This story is about allowing yourself love and hope while going through great emotional lows. Beautiful and touching.

I requested this lovely book on NetGalley the month I had to deal with multiple finals in the semester and sadly the book archived before I could get to it.

The main reason I wanted to read this book was because of the anatomical heart drawings and the sketchbook design of the cover. The color palette and character design were my favorite parts of the book composition, the warm hues of June and Max as they navigate the mystery around their cold and heartless peers both physically and metaphorically.



Spoilers ahead:
Something that did confuse me was the ending with the heart garden, and while it was a heartwarming ending of Junes bravery and love towards her loved ones. That garden of growing hearts left me with more questions than actual feelings of a completed ending.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I appreciate it when young adult graphic novels deal with issues like depression, anxiety, and grief in a thoughtful way. The ethereal yet dystopian thematics were lovely and I thought the hearts stored in jars were a nice symbolic touch. I ended up grabbing a physical copy to put in my classroom library.

I will be keeping my eye out for new titles by Kerilynn Wilson.

Thank you to Harper Collins Children's Books, Greenwillow Books, Netgalley, and the author for the opportunity to access The Faint of Heart as an arc.

What a captivating, whimsically tragic, mysterious, and heartwarming story. This book's stunning use of color and beautiful illustrations serve the relevant and heartfelt story, making it a satisfying and inspiring read!

This graphic novel is a beautiful piece of art that gets down deep in your soul. The colors are limited that are used for the graphics and each picture seem to use color to focus on specific items that are some sort of emotional connection to the character. There are many obvious metaphors used in this book to clearly convey that emotions are necessary, and they are a good thing.

Great use of color throughout which helped showcase the spirit of the main character who has chosen to live a real and difficult life with a heart. I love the hopeful messaging included in this book. Even when all feels lost, stories where a new solution is made possible are always popular. This book showcased an interesting concept with great artwork.

I will update the review with the link to on our blog as soon as possible. I'd like to thank the publisher HarperCollins Children's Books, Greenwillow Books and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Visually stunning. It's wispy and sketchy, giving it an almost ethereal elegance with a powerful sense of motion and highly emotive. The limited use of color is quite effective, suggesting the item in each scene that is of most emotional importance. The metaphor is clear and deftly handled.

Wilson's graphic novel is a heartwarming take on a human condition. Some of us would like to be able to turn off our emotions.. However, as Ms. Wilson shows through symbolism, this can be a dangerous route to peace.

I had an amazing time reading this graphic novel! There were so many creative takes on what it means to have a heart and that, sometimes when the pain is too much, we need to believe that with love and hope, everything will be okay. The art style won me over from page one and the characters carried me throughout the story. Such a neat plot too! I highly recommend this read to anyone looking for a comfy and tender story full of heart ❤️

After sitting with this book for a bit, I realized a part of what rubbed me the wrong way: It's a line of conveniences. It feels like a 304 page version of the story, "You don't know who gave you your heart?" (In fact, looking this up, because I only knew the Garfield version of that, I have almost no doubt that Wilson may have drawn inspiration from that 'So sad' story.)

#NetGalleyARC Wow, this was a powerful book. Imagine living in a world where you can get rid of all your bad feelings, but it also means getting rid of all the good and feeling nothing at all. I can see that being a possible future down the line in the world we live in. The author and illustrator did a great job. There are a lot of powerful topics within this book and I loved that the main character stayed in color (the book is drawn in black and white) because she's the only one who didn't have her heart removed. Such a great read.

I really enjoyed this beautifully illustrated graphic novel. The Faint of Heart really makes you think about the beauty in the world around you and the beauty in the people around you. This is a sweet and very unique story. Highly recommended for all YA graphic novel collections!

Evocative of the YA dystopias of the early 2000s and 2010s, in the world of “The Faint of Heart,” a procedure has been developed to remove all negative emotions from a person. Of course, it also removes all of their positive emotions, but that’s an acceptable price to pay, correct?

June’s family is trying to force her into the procedure, but she’s determined to keep her heart. And then, one day, she finds a heart in a jar. Hearts are never supposed to be left out like this. Whose is it? Perhaps her sister’s? Can a heart be returned?

There’s a tinge of romance in this book, but it’s really more about the mystery and atmosphere. It’s a sort of retro-techno setting, where the technologies are things we have not yet achieved, but done in a very “1960s vision” way, such as staffing an archive with a humanoid robot, instead of specialized, zero-personality machines.

Overall, an interesting read, and good for middle graders who aren’t interested in too much romance, but maybe juuuuuust a little.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

What’s it about?

In an era where science has newly discovered that one can carry on living without your heart, in trying times people flock to remove theirs, leaving them heartless. While the world tilts and people’s priorities start to shift, June, a young girl is desperate to keep hers and not allow the passions and love of humanity to fade. A strange mystery is afoot and not everything is what it seems, but June is determined to find the answers and hold onto love before she is forced to remove it.

Rating- 3.5

What did I love?
-The Art Style: It reminded me of doodling at times, but I love that it had bursts of color that was symbolic, and thought that it was perfect for the story.
-The Concept: this was a fast-paced graphic novel that explored a cool and refreshing plot. I enjoyed seeing how this world without hearts affected June.
-The Message: It was tender and compassionate!

Overall really enjoyed this quick read. The only thing that I felt disconnected from was the characters; I wanted to love June, but I feel like it was all very surface with all the characters, and would have liked to have had more substance for June, Max, Maya, and the scientist, even if it was small and resulted in a longer novel.

Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books, Greenwillow Books, Netgalley, and the author for giving me a copy in exchange for my honest review.

“The Faint of Heart“ with story and art by Kerilynn Wilson, is a graphic novel about a young woman who keeps her heart when all of those around her have theirs removed.

The Scientist discovers a way to end sadness, anxiety, and anger by having your heart removed and stored in a jar. Pretty much everyone in society has done this except for June, a high school student, who is reluctant. She sees what the effects are on her family. She makes friends with the young man named Max who is starting to feel again, even though his heart has been removed, and learns lessons about sacrifice and what it means to give your heart away.

I like the story and the characters. The premise makes some good points and the art is pretty good.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a wonderful, heartfelt story.

I think that this comic was beautifully written and the artistry was captivating. The message of getting rid of emotions entirely is a thought provoking lesson and shows that without experiencing negative emotions, you wouldn't be able to enjoy the happiness, art, and beauty in all things as well.

Emotions are part of being human, and numbing yourself from life isn't the answer. This story should definitely be read by teens and adults struggling through hardships, because it helps put things into perspective. I would love to read more from this author in the future.

Oh my gosh! I don't know what I was expecting, but this wasn't it-in the best of ways!!!

June is a girl in a world where people can choose to get rid of their hearts; it makes them focus, which makes them smarter. But it also causes to world to lose their love for each other, and for everything they love (art, music, gardening, hobbies, etc). June watches as her family and friends slowly decide to get rid of their hearts and become zombie like people who care about nothing. June wants to keep her heart, but keeps getting in trouble for her art and not being perfect. One day June finds a stolen heart in an alley, and she hides it to see if maybe she could give it back to one of the people she loves to make them more "human" again. Along her journey, she meets a boy who lost his heart, but starts to feel again. They go on a search to see if they can find the scientist who discovered the way to remove the heart to see if she can reverse it.

I absolutely loved this graphic novel; it's one of the best ones I've read this year. The pacing was perfect; fast paced, never bored, didn't want to put it down. The artwork was very creative; you could see the characters as they started to lose they hearts; they turned black and white, whereas June was the only one in color. I absolutely recommend this graphic novel to anyone who would like to ponder "what would happen if we stopped feeling"? I think the age range would be great for teens and older. 5/5 stars


Thank you to netgalley for providing a copy of "The Faint of Heart" in exchange for an honest review.

On the whole, this book was middle-of-the-road.

The art and symbolism of color are really pretty and well done. Also, I don't know if this was on purpose or just how the pages were printed, but the slightly raised quality of black ink was pretty cool. They were probably my favorite parts of this book.

The story is about as straightforward as you can get: A scientist (who is never named? Just called The Scientist, which I understand is a choice to say that it doesn't matter who she is, her only identity is Science, but later on they show that she is more than that, and so giving her and her assistant no name make this just a strange choice to me.) finds a way to remove hearts so that people no longer feel emotions, good or bad. This goes about as you'd expect, plot-wise.

After sitting with this book for a bit, I realized a part of what rubbed me the wrong way: It's a line of conveniences. It feels like a 304 page version of the story, "You don't know who gave you your heart?" (In fact, looking this up, because I only knew the Garfield version of that, I have almost no doubt that Wilson may have drawn inspiration from that 'So sad' story.)

I'm fine with pseudo-science and heavy (HEAVY) metaphor usage, but I came away feeling hungry for more meat to the story. And honestly, for Wilson's first published gn, this is a great achievement and should be celebrated, but I hope the next book is a little less surface-level.