Lindsay Smith

A troubled girl confronts her personal demons in this time-travel thriller alternating between present day and 19th century Japan. No one knows how to handle Reiko. She is full of hatred; all she can think about is how to best hurt herself and those people closest to her. After a failed suicide attempt at her home in Seattle, Reiko's parents send her to spend the summer with family in Japan, hoping she will learn to control her emotions. But while visiting Kuramagi, a historic village preserved to reflect the nineteenth-century Edo period, Reiko finds herself slipping backward in time into the nineteenth-century life of Miyu, a young woman even more vengeful than Reiko herself. Reiko loves escaping into Miyu's life . . . until she discovers Kuramagi's dark secret and must face down Miyu's demons as well as her own.

A Darkly Beating Heart

Paige Green

Rating: 3.5/5



Genre: YA Fantasy



Recommended Age: 17+ (trigger warnings for suicide, cutting, and depression. One of the main things in this book that the character struggles with and almost seems to take pride in are her self harming habits and scars. It is mentioned multiple times throughout the book that she cuts and even goes into detail about her scars and how she does the act. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure you can handle that or that your children can handle that before you read or let your children read this book) (Also language, sex, and gore).


I received a free copy of this book from KidLitExchange in exchange for my honest review. My opinions are my own.



A troubled girl confronts her personal demons in this time-travel thriller alternating between present day and 19th century Japan.
No one knows how to handle Reiko. She is full of hatred; all she can think about is how to best hurt herself and those people closest to her. After a failed suicide attempt at her home in Seattle, Reiko's parents send her to spend the summer with family in Japan, hoping she will learn to control her emotions. But while visiting Kuramagi, a historic village preserved to reflect the nineteenth-century Edo period, Reiko finds herself slipping backward in time into the nineteenth-century life of Miyu, a young woman even more vengeful than Reiko herself. Reiko loves escaping into Miyu's life . . . until she discovers Kuramagi's dark secret and must face down Miyu's demons as well as her own. – Amazon.com



I’ve never seen or read a character with so much vengeance in their heart except for Arya. I thought she couldn’t be topped until I met Reiko, who is our main character. There are basically three stories that go on in this book: Reiko’s past, Reiko’s present, and Miyu’s story. Reiko tells the tale of her past in a series of flashbacks, but when Miyu makes an appearance the story is told through Reiko as she is experiencing it. That’s right, Reiko is able to travel back in time to experience life as this other girl who is similar to her. Vengeance is her game and she does not aim to lose, especially now that Reiko is able to help her out. I thought that the way this story was told was very unique and I felt the plot was not at all obvious from the beginning. The story continued to have twists and turns along the way, some of them being completely unique to anything I’ve read before. The character development for Reiko and Miyu was fantastic, and the pacing was very well done. I also want to point out that Reiko is bisexual, which I thought was one of the most wonderful things about this book because it seems that Reiko struggles with her sexuality along with a lot of her other issues in this book, which can be very helpful for many teens today.



However, there were some issues with this book in my opinion. I really wanted to DNF this book until I was about 50 pages in. The book is wrote in a weird manner and the flashbacks make for a little bit of a confusing read until the reader gets used to the book’s format. The book also doesn’t development any of the minor characters outside of a handful of the many included in the book. The book also mentions suicide and goes into detail about Reiko’s attempted suicide A LOT during the book. While I did not mind and I thought that it made the character growth that much more unique, I do understand that this type of book can really hurt some people. Unfortunately because the book is set in Japan and uses a lot of Japanese terms, history, and because it discusses how Reiko is a Japanese-American who can’t speak Japanese and is basically an outcast in Japan, I feel that I cannot talk about these topics in this review because I am uneducated in those matters. If this is an important quality for you in a book, please find someone who can talk about this issue better. It would be very interesting to see a review from a Japanese-American or a native Japanese person’s perspective on this book and if you or someone you know has reviewed it and does have knowledge in these areas I’d really appreciate a link to their blog or whatever platform they reviewed on.



Verdict: While I believe this book was a good read, I did have some major issues with the book and some potential issues that might arise as this book obtains more reviews. I also felt a little uncomfortable with how much the author depended on Reiko’s cutting habits in order to make Reiko grow as a character. While I think this book is a good read and would be an excellent Halloween book, I want to implore you to really be careful if you want to read this book.

A Darkly Beating Heart

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