Reviews - Hearts Still Beating

259 reviews for:

Hearts Still Beating

Brooke Archer

4.0 AVERAGE

embetweenpages's review

4.5

adventurous sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

yellowbee's review against another edition

5.0

oh yeah

blondefish's review

3.5

dark funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was a fun book but not anything super thought provoking. If you're looking for a fun sapphic love story with a unique taste on zombies, this is pretty good. A bit silly especially at the end. Wish it had delved into some of the darker parts it hinted at a bit more. The characters were a bit one dimensional to me. Overall a fun teen read.

banrions's review against another edition

5.0

I loved this!!! Zombies can still find love, maybe there’s hope for the rest of us lol. I loved both MCs, I adored their fraught but so intense and vibrant dynamic. The world building was fantastic and this was such a cool take on zombies/dystopian worlds. Really fun and unique on that front and it kept me absolutely engaged the whole time. The secondary characters were also fleshed out enough to feel real and added to the main sapphic story as a whole. My ONLY real qualm/wish for a little more would have been Carter—maybe another scene or two of development there, but that’s mostly bc I’m greedy for sister dynamics.

All in all, I absolutely loved this one and will be on the lookout from this author in the future.

claireehmann's review against another edition

4.0

Such a great YA dystopian novel. I'm obsessed with Rory and Mara's complicated relationship.

kha0223's review

4.5

adventurous dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Scratched the walking dead itch in my brain. The authors take on zombies was heartbreaking and I found myself really loving her genuine and complex characters. I feel like we were a little heavy handed on the violence at the end Rory def would've died sustaining half the injuries she takes but it's YA 🫠

Carter can kick rocks -100/10 on the sister scale

Lesbians making out creating the cure for the zombie apocalypse about took me OUT

hbirchem's review

3.75

funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

mad_woman_in_the_library's review

2.5

adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

destinyreads00's review

2.0

emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

tinysierra's review

3.75

emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Hearts Still Beating is a solid book. It’s a stand alone queer zombie romance.

I enjoyed the prose!

I wasn’t sure what was going on with the plot at first but it sort of unfolded itself.

-sapphic/WLW: Mara is bi. I’m not sure if Rory’s sexuality is labeled. Some kissing, not too heavily described.

-Disability: Mara is missing 3 fingers and has slight difficulties with hearing. Rory experiences pain in her leg from a gunshot wound.
-Duel POV
-Friends to lovers

For the biphobia tag:
I don’t remember it happening on page but it was a reference to something minor that happened in the past.

…”Carter… the [sister] who assured me it was okay to like boys and girls, who punched the boy down the street that said otherwise.”

Content Warnings

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