Book Review: Severed Heads, Broken Hearts

Title: Severed Heads, Broken Hearts
Author: Robyn Schneider
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: 01/09/2013
Pages: 335
Format: Paperback
Buy: Book Depository
Author Twitter: @robynschneider

‘Golden boy Ezra Faulkner believes everyone has a tragedy waiting for them – a single encounter after which everything that really matters will happen. His particular tragedy waited until he was primed to lose it all: In one spectacular night, a reckless driver shatters Ezra’s knee, his career as a jock, and his social life.

No longer front-runner for homecoming king, Ezra finds himself at the table of misfits, when he encounters new girl Cassidy Thrope. Cassidy is unlike anyone Ezra has ever met – achingly effortless, fiercely intelligent, and determined to bring Ezra along on her endless adventures.

Together, Ezra and Cassidy discover flash mobs, buried treasure, secret movie screenings, and a poodle that might just be the reincarnation of Jay Gatsby. But as Ezra dives into his new studies, new friendships and new love, he learns that some people, like books, are easy to misread. And now he must consider: If one’s singular tragedy has already hit and everything after it has mattered quite a bit, what happens when more misfortunes strike?’

I don’t even know how to start this review off! The book was absolutely amazing and it turned out to be so much better than I thought it would!

There are so many aspects of this book that I could sit on fawn over. Schneider’s writing style is brilliant and really brings in school politics the way that Ezra’s old friends treat him after the accident and the way that she’s set the whole lunch table organisation out. Although that might seem like a small detail it does help move the plot for quite a big portion on the book. The beginning of the book was quite shocking but instantly made me interested to see what else was going to happen.

Ezra has very quickly become one of my favourite male characters for quite a few reasons. He was quite a realistic character in my eyes, especially the way that he reacted to the aftermath of his accident. You saw him grow as a character and find things in his life that he may have not have realised were there before the tragedy had happened. He doesn’t end up becoming completely bitter to his old friends and learns to make new ones quickly and starts to care about them a lot.

I wasn’t exactly a huge fan of Cassidy, she seemed like the type of person who thought that being closed off and mysterious is cool. Towards the end of the book when her story was explained I finally understood why she was the way she was and it did help me like her a little bit more but she still didn’t end up being one of my favourite characters.

What I love about this book is something that I don’t see very often in other books. Ezra changed for himself. He did it to become a better person for none but him and to make his life better. It wasn’t for someone else and it wasn’t so that someone would like him. It was because he wanted to have a happier life and wanted to make do with what he had so he changed to make sure that he could get everything out of life that he could.

This is definitely a book that I would gladly read again and I cannot hesitate to give it this rating.


Rating: ★★★★★