The Hearts We Sold

by Emily Lloyd-Jones

[liz089]

This review is originally posted on my blog Freyja Eats Books

First off: this review contains spoilers, like MAJOR SPOILERS. I need these to make my point and otherwise it would be a very vague review… So if you want to read this novel and do not want to be spoiled; don’t read this.

I won’t talk around it: I did not really like this novel. It is probably not a very popular opinion, but it is mine and I prefer to be honest.

It wasn’t all bad, it did have some interesting ideas in there and at the beginning I enjoyed it. But the further I got into the novel the less I started to like it, I even had trouble finishing it. You know, it is okay for concepts to take time to develop, characters to get more dimensional throughout the plot, but when the story progressed and the characters/concept didn’t, I was disappointed.

What I liked.
Small list, but well.

I liked the concept at the beginning with the demons. As a huge lover of everything supernatural (including the TV show), I really like the idea of a story that is based on making deals with demons. I like that setting and the whole evil demon vibe that comes with it. What do they really want, are there ulterior motives ?

I liked the beginning in general, the writing was compelling and easy to read. We got some sympathy for the MC because of her home situation.. but after that, it just got bad and I started to dislike it more and more..

What I disliked. (be warned)
This plot guys.. It was like Indiana Jones all over again XD WTF with the aliens !?!? Why ?! That is just… lame. I wanted magic and demons and then all of the sudden, nope, we are actually aliens. Well, that’s disappointing.

And also, because of this, I still have some questions about the whole making deals part. Normally you can explain it away with magic, but now that they are aliens.. I feel like there are some big plotholes left behind here. And not just about the “alien system”, but also with some other stuff. We get to know Cora, find out that she traded her heart to get someone murdered, there was this whole THING about it and her feeling guilty about doing it because it didn’t do anything to make her feel better (no shit Sherlock), and then… Nothing ? We don’t get to know who it was and what he did to her ? It must have been pretty spectacular if she traded her heart and two years of her life for it ?! But noooo.. according to our MC, Cora was a good person (let’s agree to disagree) and it must have been something he deserved if she let him be assassinated, the end. Well NO, that is just really LAME.

Talking about lame… how incredibly DUMB were the MC and the alien at the ending. Telling the aliens that they should have just said they were aliens from the beginning and that everything would have been okay then. I found it kind of condescending and well.. DUMB. I mean, these aliens have been around for thousands of years and never thought of that ? And then some teenager comes around the corner and knows everything better ? She should have let that out, I found it very weird and stupid.

I also really disliked how we built towards something for the entire book, to this big fight at the end that decides the fate of the whole world… and then it is over in like less than 10 pages !! 10 pages people !! That was such a let-down. Twilight anyone XD
Almost nothing happens, expect for oh yeah, not predictable at all, the guy sacrifices himself for love (blegh) and turns out to have some incurable sickness (hands in the air if you saw THAT coming right from the beginning..) and had it all planned to save her ?


About the romance. I did not really feel it. Personally, I think it would have done better without. They had zero chemistry and it did nor add much to the story in my opinion. Also, why does everyone have to end up with someone in these kind of stories ?? It is okay for people to still be single at the end of a story. All of the sudden we need to get everyone together. Like Gremma and Riley, that was not necessary at all, felt more like something to do because it looks better ? Oh wait, we need to get some lesbian love in there too.. Check !

Like I already said before, the characters (including the MC) were really flat and one dimensional. Some heavy stuff happened (like Cal dying)and they didn't even really seem to care. I didn't like any of them.

Final Thoughts.
It started our promising, but ended up very predictable and cliché. This is just one of those YA novels that we’ve seen already a million times before. The MC was mediocre and had no personality, same for all the other characters and the plot took a very unpleasant turn later on in my opinion. The romance was superfluous and boring. The story was filled with plotholes and weird revelations that made the novel worse and worse. This was not my kind of novel, at all and I can’t give it a high rating feeling like the whole book exploded in my face. What a disappointment.