Broken (Elizabeth Pulford, illus by Angus Gomes, Walker Books)

Zara is trapped in a coma following a tragic accident. She can hear all that is going on around her but is entombed in her subconscious—where she is left to confront painful memories and come to terms with a terrible secret. This is a multilayered story with three plotlines that are differentiated by tone, font and the integration of graphic-novel elements. This may be confusing for younger readers until they find the story’s rhythm. Graphic novels are a great tool for increasing the reading comprehension and vocabulary of reluctant readers. By mixing images and text, they also have the capacity to tell a different kind of story than is otherwise possible in a conventional novel. In this instance, the graphic panels are introduced to create an alternate pace to the story, but I’m not convinced that the blend of graphics into the text is as seamless as it should have been. Including a newspaper clipping of how Zara came to be in a coma, however, was a clever way of introducing the key characters. This book is recommended for mature 13-plus readers.

Fiona Edwards is a Canberra-based writer and academic and a former teacher and editor

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Category: Reviews