Name: Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts)
ISBN: 9780316522526

L. C. Rosen

Lev AC. Rosen

"An unapologetically sexually active queer character works to uncover a blackmailer threatening him back into the closet"--

Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts)

Pretty Little Liars meets Dan Savage in this modern, fresh, YA debut about an unapologetically queer teen working to uncover a blackmailer threatening him back into the closet. Jack has a lot of sex--and he's not ashamed of it. While he's sometimes ostracized, and gossip constantly rages about his sex life, Jack always believes that "it could be worse." But then, the worse unexpectedly strikes: When Jack starts writing a teen sex advice column for an online site, he begins to receive creepy and threatening love letters that attempt to force Jack to curb his sexuality and personality. Now it's up to Jack and his best friends to uncover the stalker--before their love becomes dangerous. Ground-breaking and page-turning, Jack of Hearts (and other parts) celebrates the freedom to be oneself, especially in the face of adversity.

Jack of Hearts (and other parts)

Sarah Sammis

OK but would be better as N.A. Every 17 year old I know is too fucking busy with school to do as much fucking, drinking, at whatnot that Jack and co get up to in this book. The teens I know have less free time than I did as a teen and I had less free time than my parents' generation. Make Jack 20 something. Make him a college student or a grad student. Then he'll have had time to have as much experience as he claims to have had. And he'll have the time and agency for the partying etc.

Jamieson

I love this book because when you read it's bad reviews, it's just adults who haven't spoken to a teenager in 50 years crying because via this book they discovered teenagers do, in fact, have sex with each other. 

Jack of Hearts is the unapologetic queer book we've all been waiting for - it said FUCK your sanitisation of YA and teenagers lives and just decided to showcase a sex-positive, self-proclaimed gay slut as the main character. L.C Rosen did sex-ed more comprehensively in 340 pages than my entire catholic school upbringing managed and for that, I have to salute him. 4.5 stars


  FULL REVIEW ON MY BLOG

Couldn't get enough of Love, Simon or The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue? This is the (slightly NSFW) book for you! --------------- 'My first time getting it in the butt was kind of weird. I think it's going to be weird for everyone's first time, though.' Meet Jack Rothman. He's seventeen and loves partying, makeup and boys - sometimes all at the same time. His sex life makes him the hot topic for the high school gossip machine. But who cares? Like Jack always says, 'it could be worse'. He doesn't actually expect that to come true. But after Jack starts writing an online sex advice column, the mysterious love letters he's been getting take a turn for the creepy. Jack's secret admirer knows everything: where he's hanging out, who he's sleeping with, who his mum is dating. They claim they love Jack, but not his unashamedly queer lifestyle. They need him to curb his sexuality, or they'll force him. As the pressure mounts, Jack must unmask his stalker before their obsession becomes genuinely dangerous...

Rebecca Browne

A quick, fun read but it was pretty obvious from the get-go who the stalker was.

Grace O'Callaghan

Jack is known for having lots of sex, and not being ashamed of it. Many rumours are spread about his sex life but he doesn’t mind as it could be worse. When his friend asks him to write a sex advice column for her website, Jack is hesitant but sees it as an opportunity to control the gossip about him. However, not everyone is happy with his new hobby as Jack starts receiving creepy and gross messages. Jack has to find out who his stalker is before things turn dangerous and threaten to push him back into the closet.

I absolutely adore everything this book stands for. It sends a sex positive and gives really good and useful advice to teens. I know that a lot of people (particularly adults) won’t want their teens reading this. I definitely think it’s for the older end of YA. But to be honest, if your teen has access to the internet, they’ve probably seen porn. And I’d much rather they get their view of sex taught by this book than porn, seeing as schools don’t do a great job at it.

Jack is such a wonderful main character. He’s unapologetically gay and is not afraid of being himself. However, his carefree attitude does hide a part of his behaviour that is not okay. He has this ‘it could be worse’ mentality that he uses to brush off and hide his pain. Just because you have certain privileges and that things could technically be worse, it doesn’t invalidate your pain. Just because someone’s broken there leg, doesn’t mean your broken finger doesn’t hurt. I really enjoyed seeing Jack grow and learn to realise that this isn’t okay.

Jack’s friends are also the best. Ben is the sweetest bean that makes clothes and is such a supportive friend. And Jenna isn’t afraid of standing up for what she believes in. She may go about it in a very blunt way, but it’s her way of showing her loyalty.

It was interesting to read about a mother-son relationship. I find family is often overlooked in a lot of YA. They’re definitely not the closest, but it’s clear that they deeply care for one another and would do anything for each other.

My favourite thing about this book was its discussion on women fetishising gay men. Jack combats it in a really clear and concise way. I’ve been thinking about this more lately as I’ve noticed a lot of m/m books are written by women. Of course people can write about what they want, but I find it odd that there aren’t as many ownvoices m/m, or at least one’s written by women are more popular. I can’t exactly articulate how I feel about it, but I appreciate the conversation this book brought up about that.

I found the part that was lacking the most was the pacing and mystery of the stalker. I just found that the middle dragged and didn’t seem like it was going anywhere, but then the mystery was wrapped up in 20 pages at the end and felt extremely rushed.

Also felt like a lot of the conversations between Ben, Jenna and Jack were quite repetitive.

Overall, this is such a loud and proud book that also deals with such real issues. If you’re looking for a book that’s ownvoices and gay but not about coming out, this is for you. Perhaps don’t go into this if you’re expecting a great mystery, but I think this book is more about talking openly about sex with teens, particularly queer teens.

Couldn't get enough of Love, Simon or The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue? This is the (slightly NSFW) book for you! 'Jack of Hearts might be the most important queer novel of the decade' Gay Times 'Jack of Hearts won my heart' Courtney Act 'This book is filth' Julian Clary --------------- 'My first time getting it in the butt was kind of weird. I think it's going to be weird for everyone's first time, though.' Meet Jack Rothman. He's seventeen and loves partying, makeup and boys - sometimes all at the same time. His sex life makes him the hot topic for the high school gossip machine. But who cares? Like Jack always says, 'it could be worse'. He doesn't actually expect that to come true. But after Jack starts writing an online sex advice column, the mysterious love letters he's been getting take a turn for the creepy. Jack's secret admirer knows everything: where he's hanging out, who he's sleeping with, who his mum is dating. They claim they love Jack, but not his unashamedly queer lifestyle. They want him to curb his sexuality, or they'll force him. As the pressure mounts, Jack must unmask his stalker before their obsession becomes genuinely dangerous... Praise for Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) 'The affirming, sex-positive, brilliant new book that puts the "adult" into young adult literature' Attitude 'Humane, sex-positive writing of the funniest, filthiest and most heartening kind' The Guardian

Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts)

Rose Stanley

Lots to like about this book. 

The narrator is funny and engaging, but also genuinely vulnerable. The dynamic between him and his friends, and between him and his various sex partners is very believable. Plotwise, the combination of 'guy being agony-uncle-for-kids-whose-sex-ed-sucks' and 'guy being stalked and threatened by some controlling creep' weirdly works - it never feels like there are jarring shifts in tone. 

Finding out who the stalker is kind of comes out of nowhere though? And is resolved super quickly?

Still, if you want a queer high school thriller which talks frankly about sex, I'd say def give this a go.

Beth Bartholomew

This book was a refreshing read that treaded through the fields of diversity and came successfully out the other end. It really did try and cover a lot of the rainbow when talking about sexuality, and I was really pleased to see it being inclusive of how so many different people feel.

This is kind of like an extreme version of Netflix's Sex Education, in which the main character starts up a sex column on his friend's website. But it soon becomes much more sinister as Jack is stalked by someone who is starting to cause him a lot of stress and concern. This deals with issues of unwanted attention and how to deal with it and how this makes people feel.

I really enjoyed Jack as a character, he wasn't a victim, but he was complex and we see him go through a lot. As an openly gay character we read about him tackling various situations he has been in, but more importantly, I praise this book for how open it is about all types of sex. It maintains the message of safe sex, whilst also talking about the fun side of things. I think this book certainly encompasses a more realistic portrayal of sex than something like 50 Shades of Grey for example.

Jack of Hearts raised some really important points, one of which was the fantasising of gay sex and seeing it as a form of gossip/entertainment. Jack does really well to straighten this one out, he addresses people who treat gay sex as if it is alien and different. I left this book with the mindset that sex is sex, why does it matter if someone is a dom or a sub, f there is a top and a bottom, it doesn't work like that. There aren't roles, there are just people enjoying themselves and they don't need to confirm to any expectations or stereotypes.

This book was a welcome breath fo fresh air and I think it could be really important for teens discovering their sexuality and starting to have sex. It is a funny book yes, but it's messages are real and true, I think they could really help some people.

Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts)

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