Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - Jar of Hearts

Extremely well-written, plot dense and intense. From the get-go, this was already heavy and dark. It's more graphic than other thrillers I've read so far and the grape parts were disturbing. Hillier did not skimp on the details. It's a story that doesn't leave your mind and I catch myself now thinking about how fucked up it was sometimes.

This was my first glimpse of Hilier who is a fantastic writer, so I'll definitely be reading more of her work. I will however be bracing myself.

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paulineerika's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

3.0

This one was hard for me to rate. I think I expected a different story, based on the first half of the book. I enjoyed the first half and Geo's no-nonsense survival personality. I was at least engaged and interested about where the story might go.

It lost me, though,

when we discovered how Angela was raped and murdered.

While the story felt at least somewhat fresh before then, that particular chapter felt recycled and stale.

The same happened for me when Calvin came back and raped Geo, when we read about her teen pregnancy, and then when Dominic confronted Geo.

I'm not really sure what I expected, but these parts seemed to fall into the more predictable thriller tropes for me. Nor did I find the characters particularly "morally gray."

The chapter with Geo directing Calvin on how to dismember and bury Angela felt like a complete left turn for both characters and I wasn't buying it. It seemed contrived.

Geo and Calvin were probably the most interesting characters to me, but even they couldn't save the novel. And I just did not like Kai, honestly.

Rating also downgraded because of

the early commentary about the "wicked human beings" in prison, the author's unnecessary disparagement of public defenders (and totally unrealistic portrayal of a baby PD being assigned to represent an alleged serial killer), and Kai's creepy stalking of Geo in prison. $6000 to spy on her? JFC.

Finally, while I'm not particularly queasy about what I read, the multiple instances of rape/sexual assault/attempted rape felt borderline gratuitous.

Overall, I like Hillier's writing, but this particular story and plot had problems for me.

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katies_bibliotherapy's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I picked this book up and soft DNFed it a while ago when I wasn't in the right mood. This book alternates between Geo's POV, the FMC, and Kaiser's POV, the detective with the Seattle PD and a friend and former classmate of Geo's. This story wasn't what I was expecting, in a good way.

Part One of the book is Geo in prison for the murder of her high school best friend, Angela. I liked that because it felt like I was watching a season of Orange Is The New Black. Part Two also intrigued me because it focuses on the serial killer, and I like serial killer thrillers. However, Part Two takes place five years after Geo is sent to prison, but that isn't indicated at the beginning of part two. You have to start reading the first chapter in part two to find that out, which threw me off a bit. I would have preferred the time jump to be plainly stated. This is also a slow-burn even though the book is very short. I found that this threw the pacing off and meant that things were dragged out much more than they needed to be. The writing wasn't my favourite and my copy could have used at least another round of edits because there were SO many spelling errors. This is written in third person POV and I much prefer books written in first person. The big reveal and plot twist was saved for the very end of the book, but by that point the reveal wasn't shocking enough to pull me back into the story.

I loved LITTLE SECRETS by the author and look forward to reading her other books. This one just didn't quite work for me. Be mindful of trigger warnings, as there are a lot.

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tinkithesquirelll's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Felt like reading a wattpad book.

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killmoore_'s review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This would have been a 5 star read if the epilogue would have been -slightly- more flushed out. So SO good. A heart pounding, gut wrenching look into the wrong side of "coming of age" and how our past will always come back to haunt us.

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nburkk's review against another edition

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3.25

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reading_under_covers's review against another edition

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3.0

Definitely my least favorite Hillier - I lacked compassion for our main character and the whole ending with its twists and reveals felt a bit much.

Intriguing to read, but one that will only stick with me with the bad parts in mind.

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thrillyourdarlings's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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