Jar of Hearts
By: Jennifer Hillier
Primary Genre: Thriller
Year Published: 2018
Pages: 311
"This is the story of three best friends: one who was murdered, one who went to prison, and one who's been searching for the truth all these years . . .
When she was sixteen years old, Angela Wong—one of the most popular girls in school—disappeared without a trace. Nobody ever suspected that her best friend, Georgina Shaw, now an executive and rising star at her Seattle pharmaceutical company, 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. The same Calvin James who murdered at least three other women.
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. Turbulent and often volatile, their relationship bordered on obsession from the moment they met right up until the night Angela was killed.
For fourteen years, Geo knew what happened to Angela and told no one. For fourteen years, she carried the secret of Angela's death 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.
How far will someone go to bury her secrets and hide her grief? How long can you get away with a lie? How long can you live with it?"
It's going to be hard to give you my thoughts about this book without giving anything away. One of the reasons I enjoyed it so much was because it kept me guessing so I'm not going to spoil anything for you. If you like dark thrillers, if you like morally gray characters, if you don't mind grisly descriptions, then this book is for you!
Naturally, when reading about serial killers I don't work up much of an appetite. Though food was mentioned throughout the book, I really only have one pairing suggestion and the title of the book is a dead giveaway.
"Geo never particularly liked the candy, which was the kind that was sweet on your tongue at first, only to turn hot the longer you kept it there. Cinnamon hearts were his favorite candy, not hers. But she’d accepted the gift anyway, because she thought the bright red hearts inside the glass looked pretty. Calvin ended up eating them all, the candy disappearing slowly, until only the empty jar was left."
You can find a plethora of heart shaped candy in stores during the month of February; however, if you're enjoying this thriller outside of the month of love then I suggest doing a little online shopping at Mountain Man Fruit & Nut Co. Not only do they have Cinnamon hearts, they have adorable Cinnamon Bears too!
Jar of Hearts: ★★★★☆
I liked that seemingly nothing was off limits in Jar of Hearts. There are already a ton of reviews listing the trigger warnings so I won't bother repeating them, but this story is twisted and gruesome. The descriptions were graphic and made me squeamish at times. Not just the detailed murder scenes, but the vivid portrayal down to the smells in prison had me totally absorbed in the story. I mean, the bunk mate is described as smelling vinegary! Ugh, yeah, I got it. I think my eyes are watering.
The characters were a mixed bag and the main character, Geo, was so completely flawed and yet somehow still likeable. In a more chick-lit like thriller, the main character would have gotten a slap on the wrist for withholding information about her friend's disappearance, but in this dark thriller we got to ride along as she served her time in prison and then tried to pick up the pieces of her life.
The flashbacks kept the book especially entertaining because we slowly figured out what happened in the past while scrambling to solve the murders happening in the present. The author has a knack for dropping clues and revealing information at the perfect time. If I have just one complaint, it's that I wanted a bit more from the ending. There was such a build up and it was so intense that I could have used just a few more pages for some closure.
All in all, definitely worth picking up if you're a fan of dark thrillers! I'll certainly be adding more of Jennifer Hillier's books to my TBR pile... maybe Little Secrets next?
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