by Cynthia Leitich Smith
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 9th October 2018
spoilers? minor maybe
Goodreads
Galley provided by publisher
Actual rating 3.5
Hearts Unbroken is set in Kansas, and tells the story of a high school production of The Wizard of Oz. When the drama teacher decides to take an inclusive approach to casting (including casting the main character's brother, Hughie, as the Tin Man), a group of parents in their mostly white, middle-class neighbourhood, takes exception. In the meantime, Louise, the main character, has started work at the school newspaper, and is paired with new kid Joey to take on the Features section.
What I liked about this book was that there were actually probably three strands of plot going on at once - firstly, with Louise at the paper and her budding romance with Joey, secondly, with the parents and their dislike of the casting, and finally, with Hughie and his relationship with the play and Baum. This saved it from ever getting dull in terms of plot, for me, and although it might seem a lot, it didn't ever get too crowded with plot. There were a few, more minor, plotlines that possibly went unresolved (Louise's first boyfriend, who she dumps at the start of the book for making bigoted comments about Native people, starts all these rumours about her after the breakup, but supposedly no one believes he isn't just running his mouth, so it's kind of brushed under the carpet when they meet one last time for "closure"), but overall, it was a solid book plot-wise.
Even though the plot was good, it did take me a little while to get properly into the book. I did like it, don't get me wrong, but I was mostly reading it without all that much caring about it. Part of that was because it was written like a series of vignettes rather than a fully continuous story so the plot seemed to start off moving really quickly, and I found that hard to read for some reason. Another reason was probably because I wasn't the biggest fan of the main character before she had her learning moment. She was kind of self-absorbed and a little self-righteous. But she also had some pretty good character development precipitated by her friend calling her out (at exactly the right time in the book, because I'd been getting a little bored before then).
As well as this, the start of the romance kind of bothered me. If only because I couldn't for the life of me see why it started (or continued for that matter). Joey seemed fairly arrogant and self-obsessed and kept boasting about his journalism prowess, and I couldn't work out what Louise actually saw in him. So maybe he was a nicer guy than Cam (the boyfriend she dumped), but there didn't seem to be anything there. Or at least nothing I was shown. I was told she didn't shut up about him to her friend Shelley or her brother Hughie but there was no evidence of that. (Just like, at the start, there was no evidence of Cam getting easily jealous until she mentioned it in one line - and this is the guy she thought she loved? Yikes.) But once the conflict had happened, and they were kind of broken up, I almost liked it more, conversely. Because it made Louise develop as a character.
So, overall, this book was one I liked a lot but didn't quite really really like (if that makes some sense). I did get more into it as it went on, but ultimately not enough to love it.
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