Heart Bones by Colleen Hoover | Book Review

A Quick Overview of Heart Bones

Heart Bones by Colleen Hoover is by for one of my most favorite books by her, right up there with It Ends With Us. I can’t decide which one I liked better! But if I really had to choose, I think I related more with Heart Bones than I did with It Ends With Us. I was fortunate enough in my life to have not been in a physically abusive relationship, and in relation to Heart Bones, I was fortunate enough to have been brought up in decent home environment. Despite these things, I felt I related so much to Beyah and Samson.

Beyah grew up with a drug addict for a mother. Her father lives in a different state and isn’t really involved in her life. When she comes home from work one day, she finds her mother lying lifeless on their couch with a needle stuck in her arm. With her mother’s addiction being the death of her, Beyah is forced to move in with her father with whom she carries a lot of resentment for being absent in her life. Her major life transition helps her rebuild her relationship with her father, meet her step-sister whom becomes her best friend, and meets Samson, a boy her own age whom harbors just as many secrets and painful memories as she does.

My Impression

I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this book in the beginning, but I hurt for her and her character felt so real. This is something that I really love about Colleen Hoover books; she really makes it feel like you become the characters in her books. Even if you’re worlds apart from her characters, they are so easy to relate to.

A lot of Beyah’s loneliness and resentment towards other people I saw a lot within myself. She didn’t have a good high school experience, didn’t trust people, people have let her down so many times in her life and hurt her that it caused her to become guarded and bitter, and I related so much to that. It made me look back at my own high school experiences and realize there’s so much I never fully healed from. I found forgiveness where I needed to, but I’ve never been the same since what had transpired all those years ago. Her bitterness towards her father being absent I also related to in a lot of ways. I didn’t experience the same kind of absence as she did, but I did experience absence and disconnect and that is something that’s made me sad for a long time, because I know the circumstances surrounding that are something that won’t ever change.

Beyah’s journey in healing from her hardships and this second chance at life was really touching for me. Her getting close to Samson with him being someone who lives with hardships and secrets of his own was a major part in what helped them bond and heal.

Learning Samson’s story and how difficult his life was at such a young age and his lack of support, I couldn’t blame him for any of the things he had done. He did what he needed to survive and gave back to his community any chance he was able to. His story really put into perspective how much people can look at another’s situation in black and white and make harsh judgements on whether a person is good or bad. It isn’t often that people look deeper to try and understand why people do the things that they do. Most people accept and prefer to see the worst side of other people without understanding them. I felt I related a lot to Samson in this.

Conclusion

To say the least, this book was a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me and I can still feel a bit of sadness from the memories it caused to surface within myself. But this is part of why I loved this book so much. It made me feel something and it felt really real. The characters felt real, the situations felt real, and this is something I really admire about Colleen’s writing; she’s really good at putting the reading in the shoes of her characters.

Heart Bones by Colleen Hoover will probably make you cry, but it’s a gem and a truly touching story with a happy ending. I highly recommend this book.

The Cozy Cat Rating: ★★★★★