Ethyria is divided into vastly different social classes: The lowborn are cut off from their emotions with state-supplied drugs called Heartfillers while the highborn experience any emotions of choice as long as they stay cleanly locked away in the Benevolent’s city. Saltblood Axira Merreri falls into the least-privileged sector of lowborn society, as her parents died when she was a child, so she grew up in a form of orphanage. (Axira lucked out that a family friend took her in rather than letting her go to an actual state institution.) She’s managed to regularly evade the required daily dose of Heartfillers and built a lucrative smuggling business providing Heartfillers to the highborn who want to experience their high; however, her greatest goal is to save enough money to charter a boat to flee Ethyria with her foster mother and found family. When a major deal goes wrong and the client dies, Axira finds herself at the Benevolent’s mercy. She has only two options: accept her death sentence as a criminal or participate in the brutal Heart Trials, a tournament for lowborn to “earn” the right to become highborn and experience love. It seems like an easy choice, but all lowborn know that most participants never come home, and Axira would rather stay alive than risk opening her heart.
J. Elle’s The Heart Trials adds to the YA dystopian genre with a tale of a prickly young woman who must acknowledge her feelings to survive. The Benevolent, Ethyria’s ruler, outlawed love (and most other strong emotions) for the lowborn after rebellion (and controls them with drugs), but every ten years, he organizes an event called the Heart Trials to allow hopeful lowborn to find their truest love match and become raised to highborn status; however, the Heart Trials are rumored to be traumatic, and most players never return. What is the game’s real purpose, and is winning really a gift?
A story about an emotionally constipated young woman who only cares for her younger siblings (There are a few younger children in Axira’s household that she wants to protect.) and is willing to break the law for their survival is nothing new; however, Elle’s world building intrigued me enough to keep me riveted. Of course, Axira finds someone that challenges her belief that love is worthless. Of course, the Benevolent is more corrupt than might be clear at the beginning (although drugging the general populace into compliance is pretty dicey). Of course, the Heart Trials aren’t really about granting lowborn citizens access to true love and lifelong partnership. The journey entertained me enough that I didn’t really care that several YA/dystopian/romantasy tropes held center stage.
The Heart Trials kept me riveted to my Kindle app, and I think it has just enough creativity to keep most readers of the genre content. It is the type of book I don’t want to describe in too much detail, because a large part of the fun is unraveling the various plot lines and decoding how they go back together to create a whole. I came away from it feeling satisfied, warm and fuzzy, and eager to finish Axira’s story in the second part of the duology.
Sometimes, we don’t want escargot; we just want macaroni and cheese. The Heart Trials is extremely good mac and cheese, and I was ready for another serving.
4.5 Crafted Sources of Grief out of 5
Creative Team: J. Elle (author)
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group | G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
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