Instructions for a Secondhand Heart

by Tamsyn Murray

Overview

A moving novel about grief, guilt, and the unpredictability of love, for fans of Everything, Everything and All the Bright Places.

Jonny knows better than anyone that life is full of cruel ironies. He's spent every day in a hospital hooked up to machines to keep his heart ticking. Then when an organ donor is found for Jonny's heart, that turns out to be the cruelest irony of all. Because for Jonny's life to finally start, someone else's had to end.

That someone turns out to be Neve's twin brother, Leo. When Leo was alive, all Neve wanted was for him (and all his glorious, overshadowing perfection) to leave. Now that Leo's actually gone forever, Neve has no idea how to move forward. Then Jonny walks into her life looking for answers, her brother's heart beating in his chest, and everything starts to change.

Together, Neve and Jonny will have to face the future, no matter how frightening it is, while learning to heal their hearts, no matter how much it hurts.

Features select graphic novel illustrations from Jonny's sketchbook.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316471749
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	12/05/2017
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	9 MB
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Tamsyn Murray spent her childhood moving around a lot throughout England. At eighteen she left home to go to university in London and now lives in Hertfordshire. When she's not working or writing, she can be found singing and dancing with her local amateur dramatics society. She has one daughter and one son and several pets.

Editorial Reviews

10/02/2017
Jonny Webb, almost 16, has a life-threatening heart condition that has kept him in the hospital for years. Plugged into a machine that keeps blood pumping through his body, Jonny holds onto the hope that a donor heart will become available, but that means someone his age has to die. After 15-year-old Neve Brody’s twin brother, Leo, has a fatal fall, his organs are donated, and his heart is a perfect match for Jonny. For the first time, Jonny feels as though he may have a future, but he can’t help wondering whose life was cut short. His investigation leads him to Neve, who is trying to figure out how her family can move on without Leo. British author Murray explores teen illness and death realistically, shifting between Jonny and Neve’s viewpoints. Given the setup, tears are expected, but Neve’s hard edges and Jonny’s enthusiasm for his new life keep the story from turning maudlin. Readers should find it easy to cheer on these two misfits who are figuring how they fit in and fit together. Ages 15–up. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"Pumps out grief and joy like the beating of a heart. A sweet, yet gut-wrenching novel that'll keep you turning pages."—Adi Alsaid, author of North of Happy and Let's Get Lost

"Save some [tissues] for Instructions for a Secondhand Heart... Jonny and [Neve] inspire confidence that they will overcome their obstacles; you would have to have a heart of stone not to root for them."—The Guardian

"Romance fans will revel in Jonny and Neve's intensity."—BCCB

"British author Murray explores teen illness and death realistically...Readers should find it easy to cheer on these two misfits who are figuring how they fit in and fit together."—Publishers Weekly

"Neve and Jonny are emotionally complex, vulnerable protagonists who help each other face realities they never dreamed they'd see."—Horn Book

"Told in alternating viewpoints, this heavy-hitting story covers life, death, romance, friendship, loyalty, and much more. Readers will enjoy the emotionally realistic storyline."—School Library Connection

"Their tentative journey feels fresh. Jonny's hospital experiences include a friendship with a girl battling cancer, and the book includes his drawings of her alter-identity as Chemo-Girl. This will appeal to readers drawn to romances featuring ill teenagers, such as (naturally) John Green's The Fault in Our Stars (2012)."—Booklist

From the Publisher

09/01/2017
Gr 8 Up—When the Venn diagram circles of improbable YA romance and YA tragedy lit overlap, you get this book. Neve's twin brother Leo dies while the competitive teenaged siblings are climbing rocks at the seaside; Jonny receives Leo's donated heart. Breaking all transplant privacy rules, 15-year-old Jonny tracks down Leo's family and falls for Neve—without ever telling her where his interest originated. This British import contains moments of brilliance: Neve's first person point of view is heartbreakingly true to life as she describes her family's stolid grief and her own mounting depression after Leo's death. But Jonny's counterpoint narration, while often very funny, is never as believable. His detailed, mature descriptions of life on a pediatric intensive care ward are at odds with his oblivious non-decision to stop taking his transplant medications. More jarring still are his choices to continue deceiving Neve about his past. The additional death of a secondary character from Jonny's ward seems unnecessary except to up the Kleenex count for the story. VERDICT Buy more copies of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars instead.—Beth Wright Redford, Richmond Elementary School Library, VT

School Library Journal

2017-09-18
One teen gets a heart transplant; another teen loses her brother and doesn't know who received his organs.Last summer, 15-year-old Jonny's heart stopped for three and a half minutes; now he lives in the hospital waiting for a donor heart. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Neve races up hazardous beach rocks against her golden-haired, golden-boy twin, Leo. But Leo falls, and Neve's world upends. The "catastrophic damage to Leo's brain stem" functionally means death, so Leo's family donates his organs. Neve and Jonny alternate first-person narration. Murray offers emotional realism in Neve's gritty and complicated pain (even after Leo's death, Neve feels "a poor second-best"); on Jonny's side, his repeated lies to Neve are emotionally realistic while simultaneously smacking of authorial contrivance to maintain tension. Jonny's conclusive identification of his donor as Leo using amateur internet research and his smooth sailing post-transplant (he has zero problems until he stops taking his immunosuppressive meds) require readers' faith. A closing message that life is worthless without risk clashes—almost heartlessly—with the cause of Leo's death, as risk avoidance isn't any character's issue here. Neve lives in north London, Jonny a few train stops away; they're both white.Despite skipped beats, this satisfies as fablelike, destined romance: the metaphorical stuff of hearts. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews