Sunday 10 October 2021

Book Review: JAR OF HEARTS by Jennifer Hillier


Title: JAR OF HEARTS

Author:  Jennifer Hillier

Read: October 2021

My Rating: ๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸ

 


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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