Fierce Fragile Hearts by Sara Barnard

Fierce Fragile Hearts by Sara Barnard
Buy Fierce Fragile Hearts by Sara Barnard at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens
Reviewer: Jill Murphy
Summary: Set two years after Beautiful Broken Things, this companion novel looks at what happens to Suzanne and is an engaging and emotional exploration of the aftermath of abuse and the problems facing care leavers in today's UK.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 368	Date: February 2019
Publisher: Macmillan
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1509852888
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It's two years since Suzanne hit rock bottom. She's had extensive therapy and a stint with a lovely foster family. And now she's eighteen and must leave the Looked After system. Suzanne is apprehensive but excited. She's found herself a job, a bedsit has been rented, and she's about to return to Brighton, the only place she's ever felt truly at home, and to Caddy and Rosie, her two best friends.

But Caddy and Rosie will be off to university soon. Will Suze make it without them?

Fierce Fragile Hearts is the sequel to Barnard's Beautiful Broken Things, in which Caddy is dazzled by the charismatic Suze but has a lot of growing up to do when she discovers not everyone has the same secure life she does. This time, we're inside Suze's head, not Caddy's, and it's just as busy a place to be. Suze has to try to settle down into a job, manage a poverty-level budget, and re-establish a relationship with two friends she's held at arm's length during the past two years. Along the way, she'll meet an unforgettable old lady, fall in love with a boy, and watch her friends grow and cope with problems of their own.

Fierce Fragile Hearts can be quite challenging. Suzanne is an abuse survivor and care leaver. She has c-PTSD, no money, and finds it hard to trust others or share emotional intimacy. And so, although she has a support network and people who love her, she doesn't fully trust this and often acts in a way that keeps her friends at arm's length. She gets panic attacks and can act impulsively. Barnard tells the story from Suze's perspective, so she can also be a highly unreliable narrator. You'll root for her all the way but you'll also spend a lot of time cringing, and thinking no, no, no, Suze, don't do that! It's telling that Suze's least complicated and most transformative relationship in this book is with Dilys, the elderly neighbour with whom she shares no history at all.

One of the most difficult aspects of Suze's situation is explored in the relationship with her brother - he wants to maintain relationships with both Suze and her parents and Suze also feels a pull towards the father who abused her. Was it all bad? Barnard understands the complexities of abuse survivors very well and she handles it with tact and delicacy.

I'm making it sound miserable! It's not! There's a lot of love in Fierce Fragile Hearts and it cuts through everything, even Suze's trust issues. There's a lovely, tender romance too - but I'm not going to tell you anything about that. You should meet Matt for yourself. And the other love interests, friends and relatives - Kel, Sarah, Tess, Dilys, Brian and all the others.

The world can be bleak but it can also be beautiful and full of promise. Fierce Fragile Hearts will show you how.

Read Beautiful Broken Things first if you can. You might also enjoy Eden Summer by Liz Flanagan about a strong friendship tested when one of the friends goes missing. Dear Evan Hansen: The Novel by Val Emmich also deals with social anxiety with the power of music as an underlying theme.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Fierce Fragile Hearts by Sara Barnard at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Fierce Fragile Hearts by Sara Barnard at Amazon.com.

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