Heartbreak Homes

Heartbreak Homes uses three perspectives—Martin, Cara, and Frankie—to help unravel a house party gone wrong after two teenagers are found in a desperate state behind a locked door. A few of the usual high school party incidents occur at an abandoned house overrun with teenagers—fights, hookups, and party observers watching from the sidelines—until events unfold that shift the typical party to a murder scene. Malcolm, the privileged and well-liked party-thrower, is dead, and Jessa, a girl trying out a new, more popular role in her school, is unconscious in the room with him. Martin was unexpectedly at the party after having to leave his friend group due to moving across town as a result of his father’s financial ruin. Cara is at the wrong place at the wrong time after she and her chosen family loot the party to ensure their survival during an unhoused winter. Frankie is the one who discovers both bodies after trying to track down Jessa to leave the party. After a brief introduction to the three perspectives and a few side characters slotted into pretty standard high school stereotypes to round out the party, the plot is set in motion to figure out who is responsible for Malcolm’s murder, and if the person still at large wants to hurt Jessa.

Overall, the plot of the story moves at a fairly fast pace, with enough realistic clues (think cell phone pictures with suspects in the background and secretive revisits to the scene of the crime) to keep the reader engaged and guessing along with the characters as to who killed the teen, and more importantly, why. Initially, I had to keep reading the blurb on the back to keep the characters sorted and to remind myself of their connection to the murder night, but, by a third of the way in, I felt confident in how everyone was linked and their motive for trying so hard to solve the murder, even though it was being thoroughly investigated by police. About three-quarters of the way through the novel, a second teenager close to Malcolm is found dead as the three narrators deepen their investigation and narrow in on potential suspects, but this time the teenager is found with a suicide note. At this point in Heartbreak Homes, it was clear that a second body found in the same spot as the first would not be from a suicide, and so, while this second death served the purpose of cutting off key information for the narrators, as a reader, it wasn’t particularly gripping, and I was ready for more of the loose ends of the original murder mystery to start wrapping up.

Heartbreak Homes has multiple themes of evolving friendships, grief and protectiveness, and complicated families to pair with the murder mystery plot devices. There were a variety of characters to trust and question, and a few of the side characters begin to stand out and take on their own storylines that added to the overall novel. Readers should be warned that there is mature content in the book: sexual assault, drug use, and, of course, multiple deaths. Heartbreak Homes was an enjoyable read, but not one that I was thinking about days after finishing or one that had a twist that I raved about.