Review: Every Shattered Thing

Every Shattered Thing by AUTHOR
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Release Date: August 27, 2013
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Book Description:

Stephanie fights reality every day. The voices inside, the ones declaring her worth, deem her broken, used and dirty. She is an object. A toy. Something to be tossed aside when bored. Who will believe her if she whispers the truth about her wrecking ball of a family?

Eventually, her secret explodes and the person who means the most to her knows just how shattered she is and why she's so afraid. But rescue is closer than she realizes. Hidden in plain sight, her horror hasn’t been ignored by everyone.

Racing against the truth of what she faces, forces are joining together and developing a plan to free her from the hell in her own backyard. And while she’s at her lowest point, she’s hit with the beauty of love at any cost - redemption in the face of ruin. Will it be enough?

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I’m not entirely sure how to go about reviewing this book without bursting into random bouts of tears. Every Shattered Thing by Elora Nicole Ramirez is truly a heart wrenching, thought provoking and emotionally shattering story. Every Shattered Thing follows Stephanie, a teenager living in the home of her physically abusive father who also uses her in the prostitution ring he’s created.

Those of you who follow my blog know how I feel about human trafficking and everything that goes a long with it and I so did not expect that in this book. It took me so long to get through and not because the book was bad. Every Shattered Thing was amazing from start to finish, but the subjects touched in this book…God, my heart hurt.

Ramirez did what not many authors can stomach to do and took us inside of Stephanie’s world.

I can’t tell you how many times my stomach churned or tears spilled down my cheeks as I read the things her Father did to her. But the thing that kept me going and reading outside of the eloquent writing was Stephanie.  Her character is so broken, so shattered and yet she can still find hope in the small things.

Stephanie is so much stronger than she gives herself credit for and I love that she had Kevin. He was such a good guy and while he’s involved with one of the twists at the end I didn’t see coming, it didn’t make me lose any love for his character. I also loved Jude, Emma and Pacey. There were definitely people in Stephanie’s life who loved her, but it was seriously out shadowed by all the terrible things that were done to her.

I can’t fathom how a Father could put his daughter through these things and how Stephanie could even keep going and be the person she was. This story really shows us what some people are capable of and what others can endure. How strong we are when we need to be and how sometimes even the worst things can end on a hopeful note.

I realize I’m not giving much detail to the actual story and there are a few reasons for that. One being it’s incredibly difficult for me to describe what was done to Stephanie, it’s painful and sickening and just too horrible for words, but the way it’s written in the book, it’s just handled so well. And the other reason is this is just one of those books where I could tell you everything and still not get the point across because my words will never be as potent as those of Stephanie’s story.

I loved and hated every second of this book. It made me cry, sob, and just destroyed me. But it also gave me hope. It showed me that things can always be worse than they are and that every once in a while you find people who are willing to risk everything for you. I will never not love this book and I’d highly recommend reading it, but fair warning there are a lot of triggers in this book so if you’re uncomfortable with scenes of violence and suggested rape you might want to pass. But it’s absolute worth the read if you can handle it.

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Author Bio:

Elora Ramirez lives in Austin, Texas with her chef-husband. At the age of four, she taught herself how to read and write, cutting her teeth on books like Dr. Seuss and writing anywhere she could find the space--including her Fisher Price kitchen set, the pages of picture books and Highlights Magazine.

Since then, she's grown to love the way words feel as they swell within her bones. Writing holy and broken is her calling, and pushing back the darkness and pursuing beauty through story is her purpose. She embraces the power of story and teaches women from all parts of the world how to embrace theirs. She has a knack of calling things out , the truth and the detail, the subversive threads that make a life a story.

She loves hip-hop, wishes she lived by the beach and cannot write without copious amounts of coffee, chocolate, music, and her husband's lavender liqueur.

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