Severed Heads and Broken Hearts // Robyn Schneider
Love story? Anti-love story? It’s a hard call to make with this book. Robyn Schneider’s Severed Heads and Broken Hearts (with Where Rainbows End-like multiple titles) has an undercurrent of poignancy, a typical of the conventional twenty-first century love story, making what has the potential to be another popularised young adult book refreshingly unprecedented and enjoyable. Though it fits the basic mould of a standard modern love story, it feels unusually new, like a mine of ideas untapped until its publication in late 2013.
Up-and-coming athletic star Ezra Faulker believes that everyone has a life-changing moment thrust upon them at some point in their life – a sort of personal tragedy, if you will. However, when his own life is altered forever by an incident that forces his sporting career to a grinding halt, he finds himself drifting back to his childhood friends, whom are now deemed “uncool”. This change, though, might not be such a terrible thing, especially with the arrival of the enigmatic and mysteriously secretive Cassidy Thorpe.
The story itself is not unfamiliar – popular boy and mysterious new girl fall in love – but it isn’t the story itself which is so absorbing, even though it is a thoroughly enjoyable and engaging read. It’s the style and flair with which it is written that is so addictive. The abundant literary-quoting paired with Michel Foucault’s idea of panopticism is reminiscent of John Green’s work – the panopticon references being (often negatively) compared to the idea of Simon Bolivar’s idea of life being a labyrinth in Green’s Looking for Alaska.
Though the authors’ styles are similar, Schneider has her own distinct and defined literary voice. There’s a reason that this book has been described by the New York Times as both “endearing” and “touching”. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, this is the perfect excuse for any fan of the contemporary YA love story to buy this book. It has a real potential to be the next huge thing in Young Adult literature. Not to mention that there’s a twist at the end that will leave you –alas, unsuccessfully – trawling the internet for the non-existent sequel. Or was that, perhaps, just me?
Words by Lauryn Green