Review summary: A diverse, dark tale with a certain maturity not fully realized
Official Summary:
“No one knows what to do with Reiko. She is full of hatred. All she can think about is how to best hurt herself and the people closest to her. After a failed suicide attempt, Reiko’s parents send her from their Seattle home to spend the summer with family in Japan to learn to control her emotions. But while visiting Kuramagi, a historic village preserved to reflect the nineteenth-century Edo period, Reiko finds herself slipping back in time into the life of Miyu, a young woman even more bent on revenge than Reiko herself. Reiko loves being Miyu, until she discovers the secret of Kuramagi village, and must face down Miyu’s demons as well as her own.
A time-travel story that alternates between modern day and 19th century Japan as one girl confronts the darkness lurking in her soul.”
Review:
This book offers so much that we want but don’t usually get from Young Adult fiction, but suffers from some fundamental flaws that unfortunately stop it from being the book of our dreams. Our protagonist is Reiko, a mentally-ill bisexual Japanese-American girl. If you were looking at a line graph depicting how many axes of oppression their protagonists were operating on, “A Darkly Beating Heart” would send the line positively soaring upwards. And they aren’t just labels there for show, they’re integral to the story. On top of that, this novel deals with some very heavy topics: suicide, self harm, psychiatric medication, disordered eating, manipulation and betrayal, sibling abuse, homicidal feelings, revenge, and - after it all - forgiveness and moving on. If that sounds melodramatic, it’s not just a collection of buzzworthy topics thrown together for drama. A lot of these things come hand-in-hand, after all.
There are essentially two different plots, one for Reiko’s normal life and one for her time as Miyu, until they converge during the climax of the novel. Both are interesting, and both have building tension and secrets to be revealed. The climax had plot twists for both storylines, and had the interesting element of revealing new information about events we thought we already understood, altering our perception of the events but also the characters, including Reiko herself.
Smith does a wonderful job creating a roiling, dark atmosphere in Kuramagi, a creeping sense of wrongness and things to come. She also captures the essential feeling of a small historical Japanese town, its charms and unique qualities: so much so that I really wanted to visit even though there was evil shit going on. The time spent in Tokyo at the beginning of the novel also captured the city well; even the way Aki’s “lifestyle brand” was named accurately imitated the way Japanese pop-culture titles things, in a way the West doesn’t. Smith had her book beta read by a Japanese-American girl for accuracy, and she hasspoken about how Reiko’s struggle with being ethnically Japanese but not knowing the Japanese language resonated with her. I appreciated the depiction of female anger, of Reiko being allowed to be unapologetically furious and vengeful, something often still considered “unladylike” or something women aren’t even capable of (unless they’ve got their period, amirite!).
Rather than being riddled with minor annoyances that amount to major dissatisfaction, this novel suffers from two major flaws, but these flaws only (in my opinion, of course):
1. Laying on the revenge and darkness talk way too thick, to the point of corniness
2. Underdeveloped in key places, namely the backstory and the ending
Reiko’s first-person perspective unfortunately completely overdoes her narrative of bottomless, black depression and her desire for the ultimate revenge to make her enemies suffer the depths of despair the have plunged her into etc. etc. The very first instances of it were already overwrought, and unfortunately she continued to keep bringing it up and laying it on thick consistently throughout the novel. If you have less time for bullshit of this variety than me or a lower tolerance for corniness then you’d probably struggle to make it through this novel. Personally, while I did find it silly, I was enjoying myself enough to keep going. And honestly, while it doesn’t mean it’s uncritiquable, it isn’t even unrealistic - she’s a teenager, afterall. The teenage years are the height of melodramatic angst. (I was a teenager at the height of the Emo trend, okay. I know these things.)
There are many events that happen before the novel begins that are hugely important to the narrative, mostly in creating the anger and despair that have set Reiko on the path she’s chosen. Many of them, most importantly her abusive relationship with her brother, needed more development to justify and help us understand Reiko’s reaction to them. It also would have added great depth to Reiko’s character arc and the story overall, which was instead left feeling more superficial than it could have been. And the novel is only sixty-thousand words, definitely on the short side even for YA, so it’s not that words that could have been used for this purpose were already used elsewhere. It is at least an upside that they weren’t wasted elsewhere resulting in a novel of many words and little substance.
The climax of the plot as well the wrap-up the closes the novel are too rushed. The rising action of the final act comes to an abrupt end, undercutting its own effectiveness. Everything from then on resolves itself quickly and easily, and Reiko’s life post-plot heads towards happiness without much effort on her part. While she learned lessons in her time as Miyu that would resolve some of her issues very quickly, as only a supernatural experience could, a rage as deep as hers seemed (thanks to the aforementioned overdone narrative) would not have immediately evaporated with Miyu’s spirit, and seeing Reiko work through her problems and take responsibility for her actions would have made for both a more realistic and a more satisfying ending.
What really held this book together for me and made it enjoyable despite its shortcomings, was the well-written prose. The flow of Smith’s prose swept me through the novel despite whatever misgivings I had so I still found the novel enjoyable in a way I wouldn’t have had the prose been clunky on top of the other flaws. Because of the novel’s short length the pacing is quick, and it’s an easy read. “A Darkly Beating Heart” had, for me, a spark of something deeper than we usually see in YA and not just because it dealt with “mature” topics. It wasn’t fully-realized, however, so I can’t quite pin down what it was, but I found it somewhat compelling nonetheless. I think if you have a good imagination you can read this novel and, thinking it over, you can flesh it out into what it could have been yourself. I think it’s worth it.
Weaker points:
Backstory/development
Corniness
Ending
Stronger points:
Prose
Diversity/representation
Plot
Setting
Atmosphere
Themes (suicide, self harm, psychiatric medication, disordered eating, manipulation and betrayal, sibling abuse, homicidal feelings, revenge)
Content/age appropriateness warnings: discussion of suicide/homicide, disordered eating, explicit self-harm, non-explicit sex, discussion of emotional and physical abuse and manipulation, physical violence and blood
“No one knows what to do with Reiko. She is full of hatred. All she can think about is how to best hurt herself and the people closest to her. After a failed suicide attempt, Reiko’s parents send her from their Seattle home to spend the summer with family in Japan to learn to control her emotions. But while visiting Kuramagi, a historic village preserved to reflect the nineteenth-century Edo period, Reiko finds herself slipping back in time into the life of Miyu, a young woman even more bent on revenge than Reiko herself. Reiko loves being Miyu, until she discovers the secret of Kuramagi village, and must face down Miyu’s demons as well as her own.
A time-travel story that alternates between modern day and 19th century Japan as one girl confronts the darkness lurking in her soul.”
Review:
This book offers so much that we want but don’t usually get from Young Adult fiction, but suffers from some fundamental flaws that unfortunately stop it from being the book of our dreams. Our protagonist is Reiko, a mentally-ill bisexual Japanese-American girl. If you were looking at a line graph depicting how many axes of oppression their protagonists were operating on, “A Darkly Beating Heart” would send the line positively soaring upwards. And they aren’t just labels there for show, they’re integral to the story. On top of that, this novel deals with some very heavy topics: suicide, self harm, psychiatric medication, disordered eating, manipulation and betrayal, sibling abuse, homicidal feelings, revenge, and - after it all - forgiveness and moving on. If that sounds melodramatic, it’s not just a collection of buzzworthy topics thrown together for drama. A lot of these things come hand-in-hand, after all.
There are essentially two different plots, one for Reiko’s normal life and one for her time as Miyu, until they converge during the climax of the novel. Both are interesting, and both have building tension and secrets to be revealed. The climax had plot twists for both storylines, and had the interesting element of revealing new information about events we thought we already understood, altering our perception of the events but also the characters, including Reiko herself.
Smith does a wonderful job creating a roiling, dark atmosphere in Kuramagi, a creeping sense of wrongness and things to come. She also captures the essential feeling of a small historical Japanese town, its charms and unique qualities: so much so that I really wanted to visit even though there was evil shit going on. The time spent in Tokyo at the beginning of the novel also captured the city well; even the way Aki’s “lifestyle brand” was named accurately imitated the way Japanese pop-culture titles things, in a way the West doesn’t. Smith had her book beta read by a Japanese-American girl for accuracy, and she has
Rather than being riddled with minor annoyances that amount to major dissatisfaction, this novel suffers from two major flaws, but these flaws only (in my opinion, of course):
1. Laying on the revenge and darkness talk way too thick, to the point of corniness
2. Underdeveloped in key places, namely the backstory and the ending
Reiko’s first-person perspective unfortunately completely overdoes her narrative of bottomless, black depression and her desire for the ultimate revenge to make her enemies suffer the depths of despair the have plunged her into etc. etc. The very first instances of it were already overwrought, and unfortunately she continued to keep bringing it up and laying it on thick consistently throughout the novel. If you have less time for bullshit of this variety than me or a lower tolerance for corniness then you’d probably struggle to make it through this novel. Personally, while I did find it silly, I was enjoying myself enough to keep going. And honestly, while it doesn’t mean it’s uncritiquable, it isn’t even unrealistic - she’s a teenager, afterall. The teenage years are the height of melodramatic angst. (I was a teenager at the height of the Emo trend, okay. I know these things.)
There are many events that happen before the novel begins that are hugely important to the narrative, mostly in creating the anger and despair that have set Reiko on the path she’s chosen. Many of them, most importantly her abusive relationship with her brother, needed more development to justify and help us understand Reiko’s reaction to them. It also would have added great depth to Reiko’s character arc and the story overall, which was instead left feeling more superficial than it could have been. And the novel is only sixty-thousand words, definitely on the short side even for YA, so it’s not that words that could have been used for this purpose were already used elsewhere. It is at least an upside that they weren’t wasted elsewhere resulting in a novel of many words and little substance.
The climax of the plot as well the wrap-up the closes the novel are too rushed. The rising action of the final act comes to an abrupt end, undercutting its own effectiveness. Everything from then on resolves itself quickly and easily, and Reiko’s life post-plot heads towards happiness without much effort on her part. While she learned lessons in her time as Miyu that would resolve some of her issues very quickly, as only a supernatural experience could, a rage as deep as hers seemed (thanks to the aforementioned overdone narrative) would not have immediately evaporated with Miyu’s spirit, and seeing Reiko work through her problems and take responsibility for her actions would have made for both a more realistic and a more satisfying ending.
What really held this book together for me and made it enjoyable despite its shortcomings, was the well-written prose. The flow of Smith’s prose swept me through the novel despite whatever misgivings I had so I still found the novel enjoyable in a way I wouldn’t have had the prose been clunky on top of the other flaws. Because of the novel’s short length the pacing is quick, and it’s an easy read. “A Darkly Beating Heart” had, for me, a spark of something deeper than we usually see in YA and not just because it dealt with “mature” topics. It wasn’t fully-realized, however, so I can’t quite pin down what it was, but I found it somewhat compelling nonetheless. I think if you have a good imagination you can read this novel and, thinking it over, you can flesh it out into what it could have been yourself. I think it’s worth it.
Weaker points:
Backstory/development
Corniness
Ending
Stronger points:
Prose
Diversity/representation
Plot
Setting
Atmosphere
Themes (suicide, self harm, psychiatric medication, disordered eating, manipulation and betrayal, sibling abuse, homicidal feelings, revenge)
Content/age appropriateness warnings: discussion of suicide/homicide, disordered eating, explicit self-harm, non-explicit sex, discussion of emotional and physical abuse and manipulation, physical violence and blood
