Scan barcode
A review by themaddiest
In a Heartbeat by Loretta Ellsworth
3.0
Eagan misses her landing by a quarter-inch during a figure-skating competition and it ends her life. Amelia has been sick for half of her life and needs a new heart. The two girls’ worlds come crashing together when Amelia gets Eagan’s heart and starts to try to make sense of the new feelings she has–about her own life, and about Eagan’s.
Loretta Ellsworth’s novel is a short, fairly quick read, and it’s enthralling enough to do it in one or two sittings. Told in alternating perspectives, the chapters are short and keep the pace moving along quickly enough. Eagan is trapped in an interim space full of mist, and she keeps reliving moments from her life while she tries to figure out how to get back to Earth. Amelia adjusts to life with a new heart that she thinks feels like it doesn’t quite fit inside her. As the two girls try to reconcile their changed fates, their lives converge in an interesting way (though it takes a suspension of disbelief).
There are certain things that Ellsworth does well. Her light romances work particularly well and add dimension to both girls’ stories. Eagan’s relationship with her boyfriend is both interesting and realistic. There’s nothing more tragic than a love cut short, and that adds a certain drama to her tale. Amelia’s budding relationship with Ari is sweet and tender and helps to counter-balance the heavier issues at play in the novel. Both romances are light, though, and readers looking for a deeper exploration of teen love won’t find it here.
Also noteworthy is the way that Ellsworth portrayed the relationships between mothers and daughters. Although some readers will take issue with Eagan’s mom being perhaps a little like a stereotypical sports-obsessed parent, there were nuances in the relationship worth looking more closely at. The push-pull relationships that characterize relationships between mothers and their teenage daughters was there and was very realistic. Amelia began to go through a similar thing with her mother after the heart transplant, and these moments where she was both annoyed with her mother and also found herself needing her were some of the most natural in the book.
The major problem that I had with the story was the fact that Ellsworth didn’t do enough to establish distinctive voices for both girls. A novel told in alternating perspectives needs to have clear voices for each narrator, and that doesn’t happen here. While there is a need for the girls to begin to share a connection (especially in the case of Amelia), they both need to have distinct personalities, too. Giving them a few interests that are different from each other isn’t sufficient, and there were times where I would forget momentarily who was narrating the story.
At the end of the day, this book was enjoyable. It will be especially well-received by fans of Lurlene McDaniel (loathe as I am to compare it to her work). Fans of Gabrielle Zevin’s Elsewhere might also enjoy this story.
In a Heartbeat by Loretta Ellsworth, Walker Books: 2010. Library copy.
Loretta Ellsworth’s novel is a short, fairly quick read, and it’s enthralling enough to do it in one or two sittings. Told in alternating perspectives, the chapters are short and keep the pace moving along quickly enough. Eagan is trapped in an interim space full of mist, and she keeps reliving moments from her life while she tries to figure out how to get back to Earth. Amelia adjusts to life with a new heart that she thinks feels like it doesn’t quite fit inside her. As the two girls try to reconcile their changed fates, their lives converge in an interesting way (though it takes a suspension of disbelief).
There are certain things that Ellsworth does well. Her light romances work particularly well and add dimension to both girls’ stories. Eagan’s relationship with her boyfriend is both interesting and realistic. There’s nothing more tragic than a love cut short, and that adds a certain drama to her tale. Amelia’s budding relationship with Ari is sweet and tender and helps to counter-balance the heavier issues at play in the novel. Both romances are light, though, and readers looking for a deeper exploration of teen love won’t find it here.
Also noteworthy is the way that Ellsworth portrayed the relationships between mothers and daughters. Although some readers will take issue with Eagan’s mom being perhaps a little like a stereotypical sports-obsessed parent, there were nuances in the relationship worth looking more closely at. The push-pull relationships that characterize relationships between mothers and their teenage daughters was there and was very realistic. Amelia began to go through a similar thing with her mother after the heart transplant, and these moments where she was both annoyed with her mother and also found herself needing her were some of the most natural in the book.
The major problem that I had with the story was the fact that Ellsworth didn’t do enough to establish distinctive voices for both girls. A novel told in alternating perspectives needs to have clear voices for each narrator, and that doesn’t happen here. While there is a need for the girls to begin to share a connection (especially in the case of Amelia), they both need to have distinct personalities, too. Giving them a few interests that are different from each other isn’t sufficient, and there were times where I would forget momentarily who was narrating the story.
At the end of the day, this book was enjoyable. It will be especially well-received by fans of Lurlene McDaniel (loathe as I am to compare it to her work). Fans of Gabrielle Zevin’s Elsewhere might also enjoy this story.
In a Heartbeat by Loretta Ellsworth, Walker Books: 2010. Library copy.