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A review by booking_along
The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
a great addition and ending to this trilogy.
i loved getting Quan as a main character since he was such an interesting one in the other two books.
i love how hoang wrote him as this very accepting self assured man that had no problem taking about feelings and being who he was, helping other find themselves as well. sad to say that that is not seen to often not only in the romance genre but in fiction and real life as well, that a man is simple comfortable with himself and maybe cause of that just accepts people as they are.
i enjoyed experiencing anna’s journey to finding out that she is autistic.
especially the section where her first reaction is to deny it because “… i hate mate. i don’t have a photographic memory. i fit in. i have freunde, a boyfriend, even my moms friends like me. i’m nothing like sheldon from the big bang theory or - or- or the bro thy er in rain man.” and being told that that’s just stereotypical misperceptions and not typical autistic marks.
i really enjoyed the dynamic between anna and quan and how he helped her become her own person by accepting who she was, simply because he wanted to know her and liked her.
“he trusts me to know myself. i didn’t know how important that was to me until now.”
i struggled with the other parts of the book, though.
i think mostly because the relationship between anna and her sister where too similar to my own issues with my sister and how she sees me. too similarity to anna and her sister, my own seems to believe that pushing and listing all my faults is the best way to get me where she wants me to be and is incapable of seeing her own wrongs in doing so.
i think that was what made it hard for me to enjoy especially those sections of the book. it was just too close to what i experienced too often myself.
i wasn’t a fan of the moments with anna’s father either. but than i am a big believer of ”if you can be a version of who you where before something happened but are just a shell, that’s no life at all”
so reading about her dad being forced to go on… not fun for me.
all in all?
this was a good book and i really enjoyed the entire trilogy.
also i am sure i will be rereading this sometime, if for nothing else but to see a great representation and all the different versions autism can take and i haven’t seen in any other fiction books before!
i loved getting Quan as a main character since he was such an interesting one in the other two books.
i love how hoang wrote him as this very accepting self assured man that had no problem taking about feelings and being who he was, helping other find themselves as well. sad to say that that is not seen to often not only in the romance genre but in fiction and real life as well, that a man is simple comfortable with himself and maybe cause of that just accepts people as they are.
i enjoyed experiencing anna’s journey to finding out that she is autistic.
especially the section where her first reaction is to deny it because “… i hate mate. i don’t have a photographic memory. i fit in. i have freunde, a boyfriend, even my moms friends like me. i’m nothing like sheldon from the big bang theory or - or- or the bro thy er in rain man.” and being told that that’s just stereotypical misperceptions and not typical autistic marks.
i really enjoyed the dynamic between anna and quan and how he helped her become her own person by accepting who she was, simply because he wanted to know her and liked her.
“he trusts me to know myself. i didn’t know how important that was to me until now.”
i struggled with the other parts of the book, though.
i think mostly because the relationship between anna and her sister where too similar to my own issues with my sister and how she sees me. too similarity to anna and her sister, my own seems to believe that pushing and listing all my faults is the best way to get me where she wants me to be and is incapable of seeing her own wrongs in doing so.
i think that was what made it hard for me to enjoy especially those sections of the book. it was just too close to what i experienced too often myself.
i wasn’t a fan of the moments with anna’s father either. but than i am a big believer of ”if you can be a version of who you where before something happened but are just a shell, that’s no life at all”
so reading about her dad being forced to go on… not fun for me.
all in all?
this was a good book and i really enjoyed the entire trilogy.
also i am sure i will be rereading this sometime, if for nothing else but to see a great representation and all the different versions autism can take and i haven’t seen in any other fiction books before!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Chronic illness, and Death of parent