[eARC Review] My Heart and Other Black Holes
Thursday, February 05, 2015Title: My Heart and Other Black Holes
Author: Jasmine Warga
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary
Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Release Date: February 10, 2015
Publisher: Balzer and Bray
Source: eARC received from publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review
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Sixteen-year-old physics nerd Aysel is obsessed with plotting her own death. With a mother who can barely look at her without wincing, classmates who whisper behind her back, and a father whose violent crime rocked her small town, Aysel is ready to turn her potential energy into nothingness.
There’s only one problem: she’s not sure she has the courage to do it alone. But once she discovers a website with a section called Suicide Partners, Aysel’s convinced she’s found her solution: a teen boy with the username FrozenRobot (aka Roman) who’s haunted by a family tragedy is looking for a partner.
Even though Aysel and Roman have nothing in common, they slowly start to fill in each other’s broken lives. But as their suicide pact becomes more concrete, Aysel begins to question whether she really wants to go through with it. Ultimately, she must choose between wanting to die or trying to convince Roman to live so they can discover the potential of their energy together. Except that Roman may not be so easy to convince
I am a sucker for books that tug at the heart strings and this was one of those books. My Heart and Other Black Holes was one of those books that I had to debate whether or not to read because of the subject matter. Suicide is not something I like to read about. My grandmother committed suicide before I was born and sop my family and take it very seriously. And so It me a few tries to start this one because I had heard sop many great things. But in the end I am so glad I read it because it was a great story.
We follow Aysel a 16 year old girl who dealing with way more than she really should. Especially when you take into account what her father did (I will not tell you will just have to read it) and how everyone around her reacted. I loved reading her story because it was so different than my own. Then we meet Roman, a very depressed young man who meets Aysel on a chatroom for people who want to make a pact to die together. This subject is so intriguing to me. And Yet I know when I started reading how the book would end, it didn't hinder my reading experience. I really liked their building friendship and how it grew over the course of the story. Roman was such a different character than Aysel, you could tell he was more serious about dying and you knew something horrible happened to him. Once we find out what that is my heart broke for him. It really did. And I began to understand him more. I loved that we got to see Roman through Aysel eyes, and it was her feelings for him that made her want to live, which I thought was incredibly sweet.
The ending although predictable was very satisfying for me. I loved that it was not perfect in any sense of the word and it brings the feels. But overall it made sense for the characters and I really liked that. I will admit that the story did drag in places, but not too much to make me stop reading. I really enjoyed this story, and though it is about a subject that is normally extremely sensitive and sad, the author made it full of hope and love.
1 comments
I'm sorry about your grandmother :(
ReplyDeleteI have never read a book about suicide actually, it's a pretty tough topic. But I was intrigued by this book and after your review, if possible, I am even more. So yeah, I'll definitely read it to see what are the secrets of Roman and Aysel :)