Our Crooked Hearts

It's the rare novel that is set equally in the past and present and both have equal pull, but this is one. In the present ("the suburbs / right now"), seventeen-year-old Ivy sees a naked woman in the woods, and the woman knows her name. Strangeness begins leaking into her world, and the people who can give her answers - her mother and "Aunt Fee" - have gone are missing.

In the past ("the city / back then"), Ivy's mother Dana and her best friend Fiona live with their single fathers. They discover that they can do magic and begin traveling the city of Chicago finding other practitioners, and then they meet Marion, who uses them to attempt to revive Astrid Washington. The experiment goes awry, and Dana banishes Marion along with Astrid to show more save Fee.

But despite what Dana and Fee agreed to believe, Marion isn't dead, and she's been watching Ivy her whole life, waiting for an opportunity...and that opportunity is now.

Deliciously engrossing, darkly magical, full of memory and enchantment and a tinge of romance.

See also: Alix E. Harrow

Quotes

He'd had all these ideas about who I was - that's one of the perils of being quiet, people invent personalities for you... (17)

Books had always felt like the cure to her loneliness, but lately she'd wondered whether they were the cause of it, too. (77)

We didn't wonder where the magic came from, or why it worked. We never asked ourselves, Is this ours to take? (97)

Even when we started together and ended in the same place, there was a point in each spell in which you had only yourself and the magic. It's like giving birth, a practitioner had told Fee once. If you're lucky, you go in with a partner and come out with a child. But in the middle, you're alone. (236)

There's true, your mother says, and there's story. Both have their uses. (294)

Your mother makes you into someone who is easy, and then finds herself incapable of loving what she's made. (299)

It was horrible to see, but sometimes the only way to show your reverence is to witness. (332) show less

This is dark, gritty, witchy YA, and I devoured it! It's definitely a throwback to Grimm's fairy tales in tone and atmosphere, despite being set in the 1990s and present time. I appreciated how it deviates from many 1st person YA books, where we only follow one main character's perspective throughout the story. Here we get to see both our teen main character's POV and the mom character's POV from when she herself was a teen in the 90s. Even during the book's slower moments, I was still riveted due to Melissa Albert's incredibly immersive writing. Every time I put it down, I wanted to pick it right back up and read more! I'll definitely read more of her books in the future. (Side note: There are a truly surprising number of rabbit show more sacrifices within this book, so if you're sensitive to animal deaths, this might be one to skip.) show less

I loved this book. Albert opens with an absolute rager of a chapter and doesn't take her foot off the gas until the final page. There's action, and mystery, and humor, and family drama--both mundane and magical--and it's all so well done. I don't want to say anything more because this is a read worth not being spoiled for. I devoured it in just over a day and it's one of the best books I've read this year.

I truly loved this book, and I think it was very close to being a 5-star for me. It had everything I love about Albert's "The Hazel Wood" along with, I believe, some better character work and a deeper well of meaning. There's magic, generational trauma, female empowerment. I think if it had not been for the at times unwieldy use of swapping POV's and time periods, it would definitely be among some of my favorites. We often went so long without hearing from Ivy that I felt her story became b-plot around the middle of the book. That's not to say I didn't love the story from Dana's perspective, I did, but I would've loved to see more development of Ivy, and I think that brought this book down a star for me.

Still, overall a great read. I show more got the audiobook ARC of this from NetGalley, and the swapping narrators definitely helped me distinguish between POV's. I'm gradually falling more and more in love with this brand of darkly magical storytelling. If Melissa Albert continues to improve between novels, I'm very much looking forward to her next story! show less

Melissa Albert does it again. In the third five-star book of the month, Our Crooked Hearts uses a dual point of view to tell the story of a daughter and mother driven apart by secrets. While this is the story of a daughter/mother relationship, it is also about magic, the type of magic one should never attempt. Our Crooked Hearts takes some dark turns, as one would expect of anyone familiar with Ms. Albert’s previous novels, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. She kept me guessing until the last, and I love how it ends. To me, her third novel solidifies Ms. Albert’s talent and proves she is an author who excels at writing dark, modern Gothic stories.

This is a well balanced, nicely executed, stab you in the Feels kind of story. It's about Family, Retribution, Accountability, and all around Witchiness!

*** this is how far I got into the review before I somehow tore my right retina. Now I find myself unable to read for at least 7-14 days... even writing and rereading this review is a big No No but I'll keep it brief and I won't revise like I'm trying out to be in the grammar police SO please bare with me.

No reading??? Oh well, off to Audible I went. SO, I found this literary, auditory gem just sitting there, begging for me to dive into its depths. I bought it, popped in the earbuds and gave this my all without really reaserching the synopsis beforehand. As I listened to this book, show more the first thing I noticed was how the dueling narrator's, of mom and daughter, were reedy, angsty (for both) and conflicted. I was instantly transported into the middle of this mercurial, gritty, (for lack of a better word) witchy world. As day turned to night and all in the house was silent... well mostly, my hubby's snores sound like he's sawing wood and getting paid by the decibel most nights BUT for the most part the house was draped in silence. I began listening and without knowing the book's genre or timbre, I was steeped in a very tactile, heady mood wholeheartedly. There were the creepy, "why didn't I research this better before picking it to listen to at night-time" thoughts. And the "this is awesome... no wait... what was that noise?? I hope MY past mistakes aren't figuring out ways to get their revenge on this VERY repentant girl!" kind of mental musings. Needless to say, it was UBER creepy in parts for this non horror genre loving, scary in any way, lily livered, yellow belly bibliophile. My advise, if you're skittish or reticent about picking up a scary(ish) (audio)book then maybe skip this one because it really made me jump at the slightest creak or errant snort snore that awakens my hubby every now and then at the most inopportune moments. If you like heart ramping, skin tingling stories then this here should go straight to your TBR.

I loved this book afterwards... way after when day had come and I was done. while I was in the midst of the creep I wasn't loving it as much but in the end I enjoyed it, I really did.

*** I hope I portrayed just how much this book played with my emotions. I apologize for the rather flat, very rough 1st draft here but my eye is beginning to hurt so for the sake of my eyesight I'll leave things here. Go on... get the audiobook, you'll thank me later. show less

A dual timeline, mother-daughter story involving secrets and witchcraft - sign me up! I am a fan of the first Hazelwood book by Melissa Albert and I loved to see the direction she took with Our Crooked Hearts. It is still within the darker fantasy realm, but is more witchcraft focused and less fairytale spin-off. Readers feel as left in the dark as the main protagonist, Ivy, as she struggles to understand her mother's detachment and bizarre behaviors. As she begins to uncover the secrets and lies of her mother's past, pieces begin to fall into place that definetely had me going - say whaaaat?? The story is told from Ivy's perspective in the present day suburbs, and her mother, Dana's, perspective in the city "back then" (the 90s).

Lies, show more love, deception, dark magic, teen witches, and a spooky old library - it's got it all. How far is a mother willing to go to protect her daughter, and how far is a daughter willing to go to uncover the pieces of her past?

Thank you to Netgalley and Flatiron Books for an eARC of this title! show less