“A beautifully written and terrifying story of how people react to chaos after a massive earthquake hits Vancouver. The central characters are wonderfully complex – rich, entitled people clash with hardworking, regular folks as they are thrown together in a struggle for survival.”
— Eve Lazarus, The Globe and Mail 100 Best Books of 2022

“In her debut novel, Frances Peck masterfully brings together a cast of complex characters, each broken in their own way, and weaves a compelling story set against the backdrop of a catastrophic earthquake. It beautifully reminded me that none of us are ever on solid ground, especially when it comes to our human, and fragmented, hearts.”
— Brian Francis, author of Fruit and Missed Connections

“With masterful use of craft, Peck takes readers on a journey into how devastation draws us together while pulling us apart. With moving imagery and haunting insight into response to trauma, The Broken Places highlights the flawed nature of humanity and our ability to move forward and find community after complicated, tragic loss. Above all, Peck gives nuanced, stunning characters who show readers what it means to give ourselves up to our flaws and find love and beauty in the process.”
— Kelly S. Thompson, national bestselling author of Girls Need Not Apply: Field Notes from the Forces

“Frances Peck’s wonderfully sophisticated and razor-sharp novel takes dead aim at Vancouver’s tenuous decadent dreams against an ensemble of mesmerizing characters. The Broken Places casts an unwavering eye on a city of glass and its inhabitants who must respond to a savagely cruel event that shatters some families while bringing others closer together. It’s Balzacian in its ambition and wit, raising ineluctable questions about family and wealth, love and lust, resignation and resilience, and offers hard-earned truths about the death of dreams and how we’ll fight fiercely to keep them intact regardless of the cost. A well-crafted, affecting debut.”
— John Vigna, author of No Man’s Land

“Frances Peck reveals herself a writer with seismic impact as she examines the before, during, and after of crumbling worlds and relationships. The Broken Places will scare the living daylights out of you while it yields harsh truths, heartbreak, and hope about the human condition.”
— Glen Huser, author of Burning the Night

“The Broken Places is a propulsive, terrifying novel about the sudden catastrophic upending of day-to-day life. Hillsides slump, bridges give way, apartment buildings tilt and crumble—while love, desire, greed and devotion are tested, heightened or lost forever. Frances Peck's characters are those we instinctively understand. Beautifully layered and compelling, this novel explores the intricacies of human behaviour—what it is that makes us, and what it is we cherish most.”
— Libby Creelman, author of Split

“The Broken Places is a rare treat that combines high-tension narrative with true literary craft, delivering characters that readers will love to love, hate, pity, and grieve. Set against the backdrop of a devastating earthquake, the story of how a diverse group of people react to their new reality is beautifully delivered, offering many moments of masterful writing and rich, sensory engagement. Layer by layer, Peck reveals the motivations, fears and desires of her characters, doling out clues that culminate in an explosive and heartbreaking climax. Yet the novel ends with hope. Not a sweet-sugary treat, but a hope grounded firmly in believable characters and situations that resonate.”
— Ruth E. Walker, author of Living Underground

“Frances Peck’s dazzling debut novel snatches a cast of vividly realized, multi-faceted characters out of their daily lives in Vancouver and gathers them closer and closer as the book builds toward a dramatic, disturbing macroseismic cataclysm. Peck slides effortlessly in and out of the intimate thoughts and turbulent flux of emotion that individuals experience as they connect, as their destinies interlace, as their lives are irrevocably altered. People disappear; people are transformed. Peck’s prose is piercing with precision—here are broken people, and here is what might heal them.”
— Claire Wilkshire, author of The Love Olympics and Maxine

“The novel is intense, the situations extreme and yet so many moments of masterful writing and sensory engagement are on offer for readers.”
— Ruth E. Walker, writescape.ca (full review)

“Peck deftly weds second- and third-person perspectives, flashbacks and flashforwards, epistolary interludes and enough literary amuse-bouches that the form of the novel is as compelling as the content.”
— Andrew Guilbert, Alberta Views (full review)

“Not a soul emerges unscathed in this intense and absorbing drama.” 
— Brett Josef Grubisic, Vancouver Sun (full review)

“It is the way that Peck focuses on the human suffering that no doubt will make the biggest impact on most Vancouverites reading the book… Peck digs deep. For pages at a time, she submerges us completely in the minds of one character before moving on to the next.”
— Theo Dombrowski, The British Columbia Review (full review) 

“Wow! What a thrill of a read from debut author Frances Peck. I’m absolutely in awe to read such a magnetic and bursting debut novel. Peck’s writing style is absolutely gripping and electrifying. ... An excellent and compelling read, I would highly recommend this new voice in the Canadian literature landscape.”
— Jaaron Collins, Worn Pages and Ink (full review)

“Rather than concentrating on disaster ... Peck, in compelling and at times moving prose, is more concerned with asking the question, what will you do in a crisis?”
— Patrick Mackenzie, subTerrain

"The Broken Places is not really about an earthquake – it’s about humanity: how we live; how we interact; how we grow."
— Consumed by Ink (full review)

“What I love about this book is that it’s not a heartwarming, let’s-all-work-together-to-overcome type of a scenario. It’s real and grueling: the death toll; the fires; the terror and confusion; the selfishness; the regret; and the loss of innocence…But it’s not all grim: some of the characters have moments of connection and growth. There’s love and kindness and forgiveness.”
— Naomi Mackinnon, The Miramichi Reader (full review)

“Peck’s writing has a cinematic immediacy...In addition to its page-turning qualities, The Broken Places is a thoughtful, intelligent novel. By exposing her characters to extremes of danger and stress, Peck demonstrates the human capacity for kindness and mindless self-regard, for resilience and weakness, in equal measure.”
— Ian Colford, The Fiddlehead (full review)

“This clever, insightful novel forces readers to examine their commitment to the status quo.” 
— Rachel Baxter, Globe and Mail reader