Heartbeat
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4.5 • 8 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
oes life go on when your heart is broken?
Since her mother's sudden death, Emma has existed in a fog of grief, unable to let go, unable to move forward—because her mother is, in a way, still there. She's being kept alive on machines for the sake of the baby growing inside her.
Estranged from her stepfather and letting go of things that no longer seem important—grades, crushes, college plans—Emma has only her best friend to remind her to breathe. Until she meets a boy with a bad reputation who sparks something in her—Caleb Harrison, whose anger and loss might just match Emma's own. Feeling her own heart beat again wakes Emma from the grief that has grayed her existence. Is there hope for life after death—and maybe, for love?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Scott (Miracle) returns with the wrenching story of 17-year-old Emma, whose mother, Lisa, had a sudden stroke while pregnant; although Lisa is brain-dead, she is being kept alive by machines to save the baby growing inside her. Emma's stepfather, Dan, made the choice to keep Lisa alive, and Emma hates him for it, also believing that Dan essentially killed her mother by getting her pregnant in the first place. At first, only Emma's best friend Olivia knows her despair, but at the hospital Emma connects with Caleb, who's doing community service after driving his father's Porsche into a lake. Caleb has had his own misfortunes: he feels responsible for his younger sister's death, and his parents also blame him for it. Scott captures the angst and euphoria of first love and the intensity of bonds formed through hardship. At times the story veers toward melodrama, but Emma's emotional conflict characterized by moments of irrationality, rage, and confusion is honest, and her eventual ability to see that tragedies can be blameless results in a powerful transformation. Ages 14 up.
