Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts)

L. C. Rosen

Oct 2018 · Penguin UK

About this ebook

Couldn't get enough of Love, Simon or Red, White and Royal Blue? This is the (slightly NSFW) book for you!

'Jack of Hearts might be the most important queer novel of the decade' Gay Times

'Jack of Hearts won my heart' Courtney Act

'This book is filth' Julian Clary

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'My first time getting it in the butt was kind of weird. I think it's going to be weird for everyone's first time, though.'

Meet Jack Rothman. He's seventeen and loves partying, makeup and boys - sometimes all at the same time.

His sex life makes him the hot topic for the high school gossip machine. But who cares? Like Jack always says, 'it could be worse'.

He doesn't actually expect that to come true.

But after Jack starts writing an online sex advice column, the mysterious love letters he's been getting take a turn for the creepy.

Jack's secret admirer knows everything: where he's hanging out, who he's sleeping with, who his mum is dating. They claim they love Jack, but not his unashamedly queer lifestyle. They want him to curb his sexuality, or they'll force him.

As the pressure mounts, Jack must unmask his stalker before their obsession becomes genuinely dangerous...


Praise for Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts)

'The affirming, sex-positive, brilliant new book that puts the "adult" into young adult literature' Attitude

'Humane, sex-positive writing of the funniest, filthiest and most heartening kind' The Guardian

Ratings and reviews

Light yet stern, Jack of Hearts explores the queer experience even in supposedly tolerant spaces and the microaggressions that are often ignored or considered harmless. Jack is out and proud, and unashamedly sexually active, something that a lot of people thinks makes it okay to dictate how to live his life; aside from his mom and friends, that is – they are cool with it. When Jack agrees to run a sex advice column in his friend’s news blog, he starts getting ‘love’ notes that escalate from maybe-creepy to full-on threats. As the book progresses, he and his friends try to catch the person who is sending the notes, while he also tries to hold on to himself. Jack’s life is subject to public gossip, just because he is gay and isn’t ashamed of his casual sex life. His personality is mostly non-confrontational, low-drama (except when it comes to make-up), and he is happy to help out other people who need sex ed. He ignores the microaggressions that he faces, the casual homophobia, and every thing because he feels like he doesn’t have it as bad as it could be. It is actually sad when the low bar of being treated decently feels like asking too much, for him. Along with this, he also doesn’t believe any help will come without people blaming him for inciting it, so the investigation stays on the down low for most of the book. His friends (one of whom is a Latina, and the other a gay fat black boy), however, are very supportive and try to help him with the best of their abilities, but when they too are in danger of being targeted, he contemplates giving the stalker what they want. The plot discusses homophobia that goes unnoticed, the fetishization of queer people that is normalized in ‘tolerant’ spaces and claimed as ‘allyship’, the way straight culture tries to define queer culture and bend it to fit its ideas, victim-blaming, consent, awkward questions about sex, asexuality, BDSM, and many other things. It is filled with sex positivity but also acknowledges ace-spec individuals. The mystery may not be the best part of the book, because it was solved by coincidence, IMO, but otherwise it is a brilliant, unapologetic book about being queer, and how you don’t need to change yourself to fit anybody’s ideal of how you should be queer, whether it comes from a straight person or a queer person.

I’ve had Jack on my TBR pile for a while now. It sounded like a much-needed queer book and I knew that I would enjoy this one right from the first page. Here’s the thing - Jack of Hearts is a unique novel for me because I ABSOLUTELY LOVED the characters, (especially Jack, Ben, Jenna and Jack’s mom) their voices, Jack’s column and everybody’s fiercely inclusive and open attitudes but I HATED the mystery element to the book. I could not stress the importance of reading this book enough to ALL TEENAGERS BUT OH GOD I HATED THE MYSTERY. I hated ‘Pinky,’ and how Jack gave in to the blackmail and I HATED the conclusion to it all because WHY? WHAT WAS THE POINT? WHY? WHY? WHY? It was probably the MOST CONFUSING AND DISSATISFYING ENDING I’VE EVER REACHED IN A MYSTERY (not that I enjoyed finding out whodunnit process much either.) I’ve spoken to a lot of people who said they loved this purely because they like character-driven stories. I prefer stories that are an equal combination of plot and character, and usually, love or hate them both together. In think case, I LOVED THE CHARACTERS but HATED the mystery element of the plot. In fact, I finished this book DAYS ago and I still can’t understand THE POINT OF HAVING ALL THAT IN THE BOOK AT ALL. It was not fleshed out properly, I didn’t understand the person’s motivations at the end, I didn’t understand why Jack didn’t just TELL PEOPLE when the blackmail got bad and OH GOD WHY? I would have honestly given this book 10/5 stars if the mystery wasn’t there, but when I think about Jack of Hearts and other parts, it’s all I can see now. THIS BOOK HAD THE POTENTIAL TO BE EXCELLENT, BUT FAILED AT THE MYSTERY AND MADE IT ALL MEDIOCRE. To sum up: - BRILLIANT CHARACTERS - MUST READ FOR ALL TEENAGERS - I LOVE JACK - AND HIS MOM, JENNA AND BEN - I LOVE THE COLUMN - I HATE THE MYSTERY. BE WARNED. IT IS TERRIBLE, ESPECIALLY THE ENDING.

About the author

L. C. Rosen, also known as Lev Rosen, has written several books for adults and children, including the critically acclaimed Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts). He lives in New York City with his husband and a very small cat.