Jar of Hearts

In Jar of Hearts, Geo, Angela, and Kaiser have been best friends forever, and nothing could separate them. That is, until Calvin James comes along. He’s twenty-one to their sixteen, and he’s chosen Geo. Angela is the beautiful one, so Geo feels incredibly special. Calvin and Geo have a tumultuous romance that is altogether unhealthy. Then Angela disappears. Fourteen years later, Angela’s body has been discovered, and Kaiser is a detective who has come to arrest Geo for the part she played in her murder. Calvin goes to prison for the murder of Angela as well as three other women, and Geo gets a five-year sentence for helping him get rid of Angela’s body and never telling a soul. While Geo is in prison, Calvin escapes, and Kaiser is sure that he is coming for her. More bodies start piling up once Geo is released, causing her fear to become real. Only Geo and Calvin know what really happened that night and what happened after. Secrets never stay buried forever.

I’m a bit conflicted about this book. The plot was interesting, and the characters had depth. However, the book is fairly graphic, with lots of bad language, graphic sex scenes and dialogue, graphic rape scenes, and fairly detailed murder descriptions. I’m also conflicted about how things ended. Every character in this book, with maybe the exception of Geo’s dad, had a little bit of evil in them, committing acts they knew were wrong. I know that we’re all a little bit broken, some more than others, but it didn’t feel like justice was carried out or that good won in this book. Perhaps you enjoy that kind of story, where the lines are blurry and everything is a bit more gray than black and white. I don’t know that I do.