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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
I received an electronic advanced reader’s copy of this title through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. And honestly, I LOVED it. As I expected to; I’m a fan of Melissa Albert.
Melissa Albert’s first two books, The Hazelwood and The Night Country, (and Tales from the Hinterland, the book of fairy tales referenced in the first two books, which she subsequently wrote), were in the dark fairy tale genre. This new title is more of a domestic mystery/horror.
In Our Crooked Hearts, we switch between following the perspectives of contemporary Ivy in her house in the suburbs, and her mother Dana in the city in the 90s. Having been about Dana’s age in the 90s, the little details about the “alt” community (the music, thrift shops, dyed hair, ripped tights, mood rings) really rang true to me.
The story grabs you right away. We start with Ivy in the car with her boyfriend Nate on the way home from a party. Nate swerves the car abruptly and then tells Ivy it was because he saw a naked young woman in the road. They get out and look for her, but she is not the vulnerable creature they expect to find. From there, strange things keep happening around Ivy until she realizes there is a family secret she needs to uncover.
One of my favorite things about this book was that it was a book about women, their struggles, their relationships, their found families. We really see that in the character of Ivy’s “aunt Fee,” Dana’s found-family “sister” Felecita who also lost a parent at a young age. As Dana thinks, “So. A mother can be a photograph.”
The writing is really lovely. With fairy-tale themed books you almost expect beautiful language. But you really notice here in this contemporary domestic setting. The whole book is peppered with beautiful, unexpected similes, metaphors and descriptions. Just a few non-spoiler examples: “She rose like a backwoods Venus, dirty creek water running out of her hair…” “The dream still coated my skin like Vaseline.” “The uncracked storm pressed its nose to every window, slippery dark and static-charged.”
The characterizations were well done as well. For instance, one side character “…pounced on mispronunciations like a cat on a cockroach. He’d hold up his finger in the middle of a conversation, pull out a notebook and start scribbling in it while you stood there like an asshole.” It really comes through what this person is like.
I have a category of book that I call “not for everyone; yes for me.” This book falls into that category. It’s wonderfully written, but not for everyone. I know many people like to stick to their favorite genre, and there’s nothing wrong with that! I would recommend it to fans of literary horror (there are more of us out there than you may think!), fans of new adult/YA thrillers and/or fans of books about the 90s. I would also recommend it to anyone who reads open-mindedly. If you are debating reading this, do it! It’s terrific! 10/10
Melissa Albert’s first two books, The Hazelwood and The Night Country, (and Tales from the Hinterland, the book of fairy tales referenced in the first two books, which she subsequently wrote), were in the dark fairy tale genre. This new title is more of a domestic mystery/horror.
In Our Crooked Hearts, we switch between following the perspectives of contemporary Ivy in her house in the suburbs, and her mother Dana in the city in the 90s. Having been about Dana’s age in the 90s, the little details about the “alt” community (the music, thrift shops, dyed hair, ripped tights, mood rings) really rang true to me.
The story grabs you right away. We start with Ivy in the car with her boyfriend Nate on the way home from a party. Nate swerves the car abruptly and then tells Ivy it was because he saw a naked young woman in the road. They get out and look for her, but she is not the vulnerable creature they expect to find. From there, strange things keep happening around Ivy until she realizes there is a family secret she needs to uncover.
One of my favorite things about this book was that it was a book about women, their struggles, their relationships, their found families. We really see that in the character of Ivy’s “aunt Fee,” Dana’s found-family “sister” Felecita who also lost a parent at a young age. As Dana thinks, “So. A mother can be a photograph.”
The writing is really lovely. With fairy-tale themed books you almost expect beautiful language. But you really notice here in this contemporary domestic setting. The whole book is peppered with beautiful, unexpected similes, metaphors and descriptions. Just a few non-spoiler examples: “She rose like a backwoods Venus, dirty creek water running out of her hair…” “The dream still coated my skin like Vaseline.” “The uncracked storm pressed its nose to every window, slippery dark and static-charged.”
The characterizations were well done as well. For instance, one side character “…pounced on mispronunciations like a cat on a cockroach. He’d hold up his finger in the middle of a conversation, pull out a notebook and start scribbling in it while you stood there like an asshole.” It really comes through what this person is like.
I have a category of book that I call “not for everyone; yes for me.” This book falls into that category. It’s wonderfully written, but not for everyone. I know many people like to stick to their favorite genre, and there’s nothing wrong with that! I would recommend it to fans of literary horror (there are more of us out there than you may think!), fans of new adult/YA thrillers and/or fans of books about the 90s. I would also recommend it to anyone who reads open-mindedly. If you are debating reading this, do it! It’s terrific! 10/10
Twists and turns, thrills and chills. Great story and kept me wanting more.
I was able to read this ebook through #NetGalley!
Our Crooked Hearts is exciting and different. Ivy and Dana are our protagonists, and the perspective switches between the two. I, like many other readers, enjoyed Dana's more, but I understand that there wouldn't be a compelling story without Ivy.
This book is fun and creepy, in all the good ways. It's less fantastical than The Hazel Wood, but it still gives off that mysterious, eerie vibe. The ending was a bit rushed. I understood having the Billy storyline in there, but it almost pulled away from the mother-daughter storyline that I was more interested in.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book -- 4 1/2 stars!
Our Crooked Hearts is exciting and different. Ivy and Dana are our protagonists, and the perspective switches between the two. I, like many other readers, enjoyed Dana's more, but I understand that there wouldn't be a compelling story without Ivy.
This book is fun and creepy, in all the good ways. It's less fantastical than The Hazel Wood, but it still gives off that mysterious, eerie vibe. The ending was a bit rushed. I understood having the Billy storyline in there, but it almost pulled away from the mother-daughter storyline that I was more interested in.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book -- 4 1/2 stars!
3.75 stars! I liked the premise and vibes of this a lot. I wasn't as much of a fan of the chapters from the past, but overall this was a good listen and kept me intrigued.
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
So, unfortunately, this was just okay. Like, the vibes were there--at least, at first--but the execution wasn't exactly what I wanted. The beginning started out really promising. I do think Melissa Albert has a gift for the uncanny and spooky, but by the middle I was just... bored. The trajectory of the story lost me and by the end I was just meh.
One of my biggest problems with this is the fact that we get 1st person POVs for both Ivy and her mother. Ivy doesn't really have much of a personality, I guess (which, is explained, but not in a satisfying way to me) and Dana is a lot like her daughter. I think one of the POVs should have been in the 3rd person, to help differentiate the two and also to kind of shake up the formula.
The romance with Billy was boring. The fact that we saw it all in flashbacks--and not even, really, through Ivy's flashback--didn't help things either. I just didn't care about Ivy and Billy and I felt like their relationship ended up making the mother-daughter story-line that interested me in the first place take a backseat.
I did appreciate that Dana and Ivy's relationship wasn't magically healed, but at the same time, I didn't really buy that they had much of one in the first place. Dana was honestly really cruel to Ivy at the beginning and so trying to explain away her actions later didn't really make a whole lot of sense. I just didn't buy Dana's motivations or her love for her family. She didn't seem like a real person and, even after learning her backstory, she just seemed even more cold and walled off than before. I don't know. I just didn't buy that Dana even wanted a family or cared about anyone outside of Fee.
Marion's POV wasn't necessary. I think, honestly, that it took a lot of tension out of the story. A lot of what was revealed in her POV had kind of already been revealed throughout the story and the new information we got wasn't very interesting or helpful. Her obsession with Ivy didn't really make sense either. I could understand using her as a means to get revenge on Dana, but because she cared about her? Nah. That didn't come across at all to me.
Overall this was honestly quite disappointing. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I'd hoped from the story. I've only read one other book by Melissa Albert, but I'm beginning to think there's a trend here and that I may just have to skip out on her books from now on, no matter how promising the premise might seem.
Spoiler
One of my biggest problems with this is the fact that we get 1st person POVs for both Ivy and her mother. Ivy doesn't really have much of a personality, I guess (which, is explained, but not in a satisfying way to me) and Dana is a lot like her daughter. I think one of the POVs should have been in the 3rd person, to help differentiate the two and also to kind of shake up the formula.
The romance with Billy was boring. The fact that we saw it all in flashbacks--and not even, really, through Ivy's flashback--didn't help things either. I just didn't care about Ivy and Billy and I felt like their relationship ended up making the mother-daughter story-line that interested me in the first place take a backseat.
I did appreciate that Dana and Ivy's relationship wasn't magically healed, but at the same time, I didn't really buy that they had much of one in the first place. Dana was honestly really cruel to Ivy at the beginning and so trying to explain away her actions later didn't really make a whole lot of sense. I just didn't buy Dana's motivations or her love for her family. She didn't seem like a real person and, even after learning her backstory, she just seemed even more cold and walled off than before. I don't know. I just didn't buy that Dana even wanted a family or cared about anyone outside of Fee.
Marion's POV wasn't necessary. I think, honestly, that it took a lot of tension out of the story. A lot of what was revealed in her POV had kind of already been revealed throughout the story and the new information we got wasn't very interesting or helpful. Her obsession with Ivy didn't really make sense either. I could understand using her as a means to get revenge on Dana, but because she cared about her? Nah. That didn't come across at all to me.
Overall this was honestly quite disappointing. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I'd hoped from the story. I've only read one other book by Melissa Albert, but I'm beginning to think there's a trend here and that I may just have to skip out on her books from now on, no matter how promising the premise might seem.
Actual 3.5 - Just not my cup of tea. It took me 6 months to read this book because I kept putting it down. The Witchy YA scene just isn’t for me. The story was interesting and I was intrigued to see how things turned out, but there was an annoying teenage quality to Ivy that rubbed me the wrong way. I didn’t love the audiobook, but as soon as I kicked it up to two speed it didn’t seem to be dragging as much. The end felt a little rushed for as long as it took to get there. Overall, if you like the YA genre, teen characters and magic then give it a go.
Fun and witchy book. Kinda reminded me of if the Craft characters grew up and had kids.