Review: My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga

Sixteen-year-old physics nerd Aysel is obsessed with plotting her own death. With a mother who can barely look at her without wincing, classmates who whisper behind her back, and a father whose violent crime rocked her small town, Aysel is ready to turn her potential energy into nothingness.

There’s only one problem: she’s not sure she has the courage to do it alone. But once she discovers a website with a section called Suicide Partners, Aysel’s convinced she’s found her solution: a teen boy with the username FrozenRobot (aka Roman) who’s haunted by a family tragedy is looking for a partner. 

Even though Aysel and Roman have nothing in common, they slowly start to fill in each other’s broken lives. But as their suicide pact becomes more concrete, Aysel begins to question whether she really wants to go through with it. Ultimately, she must choose between wanting to die or trying to convince Roman to live so they can discover the potential of their energy together. Except that Roman may not be so easy to convince.

This was a great read that really dragged me in and had me feeling for all of the characters, but off the bat I need to say that I never really connected the way other reviewers seem to have. I was expecting a soul-wrenching, life-changing kind of book and in that way I feel like this book fell short. However, it was a good, emotional read and I would have really thoroughly enjoyed it if my expectations hadn't been so bleeding high.

Aysel was the type of character that everyone can relate too. She is going through a tough time, struggles to talk to anybody, she's struggling her way through life with the thought that in a matter of time it will all be over. Roman was another character who was so imperfect that he shone through, I loved him even though he was selfish and unempathetic. Their story is woven with sadness and dark humor and I absolutely adored Jasmine Warga's writing style - flawless.

The story itself had a lot of unfulfilled potential - I felt that we could have had some big, revealing moment where we find out about Aysel's past, but instead it sort of comes ot in bits of pieces which mean that it doesn't seem as important as it is. Everything seems to be written in this lyrical, closed-off way which helps us get inside Aysel and Roman's heads, but makes it hard for us to really get gripped.

Don't get me wrong, My Heart and Other Black Holes was a great read. I did enjoy it and I think that Jamine Warga's writing style is amazing, she built fantastic, relatable characters and wrote them in a gorgeous way. That being said, I feel like this book could have been much more. it didn't touch me in the way I had really hoped for, so I can't give this book tha 'A' rating it really deserves.

Book released 10th February 2015 by Balzer+Bray

Book received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review