If you’re looking for the perfect read for December and an impending Christmastime, then look no further than Jake Maia Arlow’s How to Excavate a Heart. It’s out now in the USA, and on Thursday in the UK, so you have no excuse for not picking it up! Start your December right and let this review tell you why!
Before we get to the review though, don’t forget you can follow Jake on instagram too.
It all starts when Shani runs into May. Like, literally. With her mom’s Subaru.
Attempted vehicular manslaughter was not part of Shani’s plan. She was supposed to be focusing on her monthlong paleoichthyology internship. She was going to spend all her time thinking about dead fish and not at all about how she was unceremoniously dumped days before winter break.
It could be going better.
But when a dog-walking gig puts her back in May’s path, the fossils she’s meant to be diligently studying are pushed to the side–along with the breakup.
Then they’re snowed in together on Christmas Eve. As things start to feel more serious, though, Shani’s hurt over her ex-girlfriend’s rejection comes rushing back. Is she ready to try a committed relationship again, or is she okay with this just being a passing winter fling?
How to Excavate a Heart
Jake Maia Arlow
Rep: Jewish lesbian mc & li, Indian American sapphic side character
CWs: past sexual assault, past controlling relationship
Release: 24th November 2022