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A review by scarroll178
The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
This book taught me a lot about autistic burnout and caregiver burnout, and for that I really appreciate it.
It was also written painfully badly in some places. The author tackles a lot of really serious topics in this book, but the pure level of cheese with which she writes about those topics is —
Ugh.
I respect that some of the things she talks about come from her own experience, but here’s the thing: I’m not critiquing those parts of the book. At all. Anna’s sections of the book are much stronger and more grounded than Quan’s sections. For instance, during one very emotionally intense part of the book, Quan talks about his pain in the most embarrassing, edge lord way possible. I’m not gonna take the time to write the full quote, but he’s basically like “I want to break rules, break things, watch smoke blacken the sky. I crave the taste of pain. Nothing could rival this gaping sense of betrayal.” 💀💀💀 The sex scenes were also really boring, and normally that’s something I could force myself through, but in this book there’s a sex scene so bad it made me laugh out loud when I was reading it. Anna is trying to apologize to Quan, and she decides the best way to make up for agreeing to marry another dude is to strip and masturbate for him, to show him how much she trusts him I guess??? Not what they were fighting about btw, there was never any question that Anna trusted Quan. The issue was that HE couldn’t trust HER anymore because SHE AGREED TO MARRY ANOTHER DUDE. The author delivers this scene without a hint of humor or irony. It’s all very serious and earnest, and that just makes it funnier tbh
Yeah… I just couldn’t take this book seriously. I really liked it at first, but it just got worse and worse as it went on. This is the first book in a really long time that I wish I had just put down without finishing, cause the beginning is so much better than the end.
It was also written painfully badly in some places. The author tackles a lot of really serious topics in this book, but the pure level of cheese with which she writes about those topics is —
Ugh.
I respect that some of the things she talks about come from her own experience, but here’s the thing: I’m not critiquing those parts of the book. At all. Anna’s sections of the book are much stronger and more grounded than Quan’s sections. For instance, during one very emotionally intense part of the book, Quan talks about his pain in the most embarrassing, edge lord way possible.
Yeah… I just couldn’t take this book seriously. I really liked it at first, but it just got worse and worse as it went on. This is the first book in a really long time that I wish I had just put down without finishing, cause the beginning is so much better than the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism and Suicidal thoughts