Megan's Reviews > The Broken Ones

Oh my! This book was AMAZING. On the front cover of this particular edition is a quote from author Lincoln Child stating, "A truly unique and harrowing vision- Irwin's ability to blend genres is as remarkable as his imagination." With that statement staring at me before I even opened the book, author Stephen M. Irwin had a bit to live up to. Part cop thriller, part dystopian future, part ghost story/horror, the story from start to finish is fantastic. It begins 3 years after a phenomenon caused major catastrophic changes to the planet, including the emergence of ghosts, one attached every living person. No one can see anyone else's ghost and the ghosts do not go away, which leads to many people committing violent acts either against themselves or other people. This caused the creation of a sort of "insanity" plea whereas the perpetrator could claim their ghost drove them to it. Our main character is the lead of a special police task force that weeds out the true cases from those just wishing for a get-out-of-jail-free card.

I am not doing justice to the story in this review, however I was hooked into the plot and attached to the characters all the way through. Although many writers try and add something in their books "for everyone," few master fully integrating several genres into one novel. Depending on what the reader chooses to focus on, The Broken Ones can be taken as any of the genres I mentioned above. The police procedures and detail to crime work certainly classifies this as cop thriller. The fact that the society is not ideal and it takes place in some unknown future time, yes, it is dystopian. And then there are the ghosts and other supernatural angles, which of course makes it a horror story. Irwin writes each aspect so well, the reader is fully drawn into all parts of the story. A wonderful book.