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godlessdivine's review
3.0
( will be edited. )
So far, I like Reiko reasonably. She holds a lot of anger- it just seems too over the topp how the author writers. the main problem i have that I have yet to see anyone mention is the self harming aspect.
TRIGGER WARNING: SELF HARM
reiko is a self harmer. she cuts- for the lack of gentler description. but the way the author describes her emotions towards her self harming- habits, i suppose is really coarse and seems poorly handled. i don't know any of my friends that have / are self harmers who feel pride in their scars and upon a quick scan on the web, its a pretty uniform agreement that self harmers tend to less prideful about them, which is how reiko reacts. it's off putting.
So far, I like Reiko reasonably. She holds a lot of anger- it just seems too over the topp how the author writers. the main problem i have that I have yet to see anyone mention is the self harming aspect.
TRIGGER WARNING: SELF HARM
reiko is a self harmer. she cuts- for the lack of gentler description. but the way the author describes her emotions towards her self harming- habits, i suppose is really coarse and seems poorly handled. i don't know any of my friends that have / are self harmers who feel pride in their scars and upon a quick scan on the web, its a pretty uniform agreement that self harmers tend to less prideful about them, which is how reiko reacts. it's off putting.
villagewitch3000's review against another edition
2.0
DNF. Reiko was a really melodramatic character and the story wasn't compelling enough for me to continue. The writing is good technically, but I found it really hard to sympathize with Reiko at all - her backstory wasn't very emotional and came off like she was just whiny. Trigger warning for self-harm and suicide, described graphically.
kyouen's review against another edition
3.0
All reviews are first found on [a cup of tea and an armful of books].
This is a book I wrote off as one I’d have to read after it was published. I was pleasantly surprised when I was given an ARC by the publisher and NetGalley, so this became an unexpected October read. Perfect for Halloween, because the book deals with a lot of darkness. A Darkly Beating Heart is going to be published next week, so now is the perfect time for a review.
(I love this cover.)
Reiko didn’t go to Japan to enjoy herself. Packing herself away to a country where she doesn’t speak the language, Reiko allows the rage she has inside about the events preceding her senior year to fester. Consumed by thoughts of revenge, she manages day by day only because she is planning how to best get back at everyone. Comfortable with her routine, when her summer job requires her to go to an Edo-period town in Gifu prefecture, Reiko initially believes that leaving Tokyo is the worst thing that could have happened. It throws all of her revenge plans out the window.
Finding herself in a town with a curfew and deeply-rooted traditions, Reiko struggles with maintaining her revenge plot and coping with the anger that fills her head. Then she discovers a long-forgotten makeshift temple. It pulls Reiko back into the past into a time period rife with dangers. The connection that she feels with Miyu is immediate, her anger even more explosive than Reiko’s. But Miyu is keeping things from Reiko. And if Reiko doesn’t discover them in time, it’s not just Miyu’s time that will be affected.
This is a book that is odd to review. Lindsay Smith writes beautifully; the scenes she creates are so vivid that it’s very easy to see them in my mind’s eye. The setting just jumps off the page. Of course, it helps that I live in Japan. This book isn’t one that is “set in Japan,” where the setting isn’t realized. This setting is, and I loved it. This would have made me really nostalgic for Japan had I already moved back.
The world of modern day Tokyo and that of the Edo period were so clearly written that I had a very easy time picturing them. I’m such a fan of the Edo period of Japan that I was thrilled to read a story set in it. Or half set in it. Reiko is connected to both, and the differences and similarities in the town she finds herself in–and the times–is done really well. I liked how they both kept getting closer together and the connections that were being discovered. Despite the speed of the plot, the setting was built slowly and when it made sense for the readers to be given the information.
The writing itself is stunning. Each page seemed to have a beautiful description of a place or a spot on look at Japan or the characters that Reiko was spending time with. I was incredibly impressed with Smith’s writing style. It wasn’t too flowery or unnecessarily bogged down with details that didn’t matter. It was an absolute pleasure to read. When I first started reading this I was sure that I would love the book. However, beautiful writing is not the only thing I look for in a book.
That isn’t to say the story or premise wasn’t interesting. I just found that I was more interested in the Edo period parts rather than the modern day parts. While both are incredibly detailed, I’ve found that historical fiction novels are increasingly becoming some of my favorite books to read. I understand why the plot was divided between the two times, but I ended up wishing that the novel was completely set in the Edo period and was about Miyu. That was the story I was really interesting in. Whenever it switched back to Reiko’s point of view in the modern day, I was tempted to skim a little in order to get back to her.
The connection of the past to the present in this little Gifu town was done really well. There are a lot of places in Japan that place importance on the past, but Kuramagi takes it to the extreme. Something isn’t quite right about this town. They bury power lines (which actually does happen in some of these Edo-period towns), have a curfew, and place an emphasis on keeping the town as period correct as they are able. I liked that the town was the center of why the two different time periods were converging. I just felt like a great story was rushed.
A Darkly Beating Heart is a relatively short story, and that is where it fell a little flat for me. Because it’s short, a plot that I personally think should have been drawn out more feels rushed and half realized. In a book where the setting, writing, and emotions of the protagonist are written so well, a rushed plot (especially one that is actually really interesting) was disappointing. I did appreciate the element of Reiko missing half of Miyu’s story–I enjoyed that she only knew what she learned when she was in Miyu’s body and had to figure out what she had missed when the story had progressed without her–but ultimately I thought that it jumped back and forth too much without giving readers enough information about the two time periods and the conflicts in them.
I thought that the way that Reiko was pulled back into the past was really well done. There’s always an element of leeriness that I have when I go into a book that involves some form of time traveling, but I thought that the two story lines and the different time periods were perfectly intertwined. The time travel remained consistent throughout the story and it wasn’t made overly complicated just for the sake of making it complicated. More is revealed as Reiko shares a body with Miyu and becomes more comfortable with the past and I appreciated the effort that Smith made to show that there are consequences for every action.
Reiko as a character is…interesting. The entire time she is plotting revenge: on her family, the people around her, her former girlfriend. Things have happened to her that are given to readers IV drip like, and that was part of my eagerness to read. I really wanted to know where all this anger came from, because I have never read a book where the protagonist is this angry. It was really uncomfortable at times because Reiko is constantly thinking about harming herself and others. Yet, I found myself continuing the book, despite this darkness. Her anger wasn’t swept under the rug when it became inconvenient or when the novel ended. She is able to work through some things but also realizes that her life is far from perfect. But she learns how to manage her anger even as she still has it.
It makes sense that she connected so quickly with Miyu because of her anger. Miyu also functions as a way for Reiko to understand that holding in all of that rage will consume her to the point of no return. Although Miyu is also a different character, because they shared had shared experiences I felt like they were the same. That’s a reason why I wish the book had been longer. I think it would have benefited the plot to explore more of what Miyu was going through.
Smith also had a handle on the sometimes dual nature of those who are bilingual. Reiko overemphasized the negative nature of bilingual characters because she is so blinded by her rage. Moments where Reiko is treated kindly (in English) but later is treated cruely or like a child (in Japanese) is unfortunately familiar, though rare. This is an element of passive-aggressiveness that foreigners sometimes experience. However, I do think that Reiko is being overly judgemental and Akiyo and Mariko are viewed harshly through this lens of anger she has. Reiko reconciles with this issue by the end of the novel, suggesting that much of her interactions with these characters had been so tainted by anger that she wasn’t getting a proper read on them. There was closure with the promise to try harder to resist these moments in the future.
A Darkly Beating Heart had amazing words that had it sitting at a 5 star rating. Due to the rushed nature of the plot and what I believe could have been a longer story, I’m rating it a bit lower than that. I really recommend this for readers because it does have a very vivid setting and an interesting story that is plotted well. The only caveat I give is to be prepared for Reiko. Maybe I don’t read many stories with dark protagonists, but her nature was hard to read at times. She had a lot of issues that were very serious and may turn off some readers.
3 stars.
I received a copy of A Darkly Beating Heartt from NetGalley and the publisher. A Darkly Beating Heart will be published on October 25th, 2016.
This is a book I wrote off as one I’d have to read after it was published. I was pleasantly surprised when I was given an ARC by the publisher and NetGalley, so this became an unexpected October read. Perfect for Halloween, because the book deals with a lot of darkness. A Darkly Beating Heart is going to be published next week, so now is the perfect time for a review.
(I love this cover.)
Reiko didn’t go to Japan to enjoy herself. Packing herself away to a country where she doesn’t speak the language, Reiko allows the rage she has inside about the events preceding her senior year to fester. Consumed by thoughts of revenge, she manages day by day only because she is planning how to best get back at everyone. Comfortable with her routine, when her summer job requires her to go to an Edo-period town in Gifu prefecture, Reiko initially believes that leaving Tokyo is the worst thing that could have happened. It throws all of her revenge plans out the window.
Finding herself in a town with a curfew and deeply-rooted traditions, Reiko struggles with maintaining her revenge plot and coping with the anger that fills her head. Then she discovers a long-forgotten makeshift temple. It pulls Reiko back into the past into a time period rife with dangers. The connection that she feels with Miyu is immediate, her anger even more explosive than Reiko’s. But Miyu is keeping things from Reiko. And if Reiko doesn’t discover them in time, it’s not just Miyu’s time that will be affected.
This is a book that is odd to review. Lindsay Smith writes beautifully; the scenes she creates are so vivid that it’s very easy to see them in my mind’s eye. The setting just jumps off the page. Of course, it helps that I live in Japan. This book isn’t one that is “set in Japan,” where the setting isn’t realized. This setting is, and I loved it. This would have made me really nostalgic for Japan had I already moved back.
The world of modern day Tokyo and that of the Edo period were so clearly written that I had a very easy time picturing them. I’m such a fan of the Edo period of Japan that I was thrilled to read a story set in it. Or half set in it. Reiko is connected to both, and the differences and similarities in the town she finds herself in–and the times–is done really well. I liked how they both kept getting closer together and the connections that were being discovered. Despite the speed of the plot, the setting was built slowly and when it made sense for the readers to be given the information.
The writing itself is stunning. Each page seemed to have a beautiful description of a place or a spot on look at Japan or the characters that Reiko was spending time with. I was incredibly impressed with Smith’s writing style. It wasn’t too flowery or unnecessarily bogged down with details that didn’t matter. It was an absolute pleasure to read. When I first started reading this I was sure that I would love the book. However, beautiful writing is not the only thing I look for in a book.
That isn’t to say the story or premise wasn’t interesting. I just found that I was more interested in the Edo period parts rather than the modern day parts. While both are incredibly detailed, I’ve found that historical fiction novels are increasingly becoming some of my favorite books to read. I understand why the plot was divided between the two times, but I ended up wishing that the novel was completely set in the Edo period and was about Miyu. That was the story I was really interesting in. Whenever it switched back to Reiko’s point of view in the modern day, I was tempted to skim a little in order to get back to her.
The connection of the past to the present in this little Gifu town was done really well. There are a lot of places in Japan that place importance on the past, but Kuramagi takes it to the extreme. Something isn’t quite right about this town. They bury power lines (which actually does happen in some of these Edo-period towns), have a curfew, and place an emphasis on keeping the town as period correct as they are able. I liked that the town was the center of why the two different time periods were converging. I just felt like a great story was rushed.
A Darkly Beating Heart is a relatively short story, and that is where it fell a little flat for me. Because it’s short, a plot that I personally think should have been drawn out more feels rushed and half realized. In a book where the setting, writing, and emotions of the protagonist are written so well, a rushed plot (especially one that is actually really interesting) was disappointing. I did appreciate the element of Reiko missing half of Miyu’s story–I enjoyed that she only knew what she learned when she was in Miyu’s body and had to figure out what she had missed when the story had progressed without her–but ultimately I thought that it jumped back and forth too much without giving readers enough information about the two time periods and the conflicts in them.
I thought that the way that Reiko was pulled back into the past was really well done. There’s always an element of leeriness that I have when I go into a book that involves some form of time traveling, but I thought that the two story lines and the different time periods were perfectly intertwined. The time travel remained consistent throughout the story and it wasn’t made overly complicated just for the sake of making it complicated. More is revealed as Reiko shares a body with Miyu and becomes more comfortable with the past and I appreciated the effort that Smith made to show that there are consequences for every action.
Reiko as a character is…interesting. The entire time she is plotting revenge: on her family, the people around her, her former girlfriend. Things have happened to her that are given to readers IV drip like, and that was part of my eagerness to read. I really wanted to know where all this anger came from, because I have never read a book where the protagonist is this angry. It was really uncomfortable at times because Reiko is constantly thinking about harming herself and others. Yet, I found myself continuing the book, despite this darkness. Her anger wasn’t swept under the rug when it became inconvenient or when the novel ended. She is able to work through some things but also realizes that her life is far from perfect. But she learns how to manage her anger even as she still has it.
It makes sense that she connected so quickly with Miyu because of her anger. Miyu also functions as a way for Reiko to understand that holding in all of that rage will consume her to the point of no return. Although Miyu is also a different character, because they shared had shared experiences I felt like they were the same. That’s a reason why I wish the book had been longer. I think it would have benefited the plot to explore more of what Miyu was going through.
Smith also had a handle on the sometimes dual nature of those who are bilingual. Reiko overemphasized the negative nature of bilingual characters because she is so blinded by her rage. Moments where Reiko is treated kindly (in English) but later is treated cruely or like a child (in Japanese) is unfortunately familiar, though rare. This is an element of passive-aggressiveness that foreigners sometimes experience. However, I do think that Reiko is being overly judgemental and Akiyo and Mariko are viewed harshly through this lens of anger she has. Reiko reconciles with this issue by the end of the novel, suggesting that much of her interactions with these characters had been so tainted by anger that she wasn’t getting a proper read on them. There was closure with the promise to try harder to resist these moments in the future.
A Darkly Beating Heart had amazing words that had it sitting at a 5 star rating. Due to the rushed nature of the plot and what I believe could have been a longer story, I’m rating it a bit lower than that. I really recommend this for readers because it does have a very vivid setting and an interesting story that is plotted well. The only caveat I give is to be prepared for Reiko. Maybe I don’t read many stories with dark protagonists, but her nature was hard to read at times. She had a lot of issues that were very serious and may turn off some readers.
3 stars.
I received a copy of A Darkly Beating Heartt from NetGalley and the publisher. A Darkly Beating Heart will be published on October 25th, 2016.
alexalovesbooks's review against another edition
3.0
I'm torn between a 3.25-3.5 stars. While the story in this novel is something I could totally see as an anime, it is actually Reiko that I found super interesting. She's angry and confused and hellbent on revenge for the stuff she's gone through, and while it made her very prickly, it made me curious about who she was. It does resolve a bit too quickly, and it plays out in a way that I guessed out. But I found it impossible to stop (unless I had to), and I liked the depiction of Japan, and I thought it was a very different read :)
craftwitch's review against another edition
3.0
cross posted for fox and fiction.
I am always asking for more angry girls in books-- I want them mean, I want them cold and callous, I want them cruel and unremorseful. Girls like this are so frequently thrown away in fiction, their stories regarded as irrelevant, only included as the bully, the villain, the side character meant to change for the benefit of the protagonist. In A Darkly Beating Heart, all these negative things the girls we root for aren't supposed to feel take center stage. There's a lot of things to like here, but there's a lot of things to complain about, too.
While the premise of the novel is interesting- a girl taking a year off between high school and college is spending it with family in Japan, suddenly begins to travel momentarily back in time, to experience glimpses of a life in 1860s Japan alongside her own- the effect is unfortunately ruined. Lindsay Smith does a fairly good job of writing about Japan, both present day and historical Japan, without fetishizing it, but still- she will always be writing about it as an outsider, and it does make things slightly uncomfortable, and maybe even slightly inappropriate. I don't necessarily think this means the book isn't worth reading, and it's not something that Smith herself can do anything about. But the book would be better from a Japanese author, someone who had experienced the culture as more than a tourist.
What I loved most about this book, of course, was the main character, Reiko. Girls are so infrequently allowed to be as angry as Reiko in fiction. She has such a sustained appetite for revenge, a true fire fueled with violence in her. She knows she has a rotten core, and she doesn't fear it or regret it. I've seen this kind of hatred in boys because boys are allowed to be angry, but for a girl to be this vengeful, to hold a grudge and let it fester into true hatred, for everyone who has wronged her and hurt her, that was what truly made this book for me. Because of course I want to see the emotion I struggle with the most reflected in someone like me- someone who is not supposed to be hateful and angry, but who is, regardless.
Besides the one glaring issue with the book, there are several minor things that knock it down, as well. I flipped back and forth on whether I wanted Reiko to change, or if I wanted her anger to sustain her all the way through the novel, burning her up as she goes. Without saying what does happen, I will say that it was a little disappointing, only because both things can't happen, and either way, a little of what might have been is lost. I would've loved to see more of her relationship with her older brother, as someone with a very antagonistic relationship with mine, too. But mostly I would've loved for the book to have been longer, so that there could've been more depth. Reiko's past, what she is so angry about, feels very hollow to the reader. Whenever she reflects on it, I should feel angry along with her, but I don't. I think if I was not naturally an angry person, that Reiko's anger and hatred would come off as very silly and misplaced. There was plenty of room to develop relationships with the characters around her, to make the awful things she did do seem better or worse. Instead, Reiko oftentimes felt very much like a marionette in a play, performing the actions she was supposed to, doing what was needed to advance the plot forward, instead of a true character who was doing what she needed to do, for herself.
A Darkly Beating Heart is a book that sits itself right in the middle of things. It could be much worse, of course, but it could be much better, too. The premise is interesting enough, and it was an entertaining read, but it won't be a book I will readily recommend to others. If you want a book about bad and angry girls, try Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman. If you want a book about a Japanese American girl living in Japan and struggling, by a Japanese author, try A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki. But if you do end up reading A Darkly Beating Heart, here is a content warning: there are instances of self harm and suicide attempts in it that readers should be aware of before going in.
I am always asking for more angry girls in books-- I want them mean, I want them cold and callous, I want them cruel and unremorseful. Girls like this are so frequently thrown away in fiction, their stories regarded as irrelevant, only included as the bully, the villain, the side character meant to change for the benefit of the protagonist. In A Darkly Beating Heart, all these negative things the girls we root for aren't supposed to feel take center stage. There's a lot of things to like here, but there's a lot of things to complain about, too.
While the premise of the novel is interesting- a girl taking a year off between high school and college is spending it with family in Japan, suddenly begins to travel momentarily back in time, to experience glimpses of a life in 1860s Japan alongside her own- the effect is unfortunately ruined. Lindsay Smith does a fairly good job of writing about Japan, both present day and historical Japan, without fetishizing it, but still- she will always be writing about it as an outsider, and it does make things slightly uncomfortable, and maybe even slightly inappropriate. I don't necessarily think this means the book isn't worth reading, and it's not something that Smith herself can do anything about. But the book would be better from a Japanese author, someone who had experienced the culture as more than a tourist.
What I loved most about this book, of course, was the main character, Reiko. Girls are so infrequently allowed to be as angry as Reiko in fiction. She has such a sustained appetite for revenge, a true fire fueled with violence in her. She knows she has a rotten core, and she doesn't fear it or regret it. I've seen this kind of hatred in boys because boys are allowed to be angry, but for a girl to be this vengeful, to hold a grudge and let it fester into true hatred, for everyone who has wronged her and hurt her, that was what truly made this book for me. Because of course I want to see the emotion I struggle with the most reflected in someone like me- someone who is not supposed to be hateful and angry, but who is, regardless.
Besides the one glaring issue with the book, there are several minor things that knock it down, as well. I flipped back and forth on whether I wanted Reiko to change, or if I wanted her anger to sustain her all the way through the novel, burning her up as she goes. Without saying what does happen, I will say that it was a little disappointing, only because both things can't happen, and either way, a little of what might have been is lost. I would've loved to see more of her relationship with her older brother, as someone with a very antagonistic relationship with mine, too. But mostly I would've loved for the book to have been longer, so that there could've been more depth. Reiko's past, what she is so angry about, feels very hollow to the reader. Whenever she reflects on it, I should feel angry along with her, but I don't. I think if I was not naturally an angry person, that Reiko's anger and hatred would come off as very silly and misplaced. There was plenty of room to develop relationships with the characters around her, to make the awful things she did do seem better or worse. Instead, Reiko oftentimes felt very much like a marionette in a play, performing the actions she was supposed to, doing what was needed to advance the plot forward, instead of a true character who was doing what she needed to do, for herself.
A Darkly Beating Heart is a book that sits itself right in the middle of things. It could be much worse, of course, but it could be much better, too. The premise is interesting enough, and it was an entertaining read, but it won't be a book I will readily recommend to others. If you want a book about bad and angry girls, try Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman. If you want a book about a Japanese American girl living in Japan and struggling, by a Japanese author, try A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki. But if you do end up reading A Darkly Beating Heart, here is a content warning: there are instances of self harm and suicide attempts in it that readers should be aware of before going in.
reader_fictions's review against another edition
4.0
All of Lindsay Smith’s books have sounded really good to me, but A Darkly Beating Heart is the first one I’ve actually managed to make it through. Her concepts thrill me, but the writing has, heretofore, left me a bit cold. A Darkly Beating Heart captured me immediately and didn’t let go. This book is dark, beautiful, and soaked in rage. It was the most perfect book I could have picked up in the wake of the election, distracting, decidedly about something else, but allowing me to indulge in all the anger I feel. So yeah, if you’re pissed about how things have gone in the US, and you want to read a book as angry and dark as your heart right now, you cannot go wrong with A Darkly Beating Heart.
The best comparison I have for A Darkly Beating Heart is Leah Raeder/Elliott Wake’s Black Iris. Both feature rage-fueled bisexual, female protagonists who have been betrayed by people around them. Their motives and circumstances are massively different, but there’s an undercurrent to both books that’s quite similar. Smith doesn’t quite have Raeder’s poetic prose, but there’s much more dark poetry to her prose in this book than was present in her prior books. There are a number of really gorgeous lines and perfect metaphors for Reiko’s madness (and I mean this word both ways).
Though I know that I’m not a mood reader anymore (I read by a very strict schedule and rarely deviate), I highly urge you to pick up this book when you’re in the mood for something angry. A Darkly Beating Heart is the book equivalent of turning on your angry playlist, full of songs that you scream along to when someone or something has pissed you off. It’s cathartic in the same way too, ultimately, letting you get those dark feelings out without actually doing anything terrible. If you’re not in the mood for that, I can imagine this book being a real struggle.
Reiko’s fucking angry. She’s enraged. She hates absolutely everyone and everything. That’s a hard narrator to take. There are reasons why she’s this way, but she’s going to be like this for basically all of the book, though there is a character arc because obviously. But seriously, expect Reiko to hate everyone and everything around her, to hate them with a fiery, burning passion. This book is dark, bloody, gruesome, even when nothing’s happening at all. You really can feel that dark heartbeat running through the pages, which is a masterful effect.
Rei’s living in Japan during her “gap year” of sorts, though mostly she just had to get away from her life in America. It’s not like she’s any more interested in her parents’ home country of Japan. Even though she’s been there for a couple of months, Rei barely speaks any Japanese, which earns her a special loathing. She loathes the fake politeness, and her cousin’s attempt to become an idol, which she grudgingly helps out on. In pursuit of Aki’s goal to become famous, her crew (aka coworkers paid to help her), including Rei, head to the small, historic village of Kuromagi. I really don’t feel qualified to comment on the portrayal of Japan and the Japanese. The book’s definitely soaked in hatred, but that’s Rei’s, and the one thing I can say for certain is that A Darkly Beating Heart isn’t full of stereotypes.
The plot’s probably what I’m least into, because it doesn’t quite have the majesty of the rest of the book. I’d have liked to see Rei figure out a way through this without the time traveling intervention of Miyu, quite honestly. The way everything resolves felt a bit rushed and easy for someone as fucked up as Rei. That said, I was totally sucked in to both the historical and modern timelines, and I totally didn’t see some of the twistier things coming.
Though I hate running behind on my ARCs, I’m so glad I got to A Darkly Beating Heart when I did. I really needed it. This book is awesome, and I’m super glad I kept trying Lindsay Smith books until I found the one for me.
The best comparison I have for A Darkly Beating Heart is Leah Raeder/Elliott Wake’s Black Iris. Both feature rage-fueled bisexual, female protagonists who have been betrayed by people around them. Their motives and circumstances are massively different, but there’s an undercurrent to both books that’s quite similar. Smith doesn’t quite have Raeder’s poetic prose, but there’s much more dark poetry to her prose in this book than was present in her prior books. There are a number of really gorgeous lines and perfect metaphors for Reiko’s madness (and I mean this word both ways).
Though I know that I’m not a mood reader anymore (I read by a very strict schedule and rarely deviate), I highly urge you to pick up this book when you’re in the mood for something angry. A Darkly Beating Heart is the book equivalent of turning on your angry playlist, full of songs that you scream along to when someone or something has pissed you off. It’s cathartic in the same way too, ultimately, letting you get those dark feelings out without actually doing anything terrible. If you’re not in the mood for that, I can imagine this book being a real struggle.
Reiko’s fucking angry. She’s enraged. She hates absolutely everyone and everything. That’s a hard narrator to take. There are reasons why she’s this way, but she’s going to be like this for basically all of the book, though there is a character arc because obviously. But seriously, expect Reiko to hate everyone and everything around her, to hate them with a fiery, burning passion. This book is dark, bloody, gruesome, even when nothing’s happening at all. You really can feel that dark heartbeat running through the pages, which is a masterful effect.
Rei’s living in Japan during her “gap year” of sorts, though mostly she just had to get away from her life in America. It’s not like she’s any more interested in her parents’ home country of Japan. Even though she’s been there for a couple of months, Rei barely speaks any Japanese, which earns her a special loathing. She loathes the fake politeness, and her cousin’s attempt to become an idol, which she grudgingly helps out on. In pursuit of Aki’s goal to become famous, her crew (aka coworkers paid to help her), including Rei, head to the small, historic village of Kuromagi. I really don’t feel qualified to comment on the portrayal of Japan and the Japanese. The book’s definitely soaked in hatred, but that’s Rei’s, and the one thing I can say for certain is that A Darkly Beating Heart isn’t full of stereotypes.
The plot’s probably what I’m least into, because it doesn’t quite have the majesty of the rest of the book. I’d have liked to see Rei figure out a way through this without the time traveling intervention of Miyu, quite honestly. The way everything resolves felt a bit rushed and easy for someone as fucked up as Rei. That said, I was totally sucked in to both the historical and modern timelines, and I totally didn’t see some of the twistier things coming.
Though I hate running behind on my ARCs, I’m so glad I got to A Darkly Beating Heart when I did. I really needed it. This book is awesome, and I’m super glad I kept trying Lindsay Smith books until I found the one for me.
jamiebooksandladders's review against another edition
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way impacts my views.
DNF @ 13%
I'm not DNF-ing for any other reason than this is VERY triggering. On page self-harm and talks of suicide and I can't get further than what I did because it is causing me mental health problems. They are handled really well so far, in how they are discussed, and other reviews claim that they are dealt with well, I just cannot put myself through this anymore in good conscious.
DNF @ 13%
I'm not DNF-ing for any other reason than this is VERY triggering. On page self-harm and talks of suicide and I can't get further than what I did because it is causing me mental health problems. They are handled really well so far, in how they are discussed, and other reviews claim that they are dealt with well, I just cannot put myself through this anymore in good conscious.
thefox22's review against another edition
4.0
*Physical ARC kindly provided by Macmillan.
When I started this, I wasn’t sure what to think. I was actually never sure what to think about it until well near the ending. Until everything came together. Because I couldn’t see what this book was trying to do until all of the pieces of the puzzle clicked into place. Whether it’s because I didn’t understand a lot of the Japanese culture and references in here, the unreliable narrator, or simply the talented writing, I’m not sure. But when it all led up to that ending, I could see exactly how good the book was and how the storyline that blended the past and present shined. Like I REALLY enjoyed A Darkly Beating Heart a lot! It took a while to get into the story, sure, but once it got going, I was hooked. It was super intriguing, and I know that’s at least 50% in part because of the voice.
The main character, Reiko, is not an easy person to like. She’s unreliable, mean, and is mentally unstable. And she’s so, so angry. Her rage is a living thing, a dark presence in her life. It affects not only her, but everyone else in her life. But she doesn’t seem to get that; and if she does, she doesn’t care. She’s a narrator you can’t exactly trust, because the way she views the world is so narrow and focused on herself. She wouldn’t take responsibility for her own actions, and you don’t even learn all of the things she’s done until the last 30 pages or so. But I liked her character a lot, could even relate to her a bit, with her need for control and her anger at the world. And because she also had depression, it affected her even more. So much so that she almost destroyed everything around her based on a need for revenge that wasn’t even completely hers.
When she is pulled back in time, Reiko finds herself loving the past more than her present. She starts to want Miyu’s life. She starts to fall for a samurai named Jiro and wants to spend more time there than in the present, but how much of that was Miyu and how much of that was Reiko? I have no idea. I was really confused on this supernatural aspect to the story. It seemed as if Reiko still had control when she was in Miyu’s body, but I wasn’t so sure, and it didn’t make much sense to me if she was. I wondered why there was never any conflict when Reiko was there. But things became clearer near the end, when the truth behind Miyu’s story comes to light and Reiko realizes that she’s kind of been played by this vengeful girl from 1862. Their rage was so intertwined that the main character couldn’t see her way out of it until it was almost too late.
I honestly preferred the past pieces more than I did the present. I found the present to be incredibly boring, more so because I didn’t like any of the other characters there, except for Kenji. They didn’t understand Reiko, and I can see why, given how she acts and what she says. And given that she’s kept a lot to herself, and as the readers come to realize, she’s unreliable as a narrator. So how Reiko perceived the world and the people in it could not be trusted 100%, but I will say that Akiko and Merika and Tadashi were awful and selfish people who did not treat Reiko like a human being who had her own feelings. Ugh, such jerks! Anyway. I didn’t much care for them, nor about what was going on in modern day Kuramagi.
The combination of the past and the present was so fabulously written. Parts were confusing, because I didn’t always understand who was in control: Miyu or Reiko, and you don’t get the full history until well over the halfway point. Even by the end, I’m not even sure I understood everything that had happened because the fast pace of the story made the ending that much quicker to unfold. And I don’t know much about Japanese culture, so the beginning was hard to get around. But once the story started to play out, I couldn’t stop reading. And I really loved the ending, how Reiko came to realize that vengeance was not the answer, that she didn’t have to be so angry. That she was only going to perpetuate the cycle of violence and pain. This story was about a girl who just wanted to take back control of her life and live more freely./b>
Rating: 4 Paw Prints!
When I started this, I wasn’t sure what to think. I was actually never sure what to think about it until well near the ending. Until everything came together. Because I couldn’t see what this book was trying to do until all of the pieces of the puzzle clicked into place. Whether it’s because I didn’t understand a lot of the Japanese culture and references in here, the unreliable narrator, or simply the talented writing, I’m not sure. But when it all led up to that ending, I could see exactly how good the book was and how the storyline that blended the past and present shined. Like I REALLY enjoyed A Darkly Beating Heart a lot! It took a while to get into the story, sure, but once it got going, I was hooked. It was super intriguing, and I know that’s at least 50% in part because of the voice.
The main character, Reiko, is not an easy person to like. She’s unreliable, mean, and is mentally unstable. And she’s so, so angry. Her rage is a living thing, a dark presence in her life. It affects not only her, but everyone else in her life. But she doesn’t seem to get that; and if she does, she doesn’t care. She’s a narrator you can’t exactly trust, because the way she views the world is so narrow and focused on herself. She wouldn’t take responsibility for her own actions, and you don’t even learn all of the things she’s done until the last 30 pages or so. But I liked her character a lot, could even relate to her a bit, with her need for control and her anger at the world. And because she also had depression, it affected her even more. So much so that she almost destroyed everything around her based on a need for revenge that wasn’t even completely hers.
When she is pulled back in time, Reiko finds herself loving the past more than her present. She starts to want Miyu’s life. She starts to fall for a samurai named Jiro and wants to spend more time there than in the present, but how much of that was Miyu and how much of that was Reiko? I have no idea. I was really confused on this supernatural aspect to the story. It seemed as if Reiko still had control when she was in Miyu’s body, but I wasn’t so sure, and it didn’t make much sense to me if she was. I wondered why there was never any conflict when Reiko was there. But things became clearer near the end, when the truth behind Miyu’s story comes to light and Reiko realizes that she’s kind of been played by this vengeful girl from 1862. Their rage was so intertwined that the main character couldn’t see her way out of it until it was almost too late.
I honestly preferred the past pieces more than I did the present. I found the present to be incredibly boring, more so because I didn’t like any of the other characters there, except for Kenji. They didn’t understand Reiko, and I can see why, given how she acts and what she says. And given that she’s kept a lot to herself, and as the readers come to realize, she’s unreliable as a narrator. So how Reiko perceived the world and the people in it could not be trusted 100%, but I will say that Akiko and Merika and Tadashi were awful and selfish people who did not treat Reiko like a human being who had her own feelings. Ugh, such jerks! Anyway. I didn’t much care for them, nor about what was going on in modern day Kuramagi.
The combination of the past and the present was so fabulously written. Parts were confusing, because I didn’t always understand who was in control: Miyu or Reiko, and you don’t get the full history until well over the halfway point. Even by the end, I’m not even sure I understood everything that had happened because the fast pace of the story made the ending that much quicker to unfold. And I don’t know much about Japanese culture, so the beginning was hard to get around. But once the story started to play out, I couldn’t stop reading. And I really loved the ending, how Reiko came to realize that vengeance was not the answer, that she didn’t have to be so angry. That she was only going to perpetuate the cycle of violence and pain. This story was about a girl who just wanted to take back control of her life and live more freely./b>
Rating: 4 Paw Prints!
mcf's review against another edition
3.0
Actual rating: 3.5.
This was gracefully written, and the dual settings -- particularly modern Tokyo -- were vividly drawn and really compelling, and the ghostly revenge story is appropriately creepy. For me, though, the main character just wasn't very likable, which made it hard for me to care about her bottomless, targeted rage or the sudden appearance of a redemption arc, whether or not there were spirits involved.
Thanks to Macmillan and NetGalley for the ARC!
This was gracefully written, and the dual settings -- particularly modern Tokyo -- were vividly drawn and really compelling, and the ghostly revenge story is appropriately creepy. For me, though, the main character just wasn't very likable, which made it hard for me to care about her bottomless, targeted rage or the sudden appearance of a redemption arc, whether or not there were spirits involved.
Thanks to Macmillan and NetGalley for the ARC!