Wow! I wasn't expecting my rating for this book to be as low as it is.

Hearts Still Beating just dragged on and on for me, it was putting me in a reading slump. I found it hard to connect with the characters and I found myself starting to skim towards the end.

I love the premise and the sapphic representation, though the execution was not my favorite.

Thank you so much to Penguin Teen for providing this ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

Perfect for fans of THE LAST OF US, Archer weaves a beautiful story of survival, love, grief, and humanity told from the POVs of a girl undead and a girl in mourning

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read Hearts Still Beating! Post apocalyptic romances aren't really within my wheelhouse, but I surprisingly really loved this!

The Last of Us meets a love story about two girls dealing with the aftermath of of a virus taking over the world and what happens when one of them is infected... and now is being let back out into the world. Mara and Rory were best friends, they've even thought about being more... until a virus known as "the Tick" happened turning people into flesh hungry zombies essentially and Mara gets infected... and that was two years ago... and now she has been rehabilitated and been put on a treatment program to treat her disease. Mara is put into an experimental resettlement program... and who better than to be her host family than her godparents... aka the same family with her old best friend and the girl she loved who she knows now hates her lives. Mara is still traumatized from what happened to her, she remembers everything she did as a Tick... everyone's she's killed including her parents. Rory is reeling from losing her younger sister, having sene her been killed, and she has impaired mobility from an injury. She is still plagued by nightmares and she's dreading facing Mara again. Rory has spent her time preparing to face off against Ticks, what she didn't expect was facing it in the form of the only girl she's ever loved. Both girls struggle with dealing with their pasts and the girls they have become since then, all the while the island's soldiers have gone wrong and are coming after the rehabilitated ticks and anyone who is harboring them... with the leader of the island's soldier particularly going after Rory and Mara, the girls will have to learn to lean on each other and grow past their differences in order to survive this new horror... and maybe fall for the new girls they are now. This was the perfect read for anyone who loved The Last of Us or loves a post-apocalyptic Romance!! The angst was real and the tension was so good. The world building in this one was fantastic and I loved how the book has you so interested in what was happening all the way to the end of the book. The romance was so well done and I loved that the girls were both healing and trying to get to know the new version of the person they loved. This is a fun read and I would absolutely recommend it!

*Thanks Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group, G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Thank you to netgalley and @penguinteen for the Arc. This is a debut book for author Brooke Archer. This book really surprised me. Post apocalyptic world, zombies (aka ticks), brutal battles with humanity, and a beautiful love story to go with it. There were a few confusing flashbacks that I had to reread, but once I reread it, I understood what was going on. Epic love story with action and suspense. I'd definitely recommend reading this when it comes out in April!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book!

4,5 stars, rounded up.

I freaking loved this book and my high school students are going to eat it up! It's a very strong debut, in my opinion.

This is a post-apocalyptic, action-packed, sort of zombie sapphic horror/romance. There is a lot going on, but all the elements really worked together. The dystopian elements are the central element of the story--can the world carry on with humans and the Altered coexisting? How will people deal with all the loss, grief, and horror they've experienced at the hands of people ravaged by a virus that turns people into zombies, kind of? I loved the dystopian elements and think this book will appeal to fans of The Last of Us. There are also interesting and heartwarming family-centric parts of the story, and a nice sprinkling of gore/horror for readers who enjoy that, but it's not too much. And of course, there are two girls madly in love just trying to figure out to explore that when one is not quite dead, but not quite alive.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

4.5 stars. I saw another review point out how cartoonish the villains were and I couldn’t help thinking about it the whole book. This was also another book where the antagonist is followed by people and I have no idea why. Why did they go along with his schemes when they knew he was covering something up? Who knows. Love it though.


This was such a sweet read. I haven’t read too many zombie romances but this was weirdly really cute. The idea of this world was terrifying and I would have gotten bitten first I’m sure. But the love between Mara and Rory was so adorable. I said awww probably 3 or 4 times. I was also pleasantly surprised by the amount of blood and gore in this one. When Rory ripped that girls ear off I gasped. She was feral in the best way and Mara was feral in the worst way.

This was a solid debut and exactly what I want in an undead gay zombie romance.

An incredibly emotional, pulse pounding read that I just freaking ATE UP!

I read maybe an handful of dystopian a year, and I am so happy this one made it to me because not a single moment of this book was wasted! Not one second. From beginning to end, this one had me. I was gasping. I was crying. I was pacing, then stopping in my tracks…

This was such a fun twist on the zombie apocalypse theme. After the world turned into hoards of “Ticks” and some groups of people managed to make it out alive, the science was finally available to take some of the recently infected Ticks and stop the progression, turning them into the “Altered.” Mara is one of these Altered. She is forever changed due to being turned, but with this new medicine, she and a group of other “Altered” can finally be integrated back into society.

While Mara is a very different person, with obvious scars and wounds that will never heal due to her current stasis, one thing she has held onto was the thought of Aurora, her best friend, the girl she never told she lived before the world went crazy. Reuniting on the island the Altered were sent to, Rory’s welcome is anything but warm.

The dynamics in this book, both with the characters and the cause and effect of actions taken, were so off the charts. There is a redemption story in here, for multiple characters. There is an oppressive force that attempts to hold people under their thumb, creating danger and chaos. And at the heart, there is this really beautiful love story that had me sobbing a few times through the story.

I could not recommend this book more!

Mara has been bitten by someone infected by the virus. In an effort to find a vaccine for the virus, the world found a way instead to help bring back some semblance of humanity in these “zombies”. Mara is one of them who has now been released to the care of her godparents, who are also the parents of the girl she loved before she was bitten. Rory has aged three years since then, while Mara has not. Can these two find love again? Fascinating concept and a fairly quick read.

THOUGHTS

Whoever wrote the tagline on this cover should be fired. Because "The world ended. Love did not." doesn't in any way encapsulate this book. I loved this book. It's dark. It's complex. And it's not at all schmaltzy. This is a book about hard characters learning to be human again in a world of impossible choices, and I love that.


PROS
Disability: Nobody's getting out of the zombie apocalypse unscathed, and Brooke Archer isn't afraid of that. These characters bear the scars of their survival. Rory's leg was badly injured long ago, and she didn't just heal from that. She doesn't walk well. And Mara, our cured zombie, hasn't healed back up. She's missing pieces of herself--including several fingers--and the others like her aren't anymore "whole" than she is. This apocalypse has left scars, and people are still healing. And people are learning to live with their new reality, missing limbs and broken body parts included. It isn't an airbrushed apocalypse, and I appreciate that Brooke Archer isn't afraid to represent physical disability like so many YA authors are.

Splashes of Gore: It can be so hard to find a YA book that balances gore, but Archer has managed it here. A zombie apocalypse can't come without gore, and so blood splashes these pages... but in a way that isn't too much. Most readers will be able to handle this gore level, and I appreciate that. This book doesn't hold back, but it toes just the right line to be open to a lot of YA readers, even those on the younger end of the scale.

Slow Softening: These characters are all very hard. They've had to be, to survive this long into the apocalypse. So this isn't a book about soft characters becoming harder as they make hard decisions. It's a book about characters who have already made those hard decisions learning, slowly, to be human again--to let themselves feel things, to get invested, and to want more from life.


CONS
Underutilized: The one major disappointment for me was Carter, Mara's sister. Carter had so much potential to be an interesting, complex character, and that potential doesn't really materialize. Obviously, Brooke Archer had other priorities, and I don't think it is ultimately to the detriment of this book that Carter is an underutilized character. But I do think the book could have been much, much better if Carter had been utilized more.

Too Personal: I can get why it would be hard, hard, hard to forgive a "cured" zombie. It would be hard to trust anyone with a deadly (to you, personally) virus lurking inside them, after all. But the anger these populations harbor toward the zombies in general doesn't make sense, because that anger feels so, so personal. This felt like a personal vendetta instead of, you know, anger at the fact that people you know became zombies and tried to eat you. It's not like anyone in this world chose to become a zombie, so why did it all feel so vehement, so motivated, so personal?

Hello? Contagion?: I get keeping your distance from former zombies. This "cure" still feels very new and very experimental. How does contagion work, exactly? Well, people know... and they don't quite know. And I appreciate that. So the thing that gets me, then, is that some of these characters, once they get over their initial aversion to being in the same room as former zombies, aren't afraid to interact with zombies on a close, personal level. There's a whole large gap between "can't be in the same room with" and "willing to touch," and that gap isn't really addressed. In a world where I don't really know how contagious somebody might be, I feel like I'd be wary of holding hands (and doing more than holding hands), even if I'm not afraid of being in the same room as them. Some pretty smart characters were really out here throwing caution to the wind, and that doesn't feel quite right to me--at least not without weighing the risks first, right?


Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
8/10
Fans of Kellie Sheridan's Mortality will appreciate this insider look at the zombie apocalypse. Those who loved Em Garner's Contaminated will like this new messy resettlement scheme.

Gory and gruesome and yet somehow still strangely sweet?

Mostly dead, Mara is about to be sent to live among humans again as an Altered version of the Ticks - the parasite that makes people want to kill and commit cannibalism. All she can hope for is that the girl she loved is still somehow alive. Rory is definitely still alive, and she's angry at the world. When authority starts to get out of control, Mara and Rory have to rely on each other to make it through.

This book gives off The Last of Us vibes, and I don't hate it. Several of the flashbacks seemed unnecessary, but I appreciate the story that was being built. This story doesn't rely much on the science aspect, which makes it easy to read. I liked Rory's family and the tension that played out between Rory and her parents. I was not a fan of the sister's vague attempt at reconciliation. It didn't feel natural to the story at all. Mara and Rory's second chance, on the other hand, played out really well.

Thanks so much to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

i read the premise of this book and i knew i was going to love it… and i did!
this was so angsty but also had sweet moments which i loved!

thank you netgalley for the e arc!

The premise of a YA romance with zombies caught me like a Venus fly-trap. If you enjoy post-apocalyptic stories, teenage romance, and plagues, you will enjoy this. This was a 5-star book until about 75% into the book. Then I started to feel like it was getting long and wondering what would take up the rest of the book. It ends in the most cheestastic but appropriate manner. There is a line near the end where one character states that they aren't living in a fairy tale, but readers, this is most definitely a fairy tale, the most Grimm manner. Overall 4 stars. Put this on your summer beach reading list.

This had me on the edge of my seat! The world building was good, action filled, and the characters pulled at my heart strings. I'll definitely be re-reading this.

This book had really fun characters and it was a satisfying and gory horror. The pacing and flashbacks had me struggling a bit, but it had a delightful combination of thriller, angst, and romance that kept me invested.

In a post-apocalyptic world, two teen girls in love were separated when one of them was infected with a virus that turned her into a vicious monster. As time passes, a cure is finally invented and they are reunited, but nothing’s the same…

Hearts Still Beating is an absolutely brilliant debut novel and a new favorite of mine. I mean, it’s a zombie apocalypse lesbian romance…enough said.

The post-apocalyptic world, with the complex mess society was left in, provided a very intriguing backdrop for the main characters that I really enjoyed. It added so much adventure, high stakes, mystery, and danger to the plot that kept me invested from the first chapter. I also really enjoyed seeing both outcomes of the apocalypse through the characters perspectives: Mara with her inner turmoil after being controlled by a literal parasite, versus, Aurora’s wariness and fierce anger at the world for taking her loved ones away.

There was also SO much angst between Mara and Aurora and I loved it. First off, they’re both badasses and I’m obsessed with them. Secondly, their romance was so sweet. The mix of tension, longing, and protectiveness between them was perfect and all the “touch her and you die” moments had me screaming. Overall, watching them evolve, from hating each other to falling in love again, was genuinely amazing.

I honestly could’ve read a whole trilogy of this. An immediate 5 stars!!!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for gifting me an ARC in exchange for an HONEST review!

3.5 stars

I'm not going to lie, I have a few mixed feelings about this one. It is SUCH an amazing premise. I love a good zombie story, but a sapphic love story where one is a rehabilitated zombie? I'm so in. I loved Mara, I wanted to protect her with my whole being. I thought she was written well and I loved how the zombie was the more emotional and calm one out of the two. But I didn't really like Rory. Some of her thinking and actions annoyed me a bit. I also didn't think they had great chemistry. It's hard to get a good childhood best friends to second chance romance right, so I honestly can't be too mad that I didn't like their version of it. Other than their love story (which is the main part of the book), I loved some of the themes that we get to see including one of humanity being the true monsters in a world of zombies. It something we see often in zombie media and I always appreciate it when it is done well, which is was here. I also loved getting to see this version of the zombies (or Ticks) and how they came to be. With so many of these stories out there, there are a lot of versions and I thought this one was really cool. So while there were some aspects that I didn't enjoy, there were some that I did. If you want a sapphic zombie love story, I would definitely recommend this one.

This was a mixed bag of a book for me. The concept was interesting. The execution was lacking. There were parts I liked, but the pacing was all over the place and the story didn't really click for me until the end.

That said, the main relationship was sweet and I was rooting for the girls throughout. I liked the supporting characters, though I thought the villain was pretty flat. The world-building was appropriately heavy and horrific. The stakes were high and interesting. I would say this book's worth a read if you like dystopian zombie tales with a sapphic twist.

I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

We are living in a sapphic supernatural renaissance and I am LIVING (or un-living?) for it.

Before we get into the romance, let's talk about the epic world-building. In this post-apocalyptic world, a virus unleashed from Antarctica due to climate change has infected people. The Tick acts almost like the an implant in the brain - the hosts are helpless to the Tick's insatiable appetite and are kept alive just enough for the Tick to attack other humans. A new drug allows the Ticks to be subdued so the hosts can be semi-real people, and a new government program allows these Altered to be released into the custody of their kin. Not that everyone is happy about the people who costs the deaths of their loved ones! Enter a dictator keeping control of his island community, manipulation of the masses, and scapegoating of the Altered for all issues in society. This story is less about the apocalypse and more about taking down a dictator!

PHEW. This world is set up PERFECTLY. Archer never shies away from the gore or the tragedy in this world. It's grisly and heartbreaking at the same time. Our heroines are battered (Mara is missing fingers, Rory has a chronic leg injury), but what matters it that they are beautiful to each other.

And my goodness. The romance here gave me hope in the genre again. The angst? The second chance romance? The way that love conquers even a virus threatening to turn Mara back into a zombie? Perfection. In the world that doesn't have much hope, these two girls find each other and cling to one another. Even as Rory blames Mara for the destruction of her family. Even as Mara's Tick causes her to forget Rory's name. They support one another even when they can't explain why (spoiler: it's love!)

The book is dedicated to the girls who are angry, but this truly is a story of love and sapphic joy. There isn't room for homophobia in the post-apocalyptic world, and Mara and Rory get to revel in one another. I don't want to spoil too much but making out saves lives, y'all.

Five stars. And that's coming from a girl who is terrified of horror and would definitely not see this if it was made into a movie (side note: this should be made into a movie).

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

My masochistic relationship with zombie media strikes again.. For some reason when I was a kid I fell in love with the zombie genre, and for some reason I'm still in love with it even though it has hurt me so much by consistently only having the most underwhelming pieces of media ranging from mediocre to, usually, just straight up bad. Unfortunately, Hearts Still Beating is no exception.

As far as positives go, I liked the concept. So far I haven't encountered zombie media that focuses on a story after a (sort of) cure is found. So to me this was a unique and interesting approach. I also think the concept of the romance was good, execution was slightly forced (as discussed later), but ultimately this was one of the better aspects of the book.

Let's start this critique by addressing something I usually never bring up.. the actual writing style! I never talk about this because quite honestly I am woefully inadequate when it comes to possessing the education and qualifications to do so. So my very unprofessionally worded analysis is that it comes off as kind of cringey-edgy-'YA-y' garbage sometimes.

The biggest most glaring issue with this book is that a large amount of it is based off of the idea that everyone hates the Altered (the 'cured' zombies), the thing is, this idea makes precisely... FUCK ALL SENSE. Come here, come here, you, the author, are telling me that Carter's sister comes home and is alive again after being presumed gone forever and Carter's response is unmeasurable rage and the strong desire to kill her?! You're telling me that Rory's bestfriend and person she loved/loves comes back and her response is to want to kill her? Mmmmm ya, no. This hatred was so forced it's ridiculous. Especially because you could genuinely have an interesting arc/exploration of the conflicting feelings Carter could have towards her sibling who unintentionally killed their parents, but instead we get this ridiculous one dimensional hate. And as far as the anti-Altered behavior from the general population: that doesn't make entire sense to me either, because you'd think all of them would be hoping it'd be their partner, sibling, child or friend who came back next. Weariness I could understand definitely, but outright hatred and desire to murder them? I'm not buying it.

Speaking of outright hatred and desire to murder the Altered, let's talk about Mal. Mal is just a villain for the sake of having a villain. No specific motivations, no complexity, just the most one dimensional bad guy because the author wanted to have a bad guy.

Also the pacing was a little wonky in my opinion around the 2/3 mark it started to feel real sloooooow. And the world was a bit empty feeling. It wasn't that developed. I kind of wish areas like Daphne's were explored more or just more relevant so that the world itself felt more well rounded and like it existed beyond the Island. Especially because the island itself though wasn't really developed either.

I'm not mad, just disappointed. The zombie genre has once again failed me, when will I learn that maybe it's just not a good genre..