Jack of Hearts

4,5*

This book is what happens when PLL and Sex Education make a baby.

I didn't even know about the existence of this book until one day before I started reading it. It came up in a conversation as an inside joke (too much to explain there, and don't want to anyway, but trust me, it's funny) and something about it made me curious. I looked it up, the cover put me off instantly (the other one, not the nice blue one), but I read the synopsis and I was like wait a minute! This sounds interesting. Yet, I was pretty certain I would not like it. I was thinking this is going to be too rose tinted, too rapey, too Stockholm syndrome-y. I will admit I went into this with a 'let's see how bad it is' mindset.

And I was so freaking wrong.

This book is simply amazing! We have Jack who's a darling and I felt for him so much, and then we have Jenna and Ben, his best friends, who are great friends, and then there's everyone else (not the school director, he is the embodiment of everything that's wrong in the world, and not the stalker, but that's self explanatory) who Jack comes in contact with. Intimate or not.

I was surprised to discover this book deals heavily and in depth with bullying and stalking. I was honestly so anxious for Jack throughout the novel. He was put in a very difficult position and I actually agree to (almost) every decision he made. It's really sad to admit, but authority figures are useless and a waste of breath when it comes to people they don't agree with, who don't conform to their own ideas, who don't talk, dress, and behave the way they want them to. The book did a very good job portraying these things, and it made me angry. It's so true it hurts.

But then we have gorgeous Jack who is simply great. The book is dusted with all kinds of right things too and I think it's a good educational read for anyone who is interested in safe sex, bullying, and in what way(s) the society sucks. It answers some valid questions that I think most people ask sometimes, or don't even know they needed an answer for. I could recommend this book purely from a sex ed point of view, to be quite frank.

And then there's the mystery around it. Who sends those love letters to Jack? Who is hurting him so badly? What kind of a deranged person would do that? The mystery stays with us until the last few pages. I wasn't surprised about the reveal, but I must say the book did a pretty good job to shift the attention towards other suspects. The truth is, anyone can be a stalker, anyone can be a bully, and people should open their ears and listen when someone opens up to them and seek help.

As I already said, I agreed to almost everything Jack did. It was not ideal, it shouldn't have happened at all, but facing authority figures who don't believe him and being threatened and afraid, he did the best he could, he managed the situation the only way he could think of. What really got to me was how he thought about it, how it broke him and how he saw no way out of it except for going on with it, for changing everything about himself to conform to his stalker's standards. This was the hardest part to read. It made me so sad and I completely understood how powerless Jack felt.

This is a novel worth reading from every point of view. It is shattering and it will make you feel things.

Ugh society. Love Jack.

This is REALLY good. It's not often you find such an open, full-on sex-positive YA book, especially when it comes to gay sex. There are other YA authors who give a positive representation of sex (Jenn Bennett is a good one), but ‘Jack of Hearts' is REALLY open about it. Kudos to LC Rosen for this!

Also, even if there wasn't any of that, the story is still great, so it's thoroughly readable and more-ish. Great job all round.