Fierce Fragile Hearts (Beautiful Broken Things, #2)

by Sara Barnard

Not that it’s a competition, but my stuff is so much worse than his, and I can tell by his face that Kel must have left out a lot but he’s trying not to react too obviously. I keep my voice light as I run through my story as quickly as I can – violent stepdad, left home at fifteen, lived in Brighton with Sarah, it went badly, tried to kill myself (again), got professional help, foster care – and when I finish he’s looking at me like I’m a glass vase that just smashed on the floor.

One of the biggest challenges writing this book as a standalone that is also a sequel to an existing book was deciding how much space to dedicate to Suzanne's past. It's such an essential part of the story but there was a danger of repeating too much of what was in BBT and making this story feel like a repeat of it. I rewrote this scene several times, and it turned out to be the place where I did the most of the revealing. Having Matt know some of it - through Kel - was also a handy way of avoiding the too-much-detail trap. I tried to imagine what kind of questions readers from BBT would have from only knowing what Caddy knew then and put as much of that in as I could before the scene started to drag. I know every detail of Suzanne's backstory (most of which never made it into BBT or FFH) so I find it very difficult to see the woods from the trees in putting it on page - I assume the reader knows too much, or not enough. My editor was the essential guiding voice in striking the right balance. At least, I hope it was the right balance...!