Book Review: Heart Bones

Spoilers!

Borne of desperation, some decisions aren’t necessarily a sign of weakness, or more precisely, an individual moral failing, but a reflection of strength — surviving one more day — to paraphrase and add my own spin on Samson’s quote from Colleen Hoover’s 2020 book, Heart Bones. That is to say, as a society, we tend to look at those in downtrodden states as having somehow deserved it because of a moral failing of one kind or another. When, often, being in such a state is a result of unfortunate circumstances, tragedies, bad luck, and sometimes the system (criminal justice system, healthcare system, etc.) itself.

In Heart Bones, Beyah is one of those downtrodden people trying to do what it takes to survive and make something of herself. Her dad virtually abandoned her, and her mother is addicted to drugs and steals money meant for her from her dad to feed that drug addiction. So, Beyah prostituted herself at 15 because “$40 is a lot of money.” When her mother dies of an overdose and she goes to Texas to live with her father, she’s still is in survival mode, eating bread left for the birds on the deck of the ferry. That’s when she encounters Samson, who has his own unspoken, shady past, if you will, and well, the seeds of the arc here were obvious: Samson presented himself as rich, so, it seemed like we were about to get the archetypical unlikely romance between people at different spectrums of wealth and status. While we did get the unlikely romance, as it turns out, Samson is in the same station in life as Beyah, if actually worse: without family, homeless, and dealing with a criminal record.

But Beyah didn’t know any of that before she predictably fell in love with him and they had sex. She only finds out when she wakes up to the police arresting him for violating his parole and breaking and entering in the house next to her father’s house. She’s ready to dump everything for Samson, primarily her full-ride scholarship to Penn State, and stay in Texas to pay for his legal defense. Thankfully, — and I was going to be infuriated if it went any other way, admittedly! — Beyah, through a nice moment with her dad where they finally reconcile, realizes she needs to forge ahead without Samson. Even so, he does influence her career trajectory, as she gets into law school to address how the criminal justice system fails people like Samson.

After four years at Penn State, which incidentally coincides with Samson’s release from prison, they reunite and live happily ever after, in essence.

I was probably about 20-ish pages into Heart Bones when I thought to myself, This might be my favorite Hoover book. Sometimes you just know. I liked the message around poverty and the criminal justice system, and that Beyah didn’t give up everything for a guy, even if falling for him was a predictable story arc. Also, while there was what Stephen King fans might call “poundcake” throughout Heart Bones, it wasn’t as heavy and didn’t overstay its welcome like with previous Hoover books, so, I appreciated that. Plus, I’m a sap for the moment when Samson cheers on Beyah while she plays beach volleyball, something she never had before.