Heart Failure by Chris ZettMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Finished on April 30, 2021
Favorite Scene/Quote: "She could stay here forever. It felt like home."
I was interested in this book, but I found that it didn’t go how I was expecting. My expectations had Jess having to move back in with her mom and getting to know Lena and changing. That did happen, but so did other things that I didn’t enjoy.
Jess has always had a detailed plan for her life. Part of that plan included wanting to have a child but at 37 she’s decided to skip the steps about having a partner and go straight into having a baby. After the baby is born, she’s stretched thin and winds up suffering heart failure as a result, forcing her to move back home with her mother and her mother’s tenant. Lena has been living with her mother for almost a year know. She works three small side jobs in order to pay back her mountain of debt. She has issues from her past that she’s trying to ignore but being around Jess and her daughter, Ella, is bringing those emotions back.
I like Lena more than I like Jess, but there were also times when I didn’t like either of them. Jess is difficult. She doesn’t trust Lena, she’s rude, she’s sharp, and at first, she doesn’t seem to care about anyone else. She loves her daughter, that is true, but she seems to ignore people and things around her. She’s not perfect by any means, but she’s not exactly horrible. She also has insecurities after giving birth and I really wish that had been dipped into more. I also find it hard to believe that a 37-year-old doctor wouldn’t realize that being a single mother would come with problems. She seemed completely oblivious to that idea.
I was interested in this book, but I found that it didn’t go how I was expecting. My expectations had Jess having to move back in with her mom and getting to know Lena and changing. That did happen, but so did other things that I didn’t enjoy.
Jess has always had a detailed plan for her life. Part of that plan included wanting to have a child but at 37 she’s decided to skip the steps about having a partner and go straight into having a baby. After the baby is born, she’s stretched thin and winds up suffering heart failure as a result, forcing her to move back home with her mother and her mother’s tenant. Lena has been living with her mother for almost a year know. She works three small side jobs in order to pay back her mountain of debt. She has issues from her past that she’s trying to ignore but being around Jess and her daughter, Ella, is bringing those emotions back.
I like Lena more than I like Jess, but there were also times when I didn’t like either of them. Jess is difficult. She doesn’t trust Lena, she’s rude, she’s sharp, and at first, she doesn’t seem to care about anyone else. She loves her daughter, that is true, but she seems to ignore people and things around her. She’s not perfect by any means, but she’s not exactly horrible. She also has insecurities after giving birth and I really wish that had been dipped into more. I also find it hard to believe that a 37-year-old doctor wouldn’t realize that being a single mother would come with problems. She seemed completely oblivious to that idea.
Lena seems too perfect at times. Her flaws start showing towards the last quarter of the book but before that she just seems too good to be true. She’s nice, sweet, and patient with Jess when her mom explains that Jess is nice deep down. She seemed too good to be true at first and I was happy when her flaws began to show. She hasn’t processed fully her past and she doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge the negative emotions she has. I honestly really didn’t like her during the later parts of the book.
The middle part of this book is easily the best thing about it. Jess is learning to relax and is spending more time around Lena. It’s nice to watch their friendship develop. It was also nice to learn about the free clinic and the patient that Jess cares so much about. It was sweet. I do wish more had been done with the free clinic or the patient. It was nice to see a softer side of Jess.
I didn’t like the conflict at the 70-80% mark of the book. I know that conflict towards the end of the book is normal, but I couldn’t stand it. Lena came off, to me, as very judgmental about Jess’ life and her parenting style while Jess reverted to who she had been at the very beginning of the book. Both of these points felt unnecessary. Jess had lightened up during her stay with her mother and had cooled down, but she never considered cutting back her hours to spend more time with the daughter she loves. Lena also started a fight with her because she was late picking up her daughter. She was quite late, and the mom did have plans that she didn’t ask about. Both of these are true. But Lena seemed to think that she was doing this on purpose. I get that it stems from her issues with her own mother, but she had already acknowledged those issues earlier and realized that Jess is working, not partying. I just felt like it was unnecessary to have this conflict. Another conflict might have worked better, but I hated this part of the book.
I wish I liked this story more. It’s not horrible and I genuinely like the middle part of it. The problem is it feels too much like a caricature, I guess. Jess is the workaholic doctor who didn’t think through having a child and has to change, while Lena made mistakes in the past but is an angel now.
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