Review: Reviewed by Kota for Kota's Book Kollection
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 26, 2014
Ms McHeyzer has done it again..  She starts this book in graphic detail that has your insides churning.  This Blurb comes with a graphic warning…  well placed I’d say! Particularly in the early stages.This story follows Allyn a young lady whose life was hers for the taking, until others decided to impact her future path.  This impact was so dramatic that Allyn survived in a life frozen by fear.  This story is confronting in its telling.  The psychological impacts of these events for Allyn are significant, and I couldn’t read this story without my heart being full of empathy for Allyn’s existence and how truly traumatic it must be for her to wake up each day.After a life of sequence, OCD and therapy, Allyn’s life shifts again when she meets Dominic.The story follows Allyn’s growth from a living shell to someone with a glimmer of hope.  Love may even feature on the horizon.Ms McHeyzer tells this tale with attention to detail, she dares to address taboo’s and doesn’t hold back when Karma pops her head in.For me, this review is challenging to write and avoid spoilers.I found this story engaging, it was heartwrenching, it was full of hope, it focussed on some really pertinent messages….  You know, like beauty is in the eye of the beholder; what goes around comes around; life is made for living, you just need to be courageous enough to live it (I might have made that last one up – or maybe not who knows..)There were elements of this story that I found slightly unbelievable.  I think primarily this was because the life of this book required storylines to progress expeditiously which meant what would normally take substantially longer to occur happened rapidly – minor I know, but it meant the story lacked a little of the effort required to make it believable.  Sorry for talking in riddles, but if I give the examples I am thinking – well – that would be spoiling.Anyhoo…  A life less broken is a confronting, yet compassionate telling of a life filled with trauma, and the significant emotional and physical impact that trauma has on Allyn’s ability to move forward.  Her journey goes full circle, and while there were some elements that were predictable (thanks to the breadcrumbs along the way) on the whole this was a story well told.  This story is driven by a violent act and graphic reflection, but that is not the ultimate message Ms McHeyzer writes about.  If you can tolerate the graphic and confronting parts of this story, I suspect you will find an empathy and compassion for Allyn’s story that will have you cheering for her to win in the end.I am giving A life Less Broken 4 stars…  I wish the story had the time to capture the background work on some elements that presented with gaps due to brevity.[...]