These Vengeful Hearts

These Vengeful Hearts is a thriller by Katherine Laurin. In These Vengeful Hearts, we follow Ember as she tries to take down the Red Court and get her revenge.

When Ember’s sister was in high school, she suffered a terrible accident. This led to April becoming a paraplegic. Since middle school, Ember has known this was from the Red Court’s secret society. Since then, she has been plotting a way to take them down. Once accepted into the Red Court, Ember discovers that things are not just harder- but more complicated than expected.

As the jobs the Red Court gives her continue to increase in difficulty, Ember starts to forget her original mission.

Romance, revenge, and general high school complications make this thriller one to keep you on your toes.

The wording of all of this can easily make you think you picked up a fantasy novel, but it is a simple high school thriller. The Red Court is a high school secret society, and you always owe them. Even after you’ve left high school. Ember’s plan to seek revenge on them was realistic, and interesting.

While her emotional turmoil never felt particularly in depth, I would say plotting a revenge scheme since middle school would probably change the way you deal with emotions. The romance plot of this book seemed…unnecessary. There are many reasons girls seek revenge against one another, especially in high school. They don’t always have to be romantic, and the fact that this was, felt short-sighted.

Additionally, I don’t think anyone would forgive Ember for her actions as easily as her romance did. I think that the concept of the Red Court and the reason for Ember’s revenge would have been a very good plot. However, we lose a lot of the thrilling potential in the high school drama, the unrealistic lack of consequences, and the romance sub plot.

A lot of it made me want to roll my eyes, and, if this hadn’t been an audiobook, I think I would have struggled to get through it.

This is a 3.5/5 star rating for me, because I still feel like I wanted more out of it.

Read more reviews here.