in action trying to protect Natalie from a group known only as The Project.
Initially the story alternates between Hector trying to help Natalie and Natalie recounting her early life at The Project. What is unveiled is an odd story of a broken space in reality and children being tested in that space to see what happens to them. There are underlying themes about immigration and child rights throughout the story as well.
I enjoyed the characters and the fast pace of the story. This was an easy read, it almost read itself and was very hard to put down. Some of the premise is a bit implausible but it was still intriguing, plain weird, and kind of fun. There are a lot of gross parts in here especially if you don’t like bugs or centipedes…I skimmed some of these descriptions because they gave me the heebie jeebies.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this; it is fast-paced, engrossing and easy to read. I liked the odd premise and the action. If you enjoy Clines’ Threshold Universe books I would recommend this book as well. I look forward to whatever weird reality breaking books Clines writes in the future.
