Review: Heartwood Box by Ann Aguirre

Title: Heartwood Box

Author: Ann Aguirre

Publisher: Tor Teen

Publishing Date: July 9th, 2019

Pages: 336
Audio Length: 9 Hours and 50 Minutes

Genre: YA Mystery Romance
TW: N/A

Series: Standalone

Source: Audio

 

A dark, romantic YA suspense novel with an SF edge and plenty of drama, layering the secrets we keep and how appearances can deceive, from the New York Times bestselling author.
In this tiny, terrifying town, the lost are never found. When Araceli Flores Harper is sent to live with her great-aunt Ottilie in her ramshackle Victorian home, the plan is simple. She'll buckle down and get ready for college. Life won't be exciting, but she'll cope, right?
Wrong. From the start, things are very, very wrong. Her great-aunt still leaves food for the husband who went missing twenty years ago, and local businesses are plastered with MISSING posters. There are unexplained lights in the woods and a mysterious lab just beyond the city limits that the locals don't talk about. Ever. When she starts receiving mysterious letters that seem to be coming from the past, she suspects someone of pranking her or trying to drive her out of her mind. To solve these riddles and bring the lost home again, Araceli must delve into a truly diabolical conspiracy, but some secrets fight to stay buried...

What made me pick this book up: 

That cover though. 

What did I like about the cover: 

All of it. I love the creepy old box with the blood coming out. I love the letter and the flowers. I love the colors.

My only problem is it really doesn't match the book.

What made me read this book:

The cover mostly. It's supposed to be a dark romantic YA suspense novel with secrets and drama and edginess. 

What did I like the most: 

I don't even really know. I really didn't like this book. As I'm listening to it and rolling my eyes at the bad romance (See below) I'm sitting here wondering why I'm still listening.

But here's why I rated it 4 stars. I could not stop listening. Even when I was like wait why am I listening to this, I just had to keep listening. I had to find out where the missing people are going, why she could write letters to a soldier from 30 years ago (Much like the Lake House in that way) and what else was going on. 

I very much liked her friend, who's name has escaped me, but it's her guy friend. I kind of fell for him. Like really hard and I found myself wanting him to be in every part of the book. Because he was definitely the best part of the book.

When I finished it I told John "I don't know why I loved that book. I really didn't... but I did." 

What didn't I like: 

Okay so... This book has "horror" and "thriller" tagged on it. It is in no way horror or thriller. There is nothing especially "scary" about this book. There is nothing really thrilling. If anything it's a scifi/action/romance type of book. 

That was my biggest problem. Because I was expecting a good creepy gory book. Instead I got this. As it says in the description it's supposed to be a dark, edgy, drama filled, mystery book. It's really not. That's really the biggest problem I had with this book.

The other reason I only rated it a 4 instead of a 5 is that Araceli falls for this boy that she's writing letters to... within like 3 back and forth letters. It made me feel like she was a bit desperate and just wanted love. The other problem is this wasn't a well written romance. The author clearly wanted to write a romance that would make people swoon. But it was just kind of awkward and left me a little confused.

This book has a million different things going on. People disappearing, the box with the magical letters, time travel (???), friends falling for friends. It was just a cluster f*ck of different things going on and at some points I felt a little... again confused. I felt like I was reading three different books in one.

Would I read the rest of the series/more from this author?
Yeah I think so... I read Like Never and Always and really don't remember much about it. But this one really caught my eye.

“I like them all more when they accept that without asking a lot of questions. If we click, I’ll tell them about my life, but I hate giving personal details for no other reason than to satisfy the curiosity of strangers. Any info I divulge should come by choice.”
― Ann Aguirre, Heartwood Box

Ann Aguirre is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author with a degree in English Literature; before she began writing full time, she was a clown, a clerk, a voice actress, and a savior of stray kittens, not necessarily in that order. She grew up in a yellow house across from a cornfield, but now she lives in sunny Mexico with her husband, children, and various pets. She likes all kinds of books, emo music, action movies and Doctor Who. She writes all kind of fiction in multiple genres, both YA and for adults.