Meet Jack Rothman. He’s seventeen and loves partying, makeup and boys – sometimes all at the same time. His sex life makes him the hot topic for the high school gossip machine. But who cares? Like Jack always says, ‘it could be worse’.
He doesn’t actually expect that to come true.
But after Jack starts writing an online sex advice column, the mysterious love letters he’s been getting take a turn for the creepy. Jack’s secret admirer knows everything: where he’s hanging out, who he’s sleeping with, who his mum is dating. They claim they love Jack, but not his unashamedly queer lifestyle. They need him to curb his sexuality, or they’ll force him.
As the pressure mounts, Jack must unmask his stalker before their obsession becomes genuinely dangerous…
Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts)
Lev A. C. Rosen
Rating: 3/5 🌈
Published: 30th October 2018
Goodreads
Rep: gay mc and side character (ownvoices), black side characters (not ownvoices), two sapphic side characters (one bi, one not stated)
My first time getting it in the butt was kind of weird. I think it’s going to be weird for everyone’s first time, though.
Galley provided by publisher
I had kind of mixed feelings about this book. On the whole, I liked it, but there were distinct parts of it I was less keen on. Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts) is a story about Jack, a gay teen at high school, who is roped into writing a sex advice column for his friend’s blog. But, in the process, someone makes it known that they have been stalking him. (P.S. the stalking storyline does get pretty damn creepy, so like. Just a warning.)
THE GOOD
One. All the talk about sex positivity and safe sex. The whole premise of the book, that Jack gives sex advice, is somewhat leery for me, given the ages of the characters, but the actual advice given is (on the whole) really good, and focuses well on sex positivity and having safe sex and consent, which I really liked. As the main character is gay, there is more focus on sex in that context, though also some more general things that apply to straight couples too (less on lesbian sex, but that’s kind of understandable in this case…). There were occasional things that I thought veered a little too close to some particular tumblr discourse for comfort, but, for the most part, it was really refreshing to see a YA book that’s so open and frank and positive about it all (especially with gay sex because that’s still seen as pretty dirty). One thing to note, while there are discussions of sex, the sex scenes in this are all fade-to-black.
Two. It’s ownvoices, and there’s huge value in books by mlm about mlm and things like sex that might otherwise be hard to find anything on. Basically, it’s really important.
Three. In one article, Jack calls out these straight girls who are busy fetishising him, and it is truly glorious. I can think of a few books that might benefit from just reading that one chapter.
Four. The characters are funny and well-rounded (even though I did get irritated by them a few times), and actually it’s a pretty compulsively readable book.
THE BAD (OR LESS GOOD)
One. In a way, this links in with my first point in the good column. Yes, it was good having all this sex positivity, but I did feel just a bit skeevy reading about this all from a 16/17 year old. You: “Sixteen and seventeen year olds can be sexually active.” Me: “Yes, but that doesn’t stop me feeling fairly skeevy about it all.” Maybe this is all because I’m not actually the target audience, true, but still. A point to bear in mind if you’re reading this at somewhat older than sixteen.
Two. Also, he said he started “three years earlier”, which would make him 13 or 14. Like. I’d say that’s too early but. You do you, Jack. So long as it’s safe and consensual.
Three. So, the characters are supposed to be about 16-17, but they read a whole lot older than that. I have genuinely never met a 16-17 year old who doesn’t treat sex as something pretty funny, and is as mature about it as Jack was in this. It reads a little more like they’re all college-aged.
Four. The fact that both Jack and Jenna hook up with college guys. I really don’t understand why authors can’t see that this is borderline creepy. They’re sixteen. People in college are at least two years older than that and, eighteen year-olds hooking up with sixteen year-olds? Creepy. (Also, his mum? Weirdly okay with it?)
Four. While Jack’s all “sex positivity!” and “not having a sex drive isn’t a problem!” in his articles, he does make one comment in his narrative that I wasn’t a particular fan of. It comes when he’s discussing his best friend, Ben, who’s “saving himself” for the right guy. And he references the fact that, in doing this, Ben is not having sex, not kissing boys, and just masturbating alone in his room. Which “must be miserable”. So, he’s all sex positivity, wait til the right time, in his articles, but in this? I don’t know what’s going on. It also never gets confronted, which was a bit sucky.
Five. Personal dislike: this book did use the q-slur as a blanket term, but like I say. Personal.
Six. When he uses femme to describe himself. As a cis gay guy.
Seven. “The idea of having to think, ‘Wait, is this okay with my boyfriend?’ before kissing some cute boy I just met at a party.” Jack, that’s called cheating.
So, overall, I liked this book, though I definitely was not the target audience for it. But it’s one of those ones that shows the importance of having ownvoices books about topics like this. It was a whole lot more engaging than yet another straight woman trying to tell me how gay boys/men feel.
