This book introduces ethical relationship concepts in an engaging way. The narrator is a smart and honest teen trying to do her best at school, at work, and for her loved ones. Her struggles with heartbreak, long-distance love, bullying, and prejudice will resonate with any reader. Highly recommended for its modeling of conversations concerning love, sex, and consent. Also highly recommended for its easy, casual inclusion of queerness and disability. Be aware that there is explicit sexual content.
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It’s not impossible to write and publish a great young-adult novel that centers on a polyamorous relationship.
It’s improbable.
Gabrielle Harbowy nailed it.
One of things I like best about this book–aside from the dry wit and the deep sweetness–is the naturalistic placement of high-school polyamory into a world where high-school polyamory has consequences. And especially the fact that the consequences are not lazily predictable ones.
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I bought a copy for my classroom, since we do SSR and ninth graders are always forgetting their “fun books.” It made its rounds of girls, and then a couple of boys. Now it has gone missing, so I hope it connected with someone who needed to feel seen. Time to buy another copy!
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It takes a certain sort of book to really capture the chaotic emotional turmoil of youth, but Hearts are Jerks meets the challenge with finesse and enthusiasm, instilling its tale of a heroine just trying to be happy and make her loved ones happy with dramatic verisimilitude. The characters are believably young and unwise, and make foolhardy decisions with the best of intentions, never expecting the harshness of real life to crash down on them.
The novel confronts and challenges the difficulties of its sometimes heavy subject matter with seriousness and grace. Too often we dismiss bullying and harassment as “harmless” or “don’t feed the trolls”, but this story shows us that sometimes such actions have real consequences for everyone involved, and it’s extremely cathartic to see.
Also, ethical polyamory rules. 🙂
I learned a great deal from this book, and I hope you will too.
Gabrielle Harbowy 