Much to love here- strong female relationships, family secrets, and lots of magic. Shares a lot of themes and concerns and images with THE HAZEL WOOD- Melissa Albert is developing a strong authorial brand based on cool, dreamy, witchy vibes, and I love it.

Hail to the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the North, by the powers of mother and earth. Hear us.

If you can remember this line from the 1996 film The Craft, then run, do not walk, to your local bookshop and grab a copy of Melissa Albert’s new novel, Our Crooked Hearts, a tale of mothers and daughters, sisters by both blood and spirit, and the magic that binds them all together. A propulsive, binge-worthy read drenched in tension that’ll keep you turning pages well into the night, it’s a story that more than proves Albert’s impressive range as an author.

✨ Review ✨ Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert; Narrated by Chloe Cannon; Emma Galvin

This dual timeline story narrates a present timeline of Ivy and to her mom Dana in the past, both of whom are finding mysterious things happening to them. What is it exactly that Dana's hiding from Ivy and what is causing the strange things happening around them?

I enjoyed parts of this book, including the creepy witchy vibes that stretched throughout. The type of magic that existed here is fascinating, varying from practitioner to practitioner, which offered great flexibility in the way that the story could go. With that said, it also felt like the book was more artifice and action, and the fancy stylistic writing sometimes drew me out of the story.

I also found the dual timelines difficult to grapple with because sometimes they were more reflective than action-based which made it easy to lose track of who was narrating and what timeline we were in. The audiobook did change back and forth between narrators which helped but still I found myself confused at times.

I admit that by the end I was kind of ambivalent - things had happened sort of slowly and the wordiness put me off a bit. I'm glad I gave this one a shot, but I don't think this one was for me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: YA; fantasy/magical realism
Pub Date: Out now

Read this if you like:
⭕️ YA witchy vibes
⭕️ dual timeline, mother-daughter storylines
⭕️ slow-paced magical stories set in a realistic setting
⭕️ dead rabbits

Thanks to Flatiron Books for the giveaway copies @itslizreading and I won, and to Flatiron, #netgalley, and Macmillan Audio for the audio version of this book!

Ivy has always known her mom keeps secrets, but begins to suspect they’re darker than she imagined when a decapitated rabbit corpse appears on her lawn and her mother seems to know exactly what it means.

Decades prior, Dana finds escape from her difficult home life in witchcraft. With magic, she can make herself stronger, her life better- but a friendship with a magnetic stranger sets her towards the more dangerous side of magic. It’s only a matter of time before tragedy strikes.

The writing in this book is beautiful- descriptive, poetic- and it actively adds to the narrative. The plot is gripping and the pacing across the two timelines is well handled. Albert did a great job creating characters who are morally complex; even when I put the book, I kept thinking about the morality within the story, about what the right decisions for certain characters would have been. It wasn’t clear, and Albert lets the characters be complex.

While this is a YA book, I would recommend it to parents alongside their teens. A lot of the story investigates the challenges of loving a child, balancing protection with freedom. Parents were people before they were parents and Our Crooked Hearts understands how a parent’s baggage impacts their children. It’s no good for a parent to try to erase their past, but children also need to understand their parents as multi-layered, complex people. Learning to recognize that is an important part of growing up and this book explores it well by developing both Ivy and her mother as individuals.

The one thing that did bother me was the romance element. Ivy actively wants some space after the events of the story and the way she so quickly romantically attaches herself to this person felt rushed. Their dynamic is sweet, but I think the book would be stronger if there was just a hint towards future romance rather than them jumping right in. I think ending with possibility would feel like a more cathartic end of Ivy’s arc, too. For me, the story was about Ivy and her mom, and the romance felt like an afterthought.

Final note- this cover feels so wrong for this book. The cover feels slick and poppy, whereas this book was mysterious, nuanced, and dark. Truly a case of don’t judge a book by its cover.

Thanks to NetGalley and Flat Iron books for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

7.5/10
Thank you to Ms. Cat Kenney at Flatiron Books for the eArc copy of this book! Receiving it did in no way affect my review.

Hello again dear reader or listener, I hope summer has been treating you well so far, aside from gestures vaguely at things happening in the world. For my part I have been feeling witchy so this promising piece of YA that I requested a while back was just what I needed.

Our Crooked Hearts is a double tale of mother and daughter coming into magic and its consequences, when they were each 16-17 years old. The mother’s half of the story is told in flashbacks so as to create parallelisms with her daughter’s present storyline, cleverly woven in such a way that what happened in the past is slowly revealed to optimally fit and complement what is happening in the present. Albert truly entwined her two plots brilliantly, filling in the blanks in the right moments or leaving them empty for even greater effect in select instances. I found this worked really well with the building up of both anticipation and dread as the whole tone of this novel is of something eventually going severely wrong, and the reader can’t help but hold their breath waiting for the other shoe to drop. When it does finally happen though you are rewarded with a satisfyingly wrapped conclusion that gives you the feeling of seeing the faraway light of dawn slowly break the darkness.

Albert’s prose is also absolutely beautiful yet simple, coming up with metaphors that I found to be exceedingly unique and sometimes weirdly specific but rendering the idea she wanted to send across so perfectly, that I often did a double take of ‘how this is so right?’. Using turns of phrase you’d never think of and yet creating the most crystal-clear image in your mind’s eye. In fact, while I tend to be more of a character driven reader, and this novel does have some very fascinating and nuanced character work as well, in this instance, I think that prose and ambiance was what shone the most for me. It made a relatively simple plot more memorable and the events and action flow uninhibited.

As for the characters there’s lots that you could focus on but I’m going for spoiler-free, so I’ll say this. Albert created some really flawed and lonely characters who in their almost desperate hope to find out who they are, and who are looking for a connection of some kind – be it between mother and daughter, or between friends – go to extreme lengths. Misguided actions, guilt, hope for something better, accepting that sometimes relationships can be maintained even when there’s walls between you and that you need to slowly work together to dismantle, if not completely, at least lowering their height a little. These are all themes in this book, as well as the importance of memories and our life experiences making us who we are.

At the same time however, I also can’t say that I was rushing to get to the end of this story either and I could’ve taken my leisurely time getting through it. To put it another way, this novel was overall lovely and with the upsides that I mentioned, but it is also the kind of book where, if you tell me you are specifically looking for certain elements that I know are in it, I’ll tell you, hey you can read this, but otherwise it’s not at the forefront of my mind.

So, dear reader or listener, if you are looking for a witchy book with no damsel in distress moments, with flawed characters who nonetheless persevere and try to do their best, while also fighting that feeling of disconnect from others, all rendered through beautiful prose and the occasional eerie moment, then this is the book for you.

Until next time,
Eleni A. E.

Melissa Albert's Our Crooked Hearts takes place in a town called Woodbine. The story is set in two worlds: modern days from Ivy's perspective and past days from Dana's perspective. While riding with her inebriated boyfriend Nate one night, Ivy has an unsettling run-in with a strange girl. The even more unsettling part is that this stranger somehow knows Ivy's name. This night sets off a bomb in Ivy's life as secrets that have been forming since her closed-off mom was her age finally come to light.

In order to do that, though, Ivy needs to go down the dark, twisted path laid before her and discover more about herself and her mother than she ever thought possible. This book is also about her mother, Dana. When Dana was sixteen, she met a girl named Marion who taught her and her best friend Felicita (Fee). But this girl isn’t being completely honest about her intentions. This leads the girls into contending with magic that they are not prepared for the severe consequences.

For years, Dana fully believed that she was protecting Ivy and her family from magic and her own dark past for fear it would destroy them. But her secrets end up destroying the family dynamics. Especially after Ivy ends up confronting Dana's deep dark secret that she's tried so hard to protect. When Dana and Fee go missing, strange things start happening. The girl she has seen in the woods lurking around her house and the boy next door she has complex feelings insists she broke his heart five years ago. Could she forget something important like this?

Especially after Ivy learns that she and Billy had shared things that slowly are revealed until there are no longer secrets between the two of them. And, even though Ivy's discoveries about her mother's past allow her to finally understand her actions, understanding doesn't always lead to forgiveness, and that's perfectly acceptable. Not to be forgotten, the girl that Dana and Fee met all those years ago, has been slowly scheming and making her own path to revenge. Who better to lure to her side than Ivy whose eyes are fully opened to her mothers betrayal.

One could say that this is the perfect coming age story for both Dana and Ivy. I have heard that there are those who compare this book to the Craft, and those reviewers aren't wrong. While it begins with just Dana and Fee, it ends up becoming more like their own twisted coven.

“Our Crooked Hearts” is about a 17-year old girl, named Ivy, who meets a strange girl in the middle of a forest. Only after this girl finds herself in the middle of the road and is almost run over by Ivy’s boyfriend. The mystery continues throughout the book. The novel weaves past and present storylines and POVS that propel the narrative.

Ivy’s mom, Dana, had kept many secrets from her. Including the fact that Dana is a witch. Dana’s POV chapters enlighten the reader of a traumatic event that changed everything.

The book has some sweet moments meshed with some grotesque images.

Overall, I liked it but kept waiting for more. Even to the last page I kept thinking there’d be a twist.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

4.5 stars, rounded up
This is a YA supernatural Fantasy that follows two perspectives: Ivy a seventeen-year-old girl and her mother Dana in the past, as her sixteen-year-old self. Witches, powers, and a hunting past will all come together as Dana’s past and Ivy’s future collide.
The writing of this story was great, and I loved how the feel of magic was incorporated into nature and someone's personality and how it makes them who they are. The description and detail of it all was magical in its own way. Reading from Dana’s perspective when she was seventeen as well as seeing her as an adult through her daughter's eyes was interesting and I loved how it gave you a glimpse into the past instead of just a recap, it made it feel more authentic and not just having it for convenience. It was intriguing to see Dana as detached and cold as an adult but reading her perspective as a sixteen-year-old and how different they were just made you want to dive in and find out what the hell happened and what’s going on with ivy. The dramatic timing of events and receiving important information we needed was spot on, especially switching back and forth from past to present and between two people it could not have been easy. While I did not automatically fall in love with either character, I did find them both mysteries, complex and they definitely pulled you in. I did love a lot about this book, but I did find the beginning to be a bit slow and took a little bit to build some momentum but once it did it was a great time, I would definitely recommend checking out this story.
Trigger warnings: dead animals, substance abuse, cutting
I received this advanced ebook, via Netgalley. This review is my own honest opinion.

I had such a fun time reading this book! It was the perfect blend of witchy magic, female kinship and coming of age story. If you are a fan of The Craft I think you would really like Our Crooked Hearts.

While I loved Ivy’s storyline, my favorite parts of this book took place in the city/before timeline. I loved seeing Dana and Fee’s friendship turn into a sisterhood and it was so interesting seeing them come into their powers. I love the way the author wrote her witches and interwove the magic through the story. It was fantastical, but it almost felt like this magic could be real.

The only reason this wasn’t a five star read was because the story meandered a bit too much in the middle and it felt like the ending wrapped up really quickly. Aside from that this book had all of trappings of an excellent witchy book and I will definitely be picking up a copy for my home library.

Thank you so much to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

This book was amazing. I coudn't put it down. It was magical. Higly recommended! The characters, the plots, the writting: wonderful and perfect.

Witchy Wednesday.
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Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert published yesterday and if you are a fan of dark urban fantasies, then you want to get this book ASAP. I was already a fan of Albert’s creepy fairytales, so of course I had to pick up her new YA offering, which doesn’t actually feel very young adult at all, but will appeal to all ages longing for a mysterious, darkly unfolding story with themes of friendship versus coven and mother daughter ties that bind.
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First of all, this book has nothing to do with keys, so don’t be expecting locked doors….that was me taking a book picture before I read the book and not knowing the story yet. What you will get when you pick up this riveting read are: dual timelines and POVs that are woven together as parents and their children’s often are; some very disturbing dark occult scenes that may make you uncomfortable, but also cause you to want to keep reading; and a story that is equal parts riveting and horrifying but also amazingly relatable whether you are a teen or the parent of one. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
•

I can definitely see how the author has gotten better in her writing; however, this book wasn’t for me. While I appreciated the vibes, I was bored for the majority of it and had a hard time continuously picking it up. I can’t even pinpoint what it is about this book that didn’t even work for me but something just didn’t

Really enjoyed this book. Loved getting to know Ivy and watching her rediscover herself. This book does jump around a lot from past, present and elsewhere but it’s no problem as long as you pay attention.

For fans of the movie The Craft! I loved this story’s creepy, witchy vibes. It’s an intriguing story and I found myself constantly wanting to know what was going to happen next and to just figure out what the heck was going on in general. I liked the time jumps and the slow reveals. All around a great read!

I didn’t love listening to this on audio. The voice used for the daughter was very annoying - causing me to lower the volume. The voice used for the mother was very low and hard to understand at times - causing me to increase the volume. So I was constantly messing with the sound and speed of the audiobook.

Thank you Flatiron Books, Macmillan Audio, & Netgalley for allowing me to review this book!

Ivy’s summer break is off to a rough start. A near accident as a naked woman dashes across the road, a break up with her boyfriend, and a grounding from her mother. Speaking of her mother, who she never had a ‘normal’ relationship with, while grounded she begins to notice some odd things involving her: a buried jar of blood, a secret wall safe, and then there is the dead rabbit she finds in front of her house. What does it all mean?

Told via dual timelines, Our Crook Hearts jumps back and forth between the past and present, weaving an interesting and at times creepy exploration into witchcraft. The present time storyline focuses on Ivy as she investigates the mysteries around her mother and aunt, while the other storyline shows us the past as Ivy’s mother, Aunt Fee, and their new friend begin playing around with witchcraft. Both storyline are thoroughly engaging, with parts of it reminding me of the movie The Craft, the dangerous allure of power and messing with things you can’t fully control or understand.

Thanks to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of Our Crooked Hearts.

https://www.amazon.com/review/RJRHMFD1J74Z2/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Reviews Posted: June 27, 2022
Goodreads
Storygraph

Going into this book, I honestly didn’t know what to expect and had absolutely no expectations. I ended up having a pretty good time reading this book. It is not one that blew me away, but it was still a fun time, and I thought the premise was interesting. The characters were super interesting, and I loved the unraveling of all of their pasts. The plot was a little predictable, but I was definitely more focused on the past lives of the characters rather than the end result. The writing, I think, is what threw me off in this book.

I enjoyed Ivy as a character and loved that she never let anything get in her way. I would say I would have liked more of her outside the main plot because I felt there were holes in her character development. Her mom Dana had such an interesting backstory, and I loved when chapters flashed back to her past. I think their relationship throughout the book was also interesting to read about. They weren’t perfect, so they felt more real, but they also weren’t overly toxic or awful to each other.

The climax event was something I saw coming, but again I cared more about the character dynamics and how they got to climax. I think what happens at the end of the climax made a lot of sense, and I loved that nothing was too perfect. Mostly I just felt that I was left with many questions still by the end of the book.

Part 1 of this book did not have my favorite writing. I just felt it was choppy, and I felt myself being pulled out of the story a lot. The rest of the book, though, I really enjoyed it and felt that it started to have a better flow. The thing that this book does so well is the atmosphere. It truly gives off an eerie and creepy feeling from the get-go, and I was surprised with how much I enjoyed it. I’m not usually a horror person, but it was done in a way that fit the story and wasn’t over the top. I did also enjoy jumping from the different time periods and long learning about both mother and daughter at the same time.

Overall I think this was a fun read, and if you want a fantasy novel with horror elements, then I think this would be a perfect book for you.

Thank you NetGalley for this copy of Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert!

DISCLAIMER! This review contains spoilers!

I was excited to get the chance to read this book for many reasons. 1. The cover omg 🤤 and 2. The magic. I’ve been wanting to read more witchy books so I was immediately interested in this book. I’m not gonna lie, that’s pretty much all I knew, so I went in completely blind!

The book is told in duel timelines, something I love. I was more interested in the present timeline rather than Dana’s perspective in the past. I wanted more of the present time with ivy trying to figure out what’s going on with the rando girl they almost ran over and where her mom and aunt were. I did enjoy the past getting to see the friendship build and fall apart between the 3 girls (a coven if you will). I also loved billy as a character. I thought it was really cool how ivy told him she was a witch and he didn’t try to tell her she was crazy or needed help. He was just like okay yeah great, how can I support you? That’s the best man IMO!

My only issue here was the pacing. Part one draaaaagged. I was like “where are we going with all this background?” I do think it picked up in the later two parts. But again, the end “battle” scene felt rushed. (I mean a tiny little squeeze and poof she’s zapped into the gold box really?) I felt like we had all this build up, all this background, to just had an anticlimactic end?

Overall, I enjoyed my time reading this book! The whimsical world makes me very interested in reading the Hazel Wood series next! This kinda has the feels of an upside down dark & gloomy alice in wonderland (in the best possible way!)

The Quick Cut: A mother and daughter have similar struggles in their teen years as they come into their abilities as witches.

A Real Review:
Thank you to Flatiron Books for providing the ARC for an honest review.

Many of us wonder what it would be like to have supernatural powers. Would it make life simpler to have abilities that control situations or people? Or would it only bring new issues? This is the question for both Ivy and Dana.

Ivy's summer certainly started off in a strange way: with a naked girl in the middle of the road. It proves to be the incident that starts a strange set of circumstances that Ivy never saw coming. In the past, a girl named Dana has had the gift of perception. However, when she turns sixteen, she finds out that it's the beginning of her supernatural girl that puts her on a collision course with evil. How are these two connected and can they avoid a deadly fate?

This book is told from dual perspectives : a mother and a daughter during their respective teen years. It's a story telling mechanism well used nowadays and can definitely be successful. In this case, however, it only works if you find yourself connected to both Ivy and Dana. Since this book was written as a slow burn, this story was always bound to end up in the not for me pile though.

Ivy and Dana to me felt like very similar (if not the same) characters. Because I didn't connect with them, it made it difficult to care about what's happening to them. Without that connection, this story doesn't have an impact. If you enjoy an emotional centered story with a dark twist, you're likely to connect to them though.

A dark fantasy for those who enjoy taking their time.

My rating: 2.75 out of 5

Ivy’s life is completely normal. Or so it would seem till one night an encounter changes everything Ivy thought she knew about her life. Her mother’s hidden dark past is starting to come to light and with it secrets about Ivy and her life will be reviled. Can Ivy embrace what she learns quick enough to save herself and her mother? Or will the ghosts of the past get their long-awaited revenge?
This is a very interesting book. I had never previously read anything by this author, but her writing style is so fluid and quick paced I truly enjoyed being swept up in the world she was creating. I loved the parallel stories taking place. I think that they merged at the perfect time and allowed the story to move forward with very little questions remaining. Teens and older readers will love delving into this magical world.
Thank you so much to Macmillian Children’s Publishing Group and Netgalley

If you’re a big fan of witchy stories or if you’re looking for a kind of creepy read for Halloween, it’s likely you’ll enjoy this book.

Otherwise, I’d say give it a pass. For the most part, it was fine. I guess what disappointed me the most is that it started off really strong, but it didn’t stay that way.