Bibliographic Information

Title: Our Crooked Hearts

Author: Melissa Albert

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Copyright Date: June 28, 2022

ISBN: 978-1250826367

Genre

Supernatural, Horror

Format

Book

Print Length

352 pages

Reading Level/Interest Level

Grades 9-12 (per Booklist)

Awards or Honors

None as of the date of this post.

Plot Summary

We didn’t wonder where the magic came from, or why it worked. We never asked ourselves, Is this ours to take? (p. 97, Kindle edition)

After a run-in with a strange woman in the woods, scary things start to happen to Ivy Chase; she finds a decapitated rabbit on her lawn, and she knows someone has been creeping around her house at night. When her mother and aunt disappear, Ivy is forced to face the cloud of questions she’s always had about her mom: who is she, and what has she done? In a race to find the truth, Ivy discovers the truth about herself, too, and just how powerful she is. In fact, it might be up to her to save them all.

Author Background

Melissa Albert is a former bookseller from Illinois and studied journalism at Columbia College Chicago. In 2018, she wrote her debut novel, The Hazel Wood, which was a New York Times Best Seller. She is now a full-time author and her books have received starred reviews from several professional trade publications. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her family (Melissa Albert, 2024).

Critical Evaluation

(A beautiful Russian art cover for Our Crooked Hearts.
Source: Altorina, 2022)

There is a feeling of barely suppressed rage in Our Crooked Hearts. It’s what fuels the book’s wild, creepy, sinister core – the rage of adolescence and the complicated dynamics of female identity and relationships. Melissa Albert’s lyrical writing creates an atmosphere that is dreamy and full of shadows, the weight of which sometimes overpowers action or character development.

The story is told through intertwining then and now timelines, sometimes putting the reader out of sync with what is happening. For instance, why is the relationship between Ivy and her mother so tense? Why does the teenage boy next door look at Ivy so strangely? Things are revealed in time and through various points of view, and patience in reading is the key to a satisfying resolution at the end.

Creative Use for a Library Program

Ivy’s Aunt Fee is a gifted herbalist, creating and selling a variety of herbal remedies at her store the Small Shop. A library could run a program teaching youth about different herbs and how to grow and use them for cooking and/or medicinal purposes.

Speed-Round Talk

Worker. Occultist. Witch. Whatever Ivy Chase’s mother is, secrets from her past have returned to tear their lives apart. Ivy is the only person powerful enough to save them all, if only she can remember how…

Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation

I would imagine some pushback against the book’s centering of occult themes and practices and showing teen characters as reckless, violent, even murderous. Adult stakeholders would need to be aware of the content and make independent decisions for their teens. The book includes valuable lessons about honesty, loyalty, and family, so there are universally worthwhile themes explored, too.

Reason for Inclusion

Witches have been popular subjects of teen fiction for a long time. It may be that, unlike horror, “witch books are often grounded enough in reality … to make them easy to access” (Jensen, 2018) while still giving them a “safe scare” (MacGregor, 2021). Our Crooked Hearts is good and spooky without being too dark and fits well as a supernatural entry into this contemporary collection for teens.

Other books by Melissa Albert: