Heartbeat

by Elizabeth Scott

[Leah]

Elizabeth Scott is quite famous in the Young Adult world, with numerous novels and awards to her name, but I have somehow missed the chance to read her time and time again. Which surprises me, I don’t read as much YA as I would like, but I try to read some, and I’m a bit disappointed in myself for taking so long to become acquainted with Elizabeth’s work. Especially as she’s very highly regarded as a writer. So when I downloaded Heartbeat to my Kindle, I made sure to stick it in my diary as one book I must read, one that I have to read without fail. And with it’s January release date looming, it seemed like the perfect time to read the book!

Heartbeat tackles quite a difficult subject, one that I would be saying was the first I’ve ever read if I hadn’t already read Priscille Sibley’s stunning debut novel The Promise of Stardust last year. Two entirely different novels, but they are centred on the same thing – a pregnant, dead woman, being kept alive for the sake of her baby, and the difficult decisions their respective families have to make in regards to the baby(s). In this case, it is 17 year old Emma who is dealing with her mother’s sudden death and her step-father Dan’s sudden interest in keeping her mother alive artificially for the sake of his unborn son. It doesn’t quite take the legal turn The Promise of Stardust did (and it didn’t blow me away as much), but it is a fascinating, thought-provoking novel. It will divide people. It divided me. Personally, I don’t know how I would face such a decision. I’m not a massive fan of kids, so I couldn’t say definitively one way or another if I would want someone to keep me alive in that situation.

I could, however, sympathise massively with Emma. Not only is she dealing with the massive loss of her mother, and the loss of interest in any sort of school work, but it was clear pretty early on that she and Dan just weren’t seeing eye to eye and this is the part that divided me. On the one hand, I saw Emma’s point. Dan had made this decision with how it best suited him, not taking into consideration Emma’s feelings on having to continually visit and see her dead mother, being kept alive for this baby. That’s a harsh thing to put on a teenager. BUT, on the other hand, I did think she was being kinda selfish. She’s continually rowing with Dan, bringing up again and again how scared her Mom was, how Dan had no clue, and I just sort of ended up feeling sorry for Dan. He had lost as well, he was just trying to make the best of a bad (awful, even) situation. He was trying to make sure that only one life died the day Emma’s mother went for some toast. It was slightly cruel of Emma to want her baby brother to die, or, rather, not to live just so her Mom could be buried normally. It was just a truly horrible situation where no one really won, and I just sort of wished Emma had been just a tad bit kinder to Dan. She wasn’t alone in her suffering, and Dan wasn’t wrong in trying to make sure his baby survived.

The novel didn’t quite blow me away, but I did thoroughly enjoy it (which seems wrong given the subject matter). I felt the novel wasn’t as dark as it could of been and it helped that Emma had Caleb and Olivia to help her through. Olivia was such an amazing friend, always being there for Emma, never letting each other down, that’s best friendship. That’s my kinda girl. Caleb was a nice distraction, I liked how he and Emma were both suffering, both punishing themselves, and how they sort of helped the other through all of their issues and all of their pain and all of their heartbreak. Because who says you can’t be happy whilst also grieving? Caleb provided a nice distraction, proved that there can be love after death, that Emma didn’t have to spend her time always being sad. I felt they complimented each other well and I felt so sad that Caleb’s parents treated him the way they did (I just wanted to shake them and tell them to grow the hell up). Heartbeat was a dividing read, one I’m still not 100% sure how I felt about it, but I feel like I mostly enjoyed it. It was touching, it was sweet and I can see why Elizabeth is such a revered writer. I do look forward to trying more of her books, and Heartbeat is a read that will leave you with a lot of questions, but also with quite the satisfying conclusion.