Thoughts on : Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier

Posted by Kay on February 19, 2022 11:37 pm in 3 stars reads | 4 comments

Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier
Genre : Thriller
Stand alone

About the Book  :

When she was sixteen years old, Angela Wong disappeared without a trace. Nobody ever suspected that her best friend, Georgina Shaw, was involved in any way. Certainly not Kaiser Brody, who was close with both girls back in high school.

But fourteen years later, Angela Wong’s remains are discovered in the woods near Geo’s childhood home. And Kaiser—now a detective with Seattle PD—finally learns the truth: Angela was a victim of Calvin James. To the authorities, Calvin is a serial killer. But to Geo, he’s something else entirely. Back in high school, Calvin was Geo’s first love.

For fourteen years, Geo knew what happened to Angela and told no one – until Geo was arrested and sent to prison.

While everyone thinks they finally know the truth, there are dark secrets buried deep. And what happened that fateful night is more complex and more chilling than anyone really knows. Now the obsessive past catches up with the deadly present when new bodies begin to turn up, killed in the exact same manner as Angela Wong…

Jar of Hearts was my second book by Jennifer Hillier, the first one being Little Secrets, which I had mostly enjoyed. For this one though, my feelings are a bit more conflicted.

First of all, let me say that I really enjoyed the reading experience itself. I was hooked from the start and flying through the pages. Books set in prison usually don’t interest me, but here I didn’t mind too much. The book also alternates between past and present, a narrative device I most often like. I thought the scenes set in the past added important context without dragging on too long.

All of that said, I had some major problems with the story. I found it predictable, which I don’t mind too much in itself, but I hated how conveniently oblivious some of the characters were just for the sake of building up the mystery. I also felt that, towards the end, the author succeeded at building a creepy, unsettling story, but for me all of it took a bit too long to build up.

I also had some trouble with the characters in the story. Kaiser, for instance, was just so confusing as a character. He missed some obvious clues and was inexplicably forgiving. And Geo’s motivations were often unclear. She was hiding some things, being a bit of an unreliable narrator I suppose, but by the time everything was revealed, there wasn’t enough time to convince me about the strength of her motivations. (man, it is hard to review this without spoiling!)

All in all, I didn’t hate this one, but I do feel like I didn’t quite get as much out of it as other readers – and that’s okay! Just another instance of every book having its reader. I’ll still want to read more from the author, as something about her writing really pulls me in.