“This is what I know: She left last night,” (Dey 3).
Billie Jean Fontaine is missing. Seventeen years earlier she arrived to a smalltown far in the territory and now she’s left her teenaged daughter Pony, her husband The Heavy, her devoted dog, the teenager Supernatural who always seems to know more than anyone, and the rest of the town wondering where she’s gone. Pony, the dog, and Supernatural wonder whether or not they were the cause in some way in her leaving, where Billie Jean has gone, and whether or not she’ll come back.
I adored Claudia Dey’s Daughter so was excited to read Heartbreaker after years before hearing her read an excerpt of it at a literary festival. And I’ll be honest, it took me a bit to understand what was happening. The book is told in three parts, the first following her daughter Pony, the second Billie Jean’s dog, and the third a teenager named Supernatural. Dey doesn’t explain much about the town they all live in though it shortly becomes clear that they all live in a cult that’s style and language is centred around the 1980s. And while each of the narrators are wondering where Billie Jean went, they’re also concerned with how Billie Jean going missing has affected their lives as well as the struggles in their own lives before Billie Jean went missing. When I finished Pony’s section I was still pretty lost, it wasn’t until I read the next part (the dog’s) where the pieces started fitting together and it became clear, but honestly that’s what I enjoyed about it, realizing that each of these characters held a piece of the puzzle and that by the end all would be clear.
Each of the characters perspectives is unique and different from one another and I couldn’t really say which one I preferred, though the dog is pretty high up there. There’s also a whole lot of heart in this book, at it’s core it’s a story about love and family and I just loved how different it was. But I know this book isn’t going to be for everyone because honestly, it’s weird. There’s a telepathic dog and some other weird relationship stuff that I’m not going to spoil, but I’ve always loved a good weird book and Heartbreaker is a good weird book.
Dey is a fantastic writer, always willing and unafraid to write her stories and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!
Publication: August 21 2018
Publisher: Harper Avenue
Pages: 261 pages (Paperback)
Source: Owned
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤
Summary:
Seventeen years after falling from a stolen car into a remote northern town, Billie Jean Fontaine is still an outsider. She may follow the stifling rules of this odd place, but no one will forget that she came from elsewhere. When Billie Jean vanishes one cold October night in her bare feet and track suit with only her truck keys, those closest to her begin a frantic search. Her daughter, Pony, a girl struggling against being a teen in the middle of nowhere; her killer dog to whom she cannot tell a lie; her husband, The Heavy, a man haunted by his past; and the charismatic Supernatural, a teenage boy longing only to be average. Each holding a different piece of the puzzle, they must come together to understand the darkest secrets of their beloved, and lay bare the mysteries of the human heart.
Sarah O'Connor 