The Hearts We Sold

June 1, 2017
A girl sells her heart to a demon to escape abusive parents, unwittingly signing up for more than she bargained for.Mixed-race white/Latina high school student Dee Moreno (she has her father's light brown skin and textured hair) attends a prestigious boarding school in Portland, Oregon, keeping necessary distance from her alcoholic, abusive parents. A tough home life has wrung any belief in fairy tales out of her even though demons announced themselves as real to the public via press conference when she was only a child. The demons emerged in order to make deals--humans can trade body parts (their own) for a wish. When Dee's scholarship is suddenly revoked, she finds herself back in the market for fairy tales; she refuses to go back home. She trades a two-year lease on her heart for tuition money. As a new member of Portland's "troop of heartless," Dee follows her demon's biddings directly into battle with other, truly horrifying monsters. She and the other heartless work to close the voids that periodically open all around the world to keep the monsters that issue forth from overrunning the planet. As the danger ratchets up, so do her feelings for another member of the troop. Dee's never felt more alive--yet never been possibly so dead. The slowly revealed lore of the demons coupled with Dee's adventures make for a whirlwind of a page-turner. Readers will devour this romantic, Faustian fable. A dark fantasy brimming with passion and peril. (Paranormal suspense. 15-adult)

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July 1, 2017

Gr 8 Up-Dee Moreno worked hard to get a boarding school scholarship so she could live away from her alcoholic parents, but when the school decides to cut scholarships for the following year, Dee chooses to do what many others in need have done: bargain with a demon. However, the demon Agathodaemon wants hearts and two years of labor. Dee is in a cohort of heartless teens along with Cora, James, and Cal, who do the demon's bidding of closing voids, or mysterious portals leading to an unknown danger. Other demons fashion homunculi out of the dealmakers' body parts and send them into the voids to close them. With Cora's time nearly up, she is determined to ensure that the demon doesn't make any more people heartless and she goes on the hunt for a Rumpelstiltskin clause to get their hearts back. However, the obsessions of the heartless come at a cost. Lloyd-Jones's take on the Faustian myth will keep readers engaged. The author presents a broad array of well-developed characters who will intrigue readers as the plot advances and curves. Dee, who is half Latina, offers character depth and diversity often lacking in the fantasy genre. VERDICT Purchase where urban fantasy is popular.-Adrienne L. Strock, Nashville Public Library

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* It's been years since the demons revealed themselves. For a simple bargain, everyone now knows, demons can make a wish come true. For Dee Moreno, a boarding-school student with a troubled home life, wishes aren't the solution to anything; she doesn't need to make a deal to get what she wants. In fact, that's exactly what she tells the demon she finds knitting on a park bench outside a hospital, and it's the truth, until he tells her that only the people who want to make a deal can see a demon. When Dee's life implodes soon after, she finds herself making a deal after all, trading her heart and two years of service to the demon so she can have a future. But Dee isn't the only one who has given up her heart, and she soon finds herself caught up with a group of other teens in the same situation, running strange errands into a shadowy otherworld and developing a connection with a mysterious artist who sold his heart long before Dee did. Beautifully written and elegantly characterized, this is a thoughtful, melancholy tale of love and redemption, magic and choice. Lloyd-Jones tracks Dee's Faustian journey without ever falling out of step, and the story itself will ensnare readers as surely as any bargain.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)