Zoey's Broken Heart

Making Out #26

by Katherine Applegate

Zoey's broken heart. What can anyone say to make it feel better? Because the disaster that killed Lara, destroyed Zoey's home and injured her parents, has left Zoey devastated. And she's still so far from Lucas...

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Fiction, Teen

240 pages, Paperback

First published March 20, 1998

About the author

#1 New York Times bestselling author Katherine Applegate has written many books for young readers, including THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN, winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal.

Katherine’s picture books include THE BUFFALO STORM, illustrated by Jan Ormerod (Clarion Books); THE REMARKABLE TRUE STORY OF IVAN, THE SHOPPING MALL GORILLA, illustrated by G. Brian Karas (Clarion Books); SOMETIMES YOU FLY, illustrated by Jennifer Black Reinhardt (Clarion Books); and ODDER: AN OTTER’S STORY, illustrated by Charles Santoso (Feiwel & Friends).

She’s written or co-written three early chapter series for young readers: ROSCOE RILEY RULES, a seven-book series illustrated by Brian Biggs (HarperCollins); DOGGO AND PUPPER, a three-book series illustrated by Charlie Alder (Feiwel & Friends). With Gennifer Choldenko, she co-authored DOGTOWN and MOUSE AND HIS DOG, illustrated by Wallace West (Feiwel & Friends).

Books for middle-grade readers include HOME OF THE BRAVE (Feiwel & Friends); THE ONE AND ONLY series, illustrated by Patricia Castelao, including THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN, THE ONE AND ONLY BOB, THE ONE AND ONLY RUBY, and THE ONE AND ONLY FAMILY (HarperCollins); the ENDLING trilogy (HarperCollins); CRENSHAW (Feiwel & Friends); WISHTREE (Feiwel & Friends); WILLODEEN (Feiwel & Friends); ODDER (Feiwel & Friends); and the forthcoming POCKET BEAR (Feiwel & Friends).

With her husband, Michael Grant, Katherine co-wrote ANIMORPHS, a long-running series that has sold over 35 million books worldwide. They also wrote two other series, REMNANTS and EVERWORLD, and a young adult novel, EVE AND ADAM (Feiwel & Friends.)

Katherine’s work has been translated into dozens of languages, and her books have won accolades including the Christopher Medal, the Golden Kite Award, the Bank Street Josette Frank Award, the California Book Award Gold Medal, the Crystal Kite Award, the Green Earth Book Honor Award, the Charlotte Zolotow Honor Award, and the E.B. White Read Aloud Award. Many of her works have appeared on state master lists, Best of the Year lists, and Publishers Weekly, USA Today, and New York Times bestseller lists.

Katherine lives in Nevada with her husband and assorted pets. She is represented by Elena Giovinazzo at Heirloom Literary and Mary Pender at WME.

Reviews

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good!

* So poor Lara is really dead 😲 Mrs Passmore is in an air chamber and can hardly speak, and Mr Passmore is thankfully doing a bit better, but he's still stuck in hospital.
* Zoey is feeling sorry for herself, but Lucas puts her in her place and tells her that the sacrifices that she is making to help her parents are nothing compared to the sacrifice that Lara made. Admittedly Zoey is having to defer her first year of university and work at the restaurant, but Lara's dead.
* Ben seems a bit more interested in helping, even though he orders 300lbs of steak that they don't need 🙈 He seems to accept that things will have to change, he even tells Nina as much, but he does seem to take Lara's death harder than anybody else. There are also some stirrings of possible feelings for Nina.
* Nina is working hard in the school office and wants to be friends with Lucas again, but every time Zoey sees them together it seems to make things worse.
* Claire has a security guard called Paulo trying to date her, but her history with Sean seems to have affected her, and she finds it difficult to trust what he says to her.
* Jake isn't in this book much but apparently he is dating a girl that Paulo is tutoring in Spanish.
* Lucas wants Zoey back, and he even goes to great lengths to get the blueprints for her house and make alterations, and join the crew doing the rebuild, but every time Zoey sees him she just doesn't want to be around him at all, and every time she sees him talking to Nina she just gets angrier.
* Aisha is annoyed with her roommate. They study together, but then Felicia doesn't sit near her in class, and when she gets the phone bill, she realises that Felicia has been calling Christopher behind her back.

[Saadia Y · Rating 3 out of 5]

In what world do you cheat on your significant other with their best friend (or whoever for that matter) and think that your significant other would be fine with the two of you remaining friends? That's really the right way to win her back 😒. Maybe where I'm from (earth) we would find it hard to trust the two of you being alone together ever again. It's not just the physical cheating, it's the emotional cheating. Lucas needs to make some male friends because apparently he doesn't know about boundaries! Neither does Nina who sees nothing wrong with putting her hand over his and asking him to come over...oh wait, that's until she realises Zoey has just seen them 🐍🐍. These two are the worst!

The highlight of this book was Paolo!!! He was so smooth! I particularly enjoyed the conversation he was having with his grandmother (in Spanish) and Claire's translations 👌😂 I hope Claire doesn't screw this one up because they're my new favourite ship.

[Nicky (burialshroud) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m sure you can imagine how much sympathy I have for Zoey’s eponymous Broken Heart. Not even busty-redhead-cover-Zoey’s intense pouting is moving me because this is another volume of ZOEY IS THE WORST. There’s a pretty sweet part where Lucas tells Zoey off for not caring enough that Lara’s dead but that's the only backlash Zoey gets for being the world's most selfish jerk.

So Lana’s gone. Booooooooooo. Zoey’s back from California. I don’t know which is worse. Her parents are in the hospital recovering from the fire. Benjamin picks Zoey up from the airport in the Passmore’s van. I’m not sure when he learned to drive. In fact it seems like whoever wrote this book was unaware of Benjamin’s erstwhile blindness because later on Benjamin talks about how he used to help out at Passmore’s whenever he needed extra cash or “whenever he couldn’t think of a way out”…”I can’t see anything” seems like a pretty good way out.

Zoey won’t forgive either Nina or Lucas for that time they kissed. She’s so terrible I don’t even understand why Nina and Lucas are so keen to make amends with her, but they are and it’s incredibly dull.

Aisha is full-on a Christopher obsession-only operation at the moment so forget her. The conflict between them ought to be “I’m too busy at Harvard to worry about being a teen bride” but instead it’s “Oh my God roommate please don’t steal my fiancé HE IS SUCH A CATCH”

The best thing about this book is the introduction of Claire’s true soulmate Paolo. Claire’s softened somewhat since leaving home and Paolo is just what she needs to turn her into a real human being finally. Sample dialogue:

Don’t you hate it in movies when the Spanish or Italian guy refuses to call the American girl Claire or Ann and calls her ‘Clara’ or ‘Anna’ instead?” Paolo asked.
“No” said Claire, who did in fact hate it.
“Oh well, in that case I’ll call you Clara,” Paolo said. “Although there’s no accounting for tastes.”
Claire sighed and quickened her pace.

He really likes her but he doesn’t give her the adulation she’s used to. It’s so cute!

Fave moments:
-Claire gets a haircut: ““Show me how much you think an inch is,” Claire said to the stylist” She was right to ask because people do not know how much an inch is. Get a ruler, people.
-Claire’s scrapbook of articles about how she pounded her stalker in the head with a hammer.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

For several books now it has been all about Nina and Claire for me and this continues but I am really starting to like Lucas again and hope his construction job goes well. I loved what he says about Lara in this book. And I think I am going to love Paolo. He seems a great addition to the cast and I have my fingers crossed for him and Claire.

Thank God Lucas gave Zoey a talking too as she has needed it for ages. I really liked her when the series first started but now I would rather read about pretty much any other character... apart from Aisha. While I loved Nina's and Ben's storylines I am a little concerned that there were inadequacies about how the story of his sight issues developed. (Also, he learnt to drive over the summer as well as surf...really).

And, will Jake get found out living in the ladies dorm at MIT? Next book please...

[Utmost Cookie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm loving a couple of developments in this book: love what's happening with Nina & Benjamin, loved some of the gang teaming up for the restaurant, Christopher taking charge and putting pouty Zoey in her place. Lucas seems to be going places with his construction work job and I Loved how he called Zoey out for her bullshit. Zoey on the other hand can eat a bag of dicks for all I care. She is insufferable. Loved the letters from Kalif and Claire (?!) but am very bored by Aisha's roommate storyline. Yay Paolo.

[Lizzie the Book Hoarder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zoey is angry about everything right no. Her parents, her life, Lara and Lucas and Nina. Yet Zoey never asked for their side of the story she only listened to what Lara told her.
Aisha is having roommate issues.
Claire may have found new love but is she willing to take a chance?

[Kate Murray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alternate title: Zoey's Still the Worst

[Elaine Mullane || Elaine and the Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feeling nostalgic for the books of my youth, I revisited Katherine Applegate and her Islanders omnibus editions (first released as the Making Out series way back in 1993. Yes, I am that old...).

While I found them to be overly-dramatic and a little bit cheesy on second reading, I think they would be loved by teenagers today. YA has taken a much-welcome step in the sphere of fantasy, science fiction and Dystopia, largely, in recent years so for teenagers looking for the traditional romance novels filled with teen-angst and buried secrets, these are a good series to turn to. A little bit Dawson's Creek in it's setting and it's drama, The Islanders is the perfect teen soap opera.

[C. B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember being obsessed with this series when I was 14! I made my mom buy me all 29 books (in Germany a 29th book was published, there is no English translation) after borrowing the first one from my then-best friend.
Looking back, the plots got wilder and wilder with time: A lost half-sister, Claire's stalker, Ben miraculously being able to see again etc. I don't think I would enjoy it as much now as I did ten years ago, but it will only have a special place in my heart.

[Isa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0

[Nadine · Rating 4 out of 5]

diese Buchreihe hat mich während meiner Teeniezeit begleitet. ich habe sie so geliebt...