Title: The Hearts We Sold
Author: Emily Lloyd-Jones
Genre: Magical Realism
Trigger Warnings: Death, abusive parents, alcohol addiction, mild body horror
Back Cover:
When Dee Moreno makes a deal with a demon—her heart in exchange for an escape from a disastrous home life—she finds the trade may have been more than she bargained for. And becoming “heartless” is only the beginning. What lies ahead is a nightmare far bigger, far more monstrous than anything she could have ever imagined.
With reality turned on its head, Dee has only a group of other deal-making teens to keep her grounded, including the charming but secretive James Lancer. And as something grows between them amid an otherworldy ordeal, Dee begins to wonder: Can she give someone her heart when it’s no longer hers to give?
Review:
This book is intense. It doesn’t sound like it from that back cover description – that makes it sound kinda like a love story – but the emotions and the tension are strong. As in, got my heart pounding and pulse racing just from reading. If you’re looking for a heavy emotional ride, you’ll find it here.
Let’s start with Dee. I don’t want to say she’s full of desperation, because that makes her sound unpleasant, but she’s desperate enough to get away from her alcoholic and abusive parents that she sells her heart to a demon. She’s a very sympathetic character – an innocent kid trying to survive her terrible parents any way she can as a minor with no legal power. And as someone who grew up in a similar situation, her story reminded me a lot of mine – painfully so, at times. At one point I had to put the book down for two weeks because a particular scene just got too intense.
The love interest is James, who is the perfect stereotype of the eccentric artist – paint all over everything, mismatched un-stylish clothes, carefree attitude with an undercurrent of actually caring a lot about Dee. In a lot of ways he’s perfect, but since he’s more of a player in Dee’s story than having a story of his own, I didn’t mind.
There’s a fair amount of minor characters, like the other “heartless” people who’ve made deals with the same demon, as well as Dee’s boarding school roommate. They’re all unique people and well-written without overwhelming our main character, and I liked them all.
There’s a supernatural save-the-world plot going on – the demon has his “heartless” doing some dangerous tasks as part of their deal with him and it involves some big supernatural elements. There is some romance, but really most of it is Dee building a relationship with James and the romance part doesn’t come in until the end. But all of that is mainly a backdrop to Dee’s emotional arc. Her desperation to escape her parents, her struggle to get free of them, and her emotional healing just enough so she can have a romantic relationship with James is the main story. If you go into this story hoping for action-packed urban fantasy, you’re going to be disappointed. If you go in looking for an intensely emotional story about abuse and dealing with it, you’ll get what you wanted and more.
Fair warning: This book does not have a completely happy ending. Dee takes a pretty big step forward, which is really good, but there’s also a major setback that ends the story on a pretty sad note. It fits with the story, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not as positive an ending as I would have liked.
This book is very dark. The story is great, the characters are well-done, and the emotions are intense. It’s a lot all at once. It left me emotionally wiped out at the end – but personally, I like that in a book.
Bluejay Reads 