Broken City by D.D. Chant

Title: Broken City

Author: D.D. Chant

Publisher: Self Published

Published: February 7, 2011
Format:  Kindle/E-book
Pages: 348
Source: Received from the author
in exchange for an honest review
Read: August 21-22 2012
In A Few Words: Likeable characters but too many of them
My Rating: 3 Stars
Goodreads:Add to your TBR Pile

Goodreads Synopsis:


Deeta Richards has never seen the outside world. Before she was born a banking crisis brought civilization to an end and now no one leaves the safety of the compounds unless they need to, but Deeta still dreams of seeing more than the building she was born in.
Tom is in the guard, this group are the only people that the tribal elders allow to leave the compound and tom knows only too well that Deeta could never survive the harshness that exists outside. Then tragedy strikes and Deeta and her sister Jan find themselves captured by a hostile tribe. Why does Tom know so much about these people? And why do they know so much about him? As this mystery draws to a climax, they discover that their friend Tom is not quite what he seems...

Melissa's Musings:

I'm not quite sure where to start in reviewing this book. First off, I'll start by saying that I did like it. It's not perfect, but it's enjoyable enough of a read.

This is an interesting story about a group of people who are living in a compound. They send select few members of their tribe out to get food and supplies from time to time. And not all of the members of the tribe are what they seem.

This had a slightly dystopian feeling to it. I say slightly because I felt that the world building was a bit lacking, so you couldn't really get a feel for the outside world or even the complete inner workings of this world for that matter. All that you really find out is that there was a big financial crash, and people paid money to live in these pre built compounds. Now there are factions of people fighting for survival.

The main characters are likeable enough, although Deeta seems, a little young to me. Maybe it's just because she's so sheltered that she seems so young, but I found it odd that at 20 she's still calling her parents Mommy and Daddy and kissing them goodnight before going to sleep every night. And there was a lot of kiddie calling of the characters like Tom was Tommy and Jan was Janny, etc.  I felt like this made the book a bit immature.

There is a nice romance between Deeta and Tommy. At first it seems like it's just a friendship, but slowly you start to tell that there's something more between them. The pacing of their relationship is nice and steady, with plenty of poignant moments between them.

One other thing that really took away from the story is that there are so many characters. There are just too many here for it to really make sense. Tommy's father had several wives, who had several children, and the network of brothers, sisters, children etc is just too much for this book. I had trouble keeping them all straight. And a lot of them don't really seem all that important. In my opinion, if they're not key, you shouldn't mention them, especially if all they're going to be is another name in a sea of names.

Another thing that I didn't enjoy was the author seemed to be talking straight to the reader in some of the descriptions. Sometimes this can work really well. I felt like it didn't work here because there's already so many characters to remember, that once the author starts saying things like "oh I don't know if I told you this but this character is like this because...it just doesn't work. The use here just pulled me further out of the story.

I wasn't particularly moved by the story or the characters, but they were somewhat enjoyable. 

Have any of you read this? If so, what did you think?