Our Crooked Hearts was an edge-of-your-seat YA thriller. With a dual timeline format, we learn about Ivy's mother in her youth and the adventures in witchcraft she undertakes with her two besties, and we also get the present-day teenage viewpoint of Ivy as she navigates the fallout from things that started before her time. The twists and turns were interesting and shocking. The mood of the story was eerie and dark. And, importantly, the teenage voice of Ivy was believable. I loved getting a glimpse into the past and knowing that something very bad was building to a climax. Highly recommend!

From the music to the voice acting, this audiobook enhanced the story. It created an atmosphere and a mood that gripped the reader. Often, with teenage characters, I find the voice acting a bit over the top, but this was accurate yet emotional and tense.

Enjoyment: 5
Total rating: 4.79

Our Crooked Hearts really surprised me. I went into it without any expectations, and it delivered so many of my favourite things I became an instant fan: dual timeline, multiple PoVs, Mother-Daughter tension, spunky main characters, strong independent women, sisterhood, mystery, 90's and witches.

I really enjoyed the audiobook. Chloe Cannon's and Emma Galvin's narration is delightful, entertaining, fun, well paced and light-hearted. This is a book I will be re-reading (as an audio and physical book, I have bought a copy), and I hope to see these characters again.

I suggest you go in blind and just enjoy the ride.

Disclaimer: In exchange for an honest review, I am thankful to the publishers and NetGalley for providing a copy of Our Crooked Hearts

I only applied for the audiobook because I couldn't apply for the ebook, but I will read anything by Melissa Albert. Her book "The Hazel Wood" is still one of my all-time favourite books and this book was no disappointment. I did preorder the physical book prior to receiving this audiobook and they were a good match for reading!

Sorry I had to DNF this one, there were so many instances of animal cruelty I couldn't continue reading this one. This one was not for me. I did like the audio narrators especially the older one, but I couldn't get past the 50% mark.

It took me a long time to get into Our Crooked Hearts. I don't think I was ever fully submerged in it, though I did appreciate the spooky vibes. Overall the story did not grab me, the characters' stories felt unbalanced with the mother taking all of the intrigue for herself to the point where I dreaded the teenage daughter's POV; it felt a bit whiny. The ending makes up for it, some, as when a certain event occurs I do feel like we finally got to start knowing the teenager better but it was a little too late. I also enjoyed the adult's narrator more than the teenager's; were they cast well, possibly, but for me it just never clicked.

This is my first Melissa Albert book; Her prose, the metaphors, and the plot shined bright on this one, but I am a character driven girl first and foremost, and in that respect it was missing that spark. The dialogue held no banter, or wit, though it did evoke beautifully creepy images. Overall, I'd try another one of her books again, but next time I might stick to the written word because I think I would enjoy it more that way.

I was pulled into this book right from the first page, unfortunately, after the first couple chapters the story turned a direction that I did not care for. The audiobook is terrible, the one narrator is so quiet and so much bass is added to her section I found it incredibly hard to hear. It was almost like her mic was too close to her face. I did end up purchasing a finished copy of this book before I had finished it and will be donating it to a lending library. Hopefully someone else will love it.

I loved the story, but I could not get into the story as an audiobook, I think I just did not like the narrator, she just did not fit the vibe of the book. The story itself was amazing and I look forward to purchasing a print copy!

Thank you to MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for the ALC in return for my honest review.

Overall, this was only okay for me. The narrators were okay. Could have been more engaging in the narration. I didn’t mind the different timelines and POVs but the pacing was quite too slow for me. It had a lot of potential. There are a lot of great reviews, take a look at those.

This was a really well written, very creepy, witchy read that I really enjoyed. The story is told in two POV's (not normally a favorite of mine) that were both really well done. Each were engrossing enough to keep my attention. There was lots of twists, some really well developed characters and a whole lot of intrigue. Overall it was a great read and listen.

This was fine there’s nothing wrong with it there’s nothing great about it I can see recommending us to certain people I know but I’m very middle for it

i like how the audiobook contained two pov/narrators for the two main characters in the book. i like the witchy and spooky elements of this book. the book was a little slow in the beginning to get through but it started picking up the pace later on in the book. Dana''s past & Ivy's future collide in this witchy read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Young Listeners, Flatiron Books, Melissa Albert, Chloe Cannon (narrator), and  Emma Galvin (narrator) for the opportunity to read and listen to the audiobook of Our Crooked Hearts in exchange for an honest review.

From the author of The Hazel Wood comes a stand-alone novel with two story lines that tie together to weave a paranormal tale of witchcraft and retribution.

In the present, Ivy's summer kicks off with a strange accident involving a girl and a...rabbit? Ever since the accident, Ivy finds herself pulled along through a string of strange, somewhat unexplainable events. As these events happen, Ivy finds herself experiencing snippets of memory and also discovers she is faced with a secret, one involving herself and her mother. Deep down, she already knew.

In the storyline of the past, the reader follows Dana, a teenager gifted in the supernatural. As she and her friends explore this gift, or power, they find a darker side to the magics they delve into. 

Hell hath no fury as the timelines of mother and daughter converge, opening up the dark secrets of the past.

I enjoyed both narrators. They equally did a great job portraying (and differentiating the voices of) the characters from present and past. They made the book an enjoyable listen, though at times, I did feel myself zoning out. I feel like this isn't your average everyday witch book, but rather a better crafted tale of family dynamics and how the acts of someone in the past can affect someone's future. It is well-written and an enjoyable read/listen that takes magic/witchcraft to a higher level of contemporary magic interest. 

Overall a good book with great craft and an intriguing story. Great for young adult readers interested in a more contemporary paranormal tale.

I reviewed an audiobook version of this ALC and would like to give a shout-out to the narrators on this. Their reading was amazing and drew me in to the story faster than any Albert book I've read in the past.

If there are any readers who have tried and failed on a Melissa Albert book in the past, I would encourage them to give this one a try.

Teen witches who mess with something they don't understand and the consequence of those actions running into future generations; no matter how hard they try to keep it a part of their past.

I’d like to thank Netgalley, MacMillian Audio, Melissa Albert, Chloe Cannon, and Emma Galvin for an ALC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⚡️A witchy slow burn mystery with dark magic and hidden dimensions that gives off vibes from The Craft? Yes please! This book felt both nostalgic and contemporary all at once and it really worked here. I found myself binging this one and getting lost in the creepy atmospheric story. I love dual timelines and multiple POV, so this was a win for me.

I paired my physical book with the audio, which absolutely enhanced my experience. Thank you so much to Flatiron Books, Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the gifted copies!

Pub date: 6/28/22

Personal trigger warning- there was ritualistic animal brutality and sacrifice that I tried to skim over. I don’t feel the level of detail given was necessary and instead took away from the story.

As Always Melissa Albert is able to come up with an interesting new angle on something that has been written about a lot. This time it’s witches. I loved the past/current timeline and the dual perspective. I look forward to seeing where this story goes.

Albert’s Crooked Hearts is a creepy, occult-based mystery/thriller that will appeal to fans of occult-based magic and multi-generational PoVs. Alternating between present-day protagonist Ivy and the past timeline told through her mother Dana’s perspective, a decades-long secret comes to the surface with a tense conclusion.

I’ll confess that I initially “NRN”ed (Not-right-now) this one because the opening scenes contain some gore and animal death that I wasn’t in the mood for when I first picked up the book. This book is firmly a “mood read” in my opinion– you gotta be down for a rainy day, witchy drama, horror kinda vibe when you sink into this one. I was in the mood for something a little darker a few months after Crooked landed on my “for later” shelf and picked it up and read it in a single day. I’m very glad that I did!

Albert’s writing is quite excellent. The scenes and imagery were crafted expertly with evocative metaphors and clever prose. The characters were only “average” for me. I found the main villains to be the most interesting, but unfortunately, we got to spend very little time in their heads to work out their motivations. For much of the book, I was drawing comparisons to Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House. Ninth House is targeted at general/adult audiences and I think the occult crime/thriller beat might work better with a post-high school protagonist. Albert’s Crooked Hearts features a high-school-age protagonist you can root for but her motivations aren’t always clear nor do the stakes seem particularly high.

Even with these critiques, Crooked Hearts is a unique entry in the crowded YA realistic/fantasy space. It will surely satisfy readers who love a good mystery, a witchy feminist subplot, and a no-frills protagonist with lots of guts and gumption.

The narrators in the audiobook version brought just the right mood to this story. Emma Galvin brought the main protagonist, Ivy, to life with exactly the right blend of grit and snark.

I absolutely loved this book! Told from the perspective of seventeen-year-old Ivy in the present, and her mother in her early witchy days. The stories converge as Ivy discovers more about her mother's dangerous exploits into magic in the past, and her own secrets are revealed. This title is a compelling exploration of magic, and mother and daughter relationships.

I enjoyed the narration for the most part. The voice of the daughter can be a bit shrill at times.

This is a definite purchase for print and audio.

I loved this book. Albert is great at twisting horror/fantasy stories. The romance was a bit unnecessary and didn't seem to add much. But I really liked the swapping pov between mom and daughter.

I receive this book from the publisher through netgalley.com I am voluntarily leaving this review.

I loved that this wasn't your typical teenage witchcraft book. What started years ago with Dana is not coming forward to effect Ivy. Messing with forces she didn't understand Dana and her friends, so enamored with witchcraft that they didn't think of the repercussions, performed a spell that had devastating consequences.

Now Ivy is seeing a woman in the woods who knows her name, she is finding dead rabbits on her front yard and the boy across the street seems to know her a lot better than the one time she remembers they spoke.

This was a well written book, its a cautionary tale to really think about what you are doing before you do it and sometimes even grown-ups screw up when they think they are doing something for your own good. I really liked the characters and I liked the way the story unfolded. I felt that the ending was a bit rushed even though it was a satisfactory ending.

The narration was excellent and really kept me invested in the story. I appreciated the acknowledgment of the change in time period and voice from Ivy to Dana I've found that not all audio books do that and you start to feel lost.

I absolutely loved Melissa Albert’s Hinterland books, so I was eager to read Our Crooked Hearts. I felt lucky to be granted access to the audiobook via NetGalley. This was, however, the first time I tried fiction via audio, and I did not care for the narration. At the halfway point, I’m giving up on the audiobook and getting back on the library waitlist. The story is intriguing, but as I listen, I am constantly critiquing the narration. I want to be able to judge the story on its own merits, and the audio was spoiling it for me.

My review of the audio narration: The book has two narrators, one who reads the daughter’s chapters and one the mother’s. Both narrators read all dialogue with an unvarying degree of intensity. The daughter, mother, father, friends…everyone’s dialogue is intense all of the time. The one-note, almost mono-tone nature drove me crazy - especially when the vocal descriptions read out didn’t match how it was read. Notes like “she whispered” or “he said hesitantly” would follow dialogue barked out like all the rest. If all audiobooks are like this, the format is not for me. I will not request any more from NetGalley.

Hoping to sit down with a print copy soon and starting again at the beginning. I won’t give a star rating on Goodreads or share a review on social media until I can give Melissa Albert’s story a fair shake. As I am required to give a star rating here, I choose 3 out of 5. If rating narration, alone, I would give one star.