Flashback Friday: Heart on A Chain by Cindy C. Bennett

the lowdown


Kate lives with a terrible home life. She has an absent, alcoholic father, and a pill addicted mother who abuses her. At school, things aren't much better. Because of her secondhand clothes, she's an easy target and she's learned that fighting back only makes it worse. So she hides, and does her best to make herself invisible. But that changes when Henry, her elementary school crush, returns. He remembers Kate and refuses to let her be invisible anymore. As they fall in love, Kate tries to keep everything straight and figure out what game Henry must be playing with her, even as the violence at home escalates.

I read this book a few years ago and considered it to be one of my favorites for quite a while. Something about this book really stuck with me, and even before I picked it up to reread it for this review, I could still remember a lot about it, even after years, which is rare for me. I was scared, though, that I would find it a bit far fetched now that my tastes have matured a bit. While that did happen to a certain extent, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book again. It moved me to tears multiple times, and it was a really refreshing story.

the good

• Kate is a really likable character. I think that the strength that she shows in the face of so much adversity is extremely moving. At the beginning, she can be a little frustrating, especially when she refuses to believe Henry's true intentions, but who can blame her?
• Henry and his entire family are so wonderful. I think to a certain extent, they're probably a little unrealistic, because it's like they're taken straight out of the Perfect Family Museum. I think though, that this serves the book well, because Bennett draws such sharp dichotomies between family types. Henry is also straight up out of the Perfect Boyfriend Museum, but again, I think that it serves the book well.                                                                                             

the bad

• This book is heavy on drama, and Kate definitely relies on others to save her. There's some criticism that this is a little anti-feminist, that Henry comes in and saves the day. But I think that allowing yourself to be that open to being saved. But, I understand the criticism, it would have been nice if Kate would have taken a more active role 

the quote

“Kate, I’ve loved you for years. I mean, I know twelve-year-olds don’t know what love is, so I guess I should say I’ve really liked you for years. But when I saw you this year, I knew. I knew we should be together. I just didn’t know how hard you were going to make me work to get you to even like me. So, yeah, of course I want you to love me back.”

skip it/borrow it/buy it

This one is tough for me to decide, but ultimately, I think it falls into the buy it category. As evidenced by this review, I liked this book enough to want to reread it. It's a heartfelt, emotional, and heartwarming story about love and its redeeming qualities, and I think it warrants buying.

overall score:8/10

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️