Our Crooked Hearts
by Melissa Albert
Flatiron Books, 2022. 340 pages.
Review written November 21, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review
This book is dark and haunting, and marvelously well-woven. The story has two threads: some chapters set in “The suburbs, Right now” and others set in “The city, Back then.”
The book begins in the suburbs right now with Ivy. She’s going home from a party with Nate, and she just broke up with him, but got into the car before she realized he was drunk. So when they swerve off the road after almost hitting an ethereal naked girl, she only admits to her busted lip and not the strange visitation.
But the next morning, Nate’s got a similar bruise on his face. More disturbing is the decapitated rabbit on their driveway. But when Ivy’s mother buries the rabbit and takes the teeth, Ivy starts wondering what’s going on.
But the chapters in the city back then are about Ivy’s mother, Dana, and her friend Fee. They discovered that magic is real. But when another girl, Marion, gets into their circle, she wants to take things deeper and darker.
As the reader progresses through the book, we gradually find out what happened back then and how it’s impacting what’s happening now. And the chances are high that the impact won’t be a good thing.
It adds up to a haunting novel about magic and motherhood, identity and memory. With lots of sinister moments.
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