A Thousand Broken Pieces

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, mental illness, death, death by suicide, and anti-gay bias.

“Rune’s head was shaking as my heart was impossibly, cracking even more. Then he bolted from the room, and as he did, I slammed back into the here and now with a deafening crash. The sound of agonized crying was the first thing that greeted me, the devastating noises slicing my soul in half. I looked at Mama, then Daddy. Mama had fallen to the floor, Daddy trying to keep her in his arms. Aunt DeeDee was turned against the wall that was propping her up, sobbing uncontrollably.”

The Prologue shows Poppy’s death from Savannah’s perspective, calling back to A Thousand Boy Kisses, in which this scene is shown from Rune and Poppy’s perspective. Savannah’s point of view emphasizes the devastation left in Poppy’s wake. This highlights the severity of Savannah’s trauma and grief, but in retrospect, it also highlights how the other characters whose grief is on display in this passage have adjusted and coped with their loss in ways that Savannah has not.

“The truth was, if Poppy could talk to me, I knew she’d be heartbroken at how her death had paralyzed me, wounded me irreparably. Yet, I couldn’t shake it. Rob told me that grief never left us. Instead we adapted, like it was a new appendage we had to learn to use. That at any moment, pain and heartache could strike and break us. But eventually we would develop the tools to cope with it and find a way to move on. I was still waiting for that day.”

Savannah’s reflection on Poppy’s desires and perspective reveals that Savannah knows that she is not living her life to the fullest. Additionally, she acknowledges that Poppy would be unhappy to learn that Savannah had limited her own life because of her grief. However, that acknowledgment is not sufficient motivation for Savannah to work through her grief, thus necessitating the trip.

“My leg bounced in agitation, and I fought to not inhale the freshness of the ice, to feel the sharpness of the cold air filling the arena. I pulled off my beanie and ran my hand through my dark hair. The tattoos on the backs of my hands stood out against my paler skin. Tattoos. So many tattoos and piercings now covered my body, just about erasing any sign of the person I was before.”

In romance novels, giving the male love interest tattoos or piercings is a common way to align them with the “bad boy” archetype, which Cael resembles in many ways. However, Cael’s tattoos and piercings hold deeper significance for his