Broken: Number 6 in series (Otherworld, #6)

by Kelley Armstrong

Book 6 in Kelley Armstrong's supernatural series marks the return of werewolf Elena Michaels from Bitten and Stolen. When half-demon Xavier calls in the favour Elena owes him, it seems easy enough - steal Jack the Ripper's 'From Hell' letter away from a Toronto collector who had himself stolen it from the Ripper evidence boxes in the Metropolitan Police files. But nothing in the supernatural world is ever as simple as it seems. Elena accidentally triggers a spell placed on the letter, and manages to tear an opening that leads into the nether regions of Victorian London. Toronto may be looking for a tourism boost, but 'Gateway to Hell' isn't quite the new slogan the city had in mind ...

• ISBN10: 1841493422
• ISBN13: 9781841493428
• Publish Date: 4 May 2006 (first published 1 January 2006)
• Publish Status: Transferred
• Out of Print: 3 July 2012
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Orbit
• Format: Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
• Pages: 480
• Language: English

Reviews

[Chelsea]

Elena is easily my favourite character so the books where she's the main character are always my favourite. I especially like this one because we get to visit Canada! the downside is Toronto is visited by zombies so that kind of kills the excitement a little. There isn't as much action as there normally is in this book because Elena is now pregnant and even a pregnant werewolf has to be a little careful. I actually really enjoyed the parts where the other werewolves were bring overprotective of her. I thought it was really cute and sometimes pretty funny.

The plot was also really fun in this one because it partially has to do with Jack the Ripper which is always a great topic. There were these zombies that came out of a Victorian England time portal and I really loved how the author brought pieces of that world back. For example, there was some diseases that were carried from the zombies into modern day Toronto like typhus and cholera. I found that to actually be more realistic because zombies just feel like they should be carrying lots of gross things. We also got to meet Zoe the vampire in this book who I love and I wish she had gotten her own book.

[empressbrooke]

I'm going back and forth between 3 and 4 stars for this book, but I'm leaning towards 4 since it's so much better than the last few books in the series. I think Armstrong just writes Elena better than her other protagonists.

[celinenyx]

Part six in the extremely diverse Women of the Otherworld series, Broken is sad to say, not the best one.

Elena, only known female werewolf, is pregnant of werewolf boyfriend Clay. This makes her more vulnerable, having to rely on her Pack to protect her. When they are sent to Toronto on Pack business, they get tangled up in supernatural troubles, including rampaging Victorian serial killers, a bunch of long-extinct diseases and a multi-dimensional portal spitting out zombies. The Pack can use every supernatural help they can get.

After all this focussing on the witchcrafting part of the Women of the Otherworld family (Dime Store Magic, Industial Magic, Haunted) I was glad to be back to the reason I love this series. The werewolves! As far as the narrators go, I still enjoy Elena the most. She is so utterly kick-ass that I just love being in her head. And I guess that's why I didn't like Broken as much as say, Bitten; Elena can't kick butts with a baby on board. I had to say it, but Awesome Elena has become Elena the Clumsy Pregnant Lady. And I don't really like her. All of a sudden Clay is this cutesy protective guy. I miss my socially retarded Clay, he was much more fun.

Apart from my grumbling on the character-changes, the plot was of the calibre we are used to by Ms Armstrong. It has intrigue, betrayal, friendships, plot-twists you don't see coming. Even though there was a lot of meaningless running around, doing research and calling people, I still enjoyed this part a lot. It was good to see a decent plot again, after a little bit of a meh one in Haunted.

A minor concern I'm starting to have is that there are too many characters in this series. Every book, we meet new ones, and it's becoming really hard to keep track of them all. At some parts of the story, I was rather confused to who they were calling to now. Having had a few months break between books, I could use a memory-refresher.

Broken is very nice read and a great addition to the urban-fantasy genre. I hope kick-ass Elena is still down there somewhere. I would love to see her back.