Review of The Wanting Hearts

[Venah Gitahi]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Wanting Hearts" by Nicole Jordan.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The Wanting Hearts by Nicole Jordan is a collection of fantasy and sci-fi short stories exploring how people deal with transformation and new circumstances in their lives. A rich man is evicted from his apartment, a slave doesn't know what to do with freedom within reach and a woman's real life and dreams intersect.

The meta-reference in You Stupid Vampire to the oft-portrayed vampire in popular culture who is wise, moneyed and sophisticated, is good. I liked the premises of the stories. They were fresh and intriguing, but ultimately badly executed.

The exposition is repeated a lot, with information in one sentence mentioned in the next sentence or soon after. The flow of the plot is disjointed and gets interrupted by things like unnecessary time stamps that should have been integrated into the story. The unrealistic and inconsistent world building makes for a lot of plot holes, for example about the resources old money has in You Stupid Vampire or how no one recognizes Samantha in Reunion. There is a tendency to ignore the impact having a social life could have on some characters' development, instead marinating them in a bubble so that they can fit into the plot.

The plot twists are gratuitous, only existing because they can, not because they should or because they make sense within the context of the story, and can often be seen coming a long way off. Character development is terrible, with mostly vague ideas of how the characters interact with the worlds they live in and what they hope for and fear. There is very little opportunity to feel for, sympathize with or become the character, making the stories feel flat.

Plot progression and development, along with the character development, are shallow. The silhouette of it is a tired and overused one, and the individual details that should make the book stand out are unappealing. With the underdeveloped plot, the individual stories are not quite novels but seem to be aiming for that, and end up not being quite short stories either.

Overall, the collection has no technique, no personal style and nothing unique brought forth. It is definitely starting somewhere but, if anything, this is a rough draft with more defining, outlining, exploration and highlighting yet to come, and a long road of learning ahead.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 4 stars and would not recommend it.

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The Wanting Hearts
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