Might need surgery myself after Broken Hearts and Zombie Parts

Today I’m talking about Broken Hearts and Zombie Parts by William Hussey. I previously read The Outrage, also by Hussey and very much enjoyed it. I don’t remember which year it was, but it was on my top books of the year for the year I read it in. I will say, however, I was a bit confused about the actual release of this book, because Hussey had another book come out very close to the release of this. So, this one came out May 11^th, 2023, but he also had Killing Jericho, a crime thriller, come out on April 27^th, 2023. I was seeing him tweet about both of them, and I was fully getting the two confused about whether it was one book or two. (Also, what happened to the formatting of this paragraph? Why did that one line feel the need to have more space?)

The blurb says that Jesse Spark has a broken heart… and in a few short weeks, he’ll require major surgery to repair it – which mean he only has a month to accomplish two almost impossible tasks. One, shoot his epic zombie movie on a shoestring budget to help him get into film school. Two, fall in love before this surgery lands him with a huge scar – because how will anyone ever fancy him after that?

There is also a little content warning that says this book includes references to homophobia and homophobic slurs.

Chapter one opens up on Jesse in an exam room in a hospital, after prom. I picked up that it seemed like he either has some issue with his heart, or had a heart attack at prom, and that his friend, Cas, was doing something out by the bins. Something I’ll immediately give Jesse is that you can hear his voice from the off. Like, he gives a lot of personality from the first chapter which I really appreciated, because there’s nothing worse when you read a book and the first chapter is literally all just words, and you get no idea of the kind of character you’re reading. Also, in the second chapter, he calls his mum decrepit, which seemed a bit uncalled for, I can’t lie. But homeboy talks, a lot. A lot to the point where a doctor asks his mum if it’s regular thing just how much he talks, she says it is, and the doctor gives his sympathy.

Anyway, chapter two is where we find out Jesse has a bicuspid aortic valve. Basically, his heart doesn’t work properly, and he gets told that he needs open heart surgery to get it fixed. One thing I found wild about that was that it seemed, on the surface at least, that the scar that would be left on his chest was the thing he was most worried about. Like sir? You could die? And you’re worried about a scar? Gag. Then again, he is in Year 12, so at that age, 17 I think, that would be a world-ending kind of thing for someone. Oh, and there’s sort of a rift he can feel between his friends, Cas and Morgan, and he actively calls out that something is immediately off with his friends.

With how the book started and the characters that were there, I assumed Jesse would get together with his friend, Cas, somehow, but then Cas’s cousin, Louis, shows up, and we know from the off that he’s gay, which did then throw me off the Cas route. Also, with the way Jesse acted, and seeing Louis call him cute on one of Cas’s Instagram posts, you see that Jesse very much does have a crush on Louis before even meeting him. But Cas warns him about that side of the family and how they’re all selfish.

You see bits of, not the surgery, but medical stuff. There’s a bit where Jesse goes in for this pre-op procedure. I don’t remember what it was called, but it was something where dye needed to be injected into his arteries, I believe. Since it was happening to Jesse, I really appreciated that these bits weren’t glossed over. Because as someone who has been in and out of hospitals, had surgeries, it was almost nice to see the process on paper. Because honestly? Where are all my bitches in books who need surgery? To me, these were the most interesting parts of the book, like I said, just because it’s something I know about and have experience with.

And in line with the surgery stuff, like I mentioned before, Jesse was very worried about the scar that would be left, and how nobody would be interested in him when he had it, that was the majority of his driver. He wanted a summer boyfriend before his surgery because he thought no one would want him, and he also wanted to finish his movie, Zombie Honeymoon, before his surgery to help him get into a drama school – which was actually something that barely came up throughout the book. I guess Jesse needed a reason to make the movie, but because it came up that infrequently, I did kind of forget about it, because it seemed so unimportant compared to everything else that was going on.

Something I’ve noticed when reading British romance, or British YA books, it that sometimes they have this camp vibe to them. Simon James Green’s Noah Can’t Even series is a good example. Like, to me, those books read with quite a camp vibe to them. And while this book didn’t read camp, there were definitely certain parts, and characters that came off as a little camp. There’s a very specific British sitcom vibe that exists, and I don’t know how to explain it other than camp, with shows like Miranda and My Family having that vibe. I felt that this book almost having that vibe sometimes. Simon James Green’s Noah Can’t Even books definitely have that vibe, they came off as very British camp when I read them. Having read a few things with this vibe, I don’t know that I’m the biggest fan of them. But saying that, this book only had hints of the camp.

I will say, I accidentally spoiled the ending for myself. Because I like knowing how many pages a book is, I looked at the last page for the number and ended up seeing some stuff that pertained to the ending. I didn’t see everything, but I pieced together, accidentally, what was going to happen. So, for me, while I was reading, the whole thing was me thinking, “Okay, but how are we going to get there?” Like what would have led to that ending I accidentally saw, because at the point I was at while reading, I didn’t really see how we would have ended up there but just that we would have ended there.

In terms of the characters, I was a fan of Jesse, for all of how annoying he came across. That sounds mean, but it’s not meant to be, nor is it meant to be a negative. It’s just the type of character that Jesse was. He was a lot as a person, and he admits that he’s a lot as a person, and because he was a lot, you got to see a lot of his personality throughout the book, which I really liked. I do sometimes question why there are characters that seem to have an unshakable confidence to them that some books have, and Jesse definitely had moments where it came across like he had an unshakable confidence. However, since you see, quite a lot, that he’s very scared of the surgery and the scar that it’s going to leave, those moments where he’s alone, particularly in hospital, are where you see that confidence break away and you see that in reality, he just wants to be okay. In terms of side characters, I liked Morgan and Brianna. The others were definitely there. They never really jumped out like the others.

Jesse and his mum also had a cat, but the cat seemed to hate Jesse. Like it would hiss and scratch him if he even tried to get near it. I don’t remember whether there was an explanation as to why the cat was like that. But if it was like that, wouldn’t that mean Jesse had done something to upset it? Or shouldn’t he have learned the cat’s personality? As someone who has had cats for all but six months of his life, you learn their personality. I’ve had cats that loved being picked up and held, and then others that will literally scream and try and get away from you when you try and pick them up… So, I don’t know that Jesse was a good cat parent or not.

Still, overall, throughout the book, there was very much a vibe that something is going on with just about everyone, but Jesse’s surgery was kind of like a wall. You knew things were happening, and you knew that people were hiding things, but until you got to the other side of that wall, you didn’t get an explanation for any of it, and then you get the explanations for everything once Jesse goes in for surgery. Like when that happens, everything almost happens.

Anyway, to close out, I liked this book. I don’t have much to close out that I haven’t really said already, so I think I’ll just leave it there.