Title: JAR OF HEARTS
Author: Jennifer Hillier
Read: October 2021
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Book Description:
Aged just 16, Geo's best friend
Angela disappeared without a trace. Years later, Angela's body is discovered in
the woods near Geo's childhood home, revealed as yet another victim of the
notorious serial killer Calvin James. Geo's high-school boyfriend.
For fourteen years, Geo knew what
had happened and told no one, carrying the secret until she was arrested and
sent to prison. Why would any woman protect a man capable of committing such a
heinous crime? Geo had her reasons...
To Geo, Calvin is more than a
monster, a serial killer with no remorse. And while Geo did her time, Calvin
escaped and went on the run. Now released, Geo is ready to start over. But then
the bodies begin to turn up, killed in the exact same manner as Angela...
As chilling secrets are revealed,
everything turns on what really happened one fateful night, almost 20 years
ago. Is it too late for anyone, Geo included, to survive the truth?
What attracted me to this book:
I’m always tempted by the promise of
a dark thriller, and JAR OF HEARTS came highly recommended by a friend. Now
that I have read it, I wonder why I hadn’t come across this book before? In the
“information about the author” section, it states: “Jennifer Hillier imagines
the worst about people and the writes about it.” This may explain why all her
characters are hiding dark secrets and, even though I am not easily rattled,
managed to surprise and shock me in the end.
My musings:
JAR OF HEARTS is both a coming of age novel as well
as a serial killer thriller (with a twist). What if your first teenage love
turns out to be a murderer? At 16-years-old, Georgina Shaw made one fatal error
of judgement when she fell in love with the handsome, enigmatic bad-boy Calvin
James, now better known as The Sweetbay Strangler. Now in her thirties, she stands
accused of being an accessory in the murder of her best friend Angela Wong, who
disappeared fourteen years ago.
The story of all the whys and hows
and gory details in between are slowly explored in dual timelines, one in the
present and one leading up to Angela’s disappearance. Georgina (“Geo”) provides
us with the main POV, though we also hear from Kaiser Brodie, a detective who went
to school with both Geo and Angela. And even though Geo is undoubtedly a messed
up character, Hillier still manages to portray her in a way that made me root
for her.
As dark and disturbing as this story
turned out to be, I still gobbled it up like the cinnamon candy hearts Calvin
shovels into his mouth whilst he contemplates his evil deeds. The darker and
more graphic the story became, and the higher the body count, the faster and
more frantically I was turning the pages. And just when I thought I had the
answers – BAM! I ran straight into the sharp edges of one very cleverly
concealed plot twist that knocked the wind out of me and cut me down to my very
core.
Summary:
JAR OF HEARTS will appeal to readers who appreciate
dark and gritty thrillers that not only
mess with your psyche, but also manage to question everything you have come to
believe about your characters (and humanity in general). I also appreciated how
the prison setting added extra depth to Georgina’s character, showcasing not
only her resilience but also her courage and core of steel. If you love a thriller
where each and every character has something to hide, and that clever “killer twist”
right at the end, then you’ve come to the right place!
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