Official Review: Help Me I'm Broken by Sabrina A Graves

[Juliana_Isabella]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Help Me I'm Broken" by Sabrina A Graves.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Help Me, I’m Broken by Sabrina A. Graves is a book of prose and poetry split into three sections. The first section (“Darkness”) explores the depression the author felt after her divorce. The second section (“Healing”) details how the author returned to a relationship with God and found that should could learn to love herself by remembering God’s grace and love for her. The third section (“The Future”) includes both reflective and prospective pieces about the author’s journey so far and where she is headed.

The overall feeling I had while reading this book was that of an outsider peeking through a crack in another person’s façade. The author lays herself bare before the reader, allowing you to see how she fell into a very dark place after her divorce. The entire first section of the book is unapologetically bleak, and the author is open about her lack of self-esteem and the suicidal thoughts she was having during this time. The next two sections are an extreme contrast to the first, as they focus on the author’s relationship with God, which seemed to help her pull herself out of depression and find the will to live again. I was surprised by the extreme change in tone from the first to the second section, as there was very little transitional material to explain why the author had reestablished a relationship with God and how this helped her move forward in life.

Since the subject matter of this book is based in truth, I am choosing to critique the writing and not the story. I found myself surprised by the poetry included in the book because it is formatted like prose. Rather than writing lines and incorporating them into stanzas, the author has written sentences and incorporated them into paragraphs. Personally, I felt that this made her work less powerful and detracted from the emotion she was trying to convey. The visual appearance of poetry can add to the meaning of the piece, but this author gave up her ability to use that element in her work. I also feel that this work was not professionally edited, as there is inconsistent spacing between paragraphs in different sections, and I found a variety of grammatical and typographical errors in the book. I understand the author did not want to alter her work in an extreme way because it was written in a specific time and headspace, but I do think that proofreading and editing would help her convey her message more clearly without detracting from the honest perspective that she brings to this subject.

Overall, I would rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. I appreciate the author’s honesty, and I admire the process she has gone through to build a new life where she can feel proud of her journey and the person she has become. However, I feel that I must detract two stars. One was removed due to the unexplained jump between depression and fulfillment, which interrupted the open relationship the author had established with the reader up to that point. The other was removed due to the lack of professional editing and formatting.

I would recommend this book to adults who have gone through difficult times and are on the journey to recovery or for those who are trying to open a door to their traumatic pasts and look at the events honestly without allowing them to shatter the new life they have made for themselves. I will caution readers that the first section is extremely dark with little hope for the future. I think this could be triggering for people with depression, especially those who have considered or attempted suicide. Because of this, I cannot in good conscience recommend this book to individuals who struggle with suicidal ideation. However, for those that have moved past the dark times the author describes, this could be a good book to give them understanding of how another person has handled similar circumstances.

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Help Me I'm Broken
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[That Reviewer]

The biggest show of strength is when life throws it's worst on you, yet you get past it and stand. The author's life was shattered from divorce. Through all that she went through, she still came out strong.

[Adigson99]

The summary of this book is to affirm the fact that; tough time never last but tough people do.

[Tavaiel26]

Thanks for the review, I'm looking for some reading material for the quarantine period, but maybe I will skip something so bleak for now.

[Yhen13]

I hope i could read the whole story. i seems interesting. but anyways in this review i could say the author gone through hardships. thanks for the overview.

[gayscott]

I always enjoy reading poetry. It usually comes from the heart.

[Britbrit2590]

Defining who you truly are meaning you have to be broken down to decide whether you’re going to get back up or not and once you decide what you’re willing to do that’s when everything comes at you wondering how you’re going to take it life love and being broken it’s a part of being human

[Kimmtz98]

thanks for this review i Definitely liked the fact that its a truth story I really think its entrusting. I like it.

[Siyabongile123]

What ilove about poetry it's the originality very true. Introduction how she explains the whole book without even knowing the whole thing it gives you interest to know more thank you fr sharing that

[Zainabreadsnow]

I understand what the author was trying to achieve. Sad to see the rating to be this low. Thank you for the review!