June lives in a world where everyone she knows has given up their emotions- by having their hearts removed and preserved alive in a jar of numbing solution. To avoid feeling pain, disappointment, sadness, anger, etc- but they also cannot feel any positive emotions. June is an artist and resists the social pressure to give up her feelings. She fears for her sister, and wants to find out if a removed heart can be replaced again. Then she finds an abandoned heart in a jar in an alley. There’s rumors of hearts being stolen from the medical storage facility. While doing research, June meets a boy (without a heart) who strangely, is starting to feel things again. What’s going on? Together they go looking for the scientist who started this all, and find out far more than they’d bargained for. The story reminded me a lot of that film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Some powerful themes on the importance of emotions, and how a selfless sacrifice can lead to healing. But there’s other aspects I still just don’t know what to make of it.
Borrowed from the public library.
