This book takes a fascinating look at heartbreak and how much it sucks. Nailed that part. The characters shine, though the misguided guy meeting the mysterious wise girl trope felt a bit too YA. The plot gets twisty and it shook me a little bit. But I found my bearings by the end and really enjoyed this one.

I’m not sure if I know what exactly went on just now. I know there are a lot of deeper meanings in there but I feel like that Al just went right over my head

Michael Mallory is doing great. He's the lead singer of a moderately successful band, cool apartment, and great girlfriend. Until his girlfriend abruptly breaks up with him. Unemotional, already packed to leave, and without any fanfare at all. Like nothing they had mattered to her at all. He's left heartbroken--no, heartexploded--and bleeding all over his whole life. He can't stop thinking about her and the life they should have had. He starts to blow up everything around him. Until a strange red rover demon thing in a drain tunnel leads him to an increasingly depressing part of town no one seems to know about. An unseen woman offers him whatever he wants in exchange for three stories. But, like all horror stories that grant wishes, it isn't exactly as advertised.

I was so set to give this book five stars. I absolutely loved "Man, Fuck This House." Magic and musicians are some of my favorite things. There are so many beautiful pieces here, but they don't fit together quite right.

Like "It Follows", this book doesn't quite take place in our world. It's an interesting concept and I love the imagery and hints we get about the cosmology, but many times, it left me feeling like I was floating just outside of understanding. I kept trying to google things that don't exist. I get that, perhaps, this was to put us in the same position Michael, an unbeliever, is in, but he never seemed very curious about anything or asked the questions I wanted him to.

The stakes seem a little...wishy washy? We don't really see much of Michael prior to the breakup with Kara, then he's distressingly depressed and obsessed, then he's a dick, then... there's just not too much character development. I loved Keegan and Donnie, but we don't get to see much of them, even when it really seems like we should. Gabrogian seems to mostly come out of nowhere and confuses the nature of the world further by being...whatever the fuck he is.

Which brings me to the stories. NGL, I love this framing device, but it was a bit whiplashy for me. I feel like having stories within stories is a great way to flex writing muscles and really lean into some other voices and styles, but none of that really happens. And the stories themselves are just kind of banal. Except for Gabrogian's. I honestly could not tell you what exactly is going on there. 


And, as for the ending... I don't like it. I won't spoil anything here, but I just felt like it was all too perfect. 


It's not a bad book. It's short and fun and has some absolutely killer imagery. Plus Donnie and Keegan. Absolutely pick it up if you feel so compelled, but know it's a bit more of a popcorn story than anything truly scary or deep.

Horror books have a special place in my heart. Prior to working at the library, our collection of horror books was slim to none. We had the typical Stephen King/Joe Hill books but not much other selection. Since working here we have buffed up our horror collection to include diversity, different levels of horror, and book length.

Our Black Hearts Beat as One will have a special place in our library, I can't wait to see if we are able to order it.

I would like to thank Netgaller and Brian Asman for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Despite this being a novella. it took me quiet a while for me to finish. I like the beginning of the novel however towards the end i kept losing interest and found myself getting a little confused on what was going on, this may have just been me as i kept picking it up and putting it back down.

“Hearts break. But they don’t just break, they explode. Destroying everything around them”

I had fun with this author’s other book: “Man, Fuck This House.” This one, though, takes itself a lot more seriously.

There are a few cool ideas here, but some of the book was hard to follow. (Mostly the second half.) There were also three stories within the story, with several characters talking into a tape recorder telling about their experiences. Two of those tales were a bit cliche and another was confusing. The book did a lot of explaining of a religion that involved naming a bunch of different gods and who they were and what they did, and my eyes glazed over during those parts. (As I often say, this may have just been a "me" thing.)

This story has the “ideal hot goth chick character.” (She's got an attitude and practices witchcraft. What a sizzling little number!) As soon as she stepped onto the page I thought, “Oh no.” There did turn out be more to her, to be fair. But it felt like the dark version of the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl. Remember that whole thing?

Unfortunately, this book just wasn’t for me. I liked one of the monster designs and there was an interesting set piece, (the weird room with the fans), but the story went from confusing to cliche to overly sappy and those are all things I just don’t like. I did enjoy “Man, Fuck This House,” though!

TW: self-harm, suicide, suicidal ideation.

I didn’t really connect with this story at all. While the premise interested me, I found myself skimming much of the story. There were some good parts, namely Evangeline, but overall just not my favourite.

You truly cannot go wrong with a book by Brian Asman. Our Black Hearts Beat as One is a love letter to the pain that is a love which fell apart... set amongst a terrifying and fantastical backdrop of the occult.

“Hearts break. But they don’t just break, they explode. Destroying everything around them”
Well if that doesn’t adequately describe a break up…I don’t know what does?! This was my first novel by Asman and it will definitely not be my last. His writing style is effortless. I loved the idea of a semi famous rock star being dumped and totally destroyed over it. Instead of sex revenge, he tries any and all means to get her back.
Even though the novel is short-it has a ton of vibrant energy. The Underworld and the stories depicted are vivid and full of atmospheric descriptions. I couldn’t help root for Michael Mallory and I really enjoyed the ending. Thank you to @thebrianasman for my advance copy!

A beautiful romantic yet dark and twisted story that was hard to put down.
It was really something different with great fast paced writing. This is my first book of Brian Asman but i certainly don't think it will be my last.

I did not connect with this story. I was interested at first, but just how he acted and thought didn’t pull me in. I did like the Rat King, but by the time people were telling their stories, I couldn’t bring myself to care about any of the characters and what they were going through.

"Hearts break. But they don't just break, they explode. Destroying everything around them."

A fun and quick read. Nothing ground-breaking, but I enjoyed it.

My list of favorite reads for this year is already too damn long, but I have to add Our Black Hearts Beat As One to that list now. This weird genre-bending, mind-fuck of a tale has stolen my heart. I would be hard-pressed to pick a single genre to which I would assign this novella. It is one part fantasy, one part comedy, one part tragedy, with a dash of horror, and a heaping helping of romance. I shudder at using the word "romance" to describe anything on my list of favorites, but at its core, this is a love story. An offbeat, fucked up, epic odyssey of a love story.

The characters and mythology of this book transform it from a simple story of a broken heart to something truly magical. I was so thoroughly intrigued and invested I felt like I couldn't read it fast enough. I suspect the genre-defying nature of Our Black Hearts Beat As One will make it fairly divisive, with readers either loving or hating it. Either way, I just hope people are reading it, because this is way too good to be missing out on.

Thank you Netgalley and Mutated Media for giving me a free copy to read. However, I sadly have to say that I did not enjoy this book. Nothing really resonated with me except the first two pages. I found the characters and the book itself boring and a bit confusing. This book may be for others but it was definitely not for me.

Our Black Hearts Beat As One, such a beautiful title for book that I’m quite torn about. I really enjoyed the horror and the occult elements to this story, but they seemed to get muddled and quite confusing. It was hard to try to envision some of the scenes in my head and I wish we knew more about Mike. I couldn’t connect with the characters and that is where I found this book to be lacking. Overall it was a short interesting read although I’m not sure I would recommend.

Thank you netgalley for the arc, all opinions are my own.

This book was very interesting. It gave my imagination a work out in that there were so many wonderful descriptions and I was able to see them in my head. I loved the journey that the main character went on and how he was able to discover that there was more to his life than one relationship. The occult aspect was one that I hadn't read much of in other books, so points for that. This book was a quick read, but it was packed with enough action to keep me engaged.

This was... so different from what I usually read, but I have to say it only made me want to read more by this author. Our Black Hearts Beat as One takes on the story of a man losing love and dealing with it - along with dark gods and divine spirits interfering in his and others' lives.

I started off slightly confused as there isn't much explanation regarding the magic system or belief system, whatever you want to call it, but that only made me more intrigued. This is honestly the only thing that could bring my rating down from a 5-star to a 4-star. After that, it's easy to get annoyed with the main character, but in my mind this only made the book more entertaining as I had no idea what he would do next. After a choice he makes in the beginning, I knew I had no way of expecting anything that happened. This book is a wild ride from start to finish.

I have a feeling I'll be thinking about this book for the next few days, if not weeks. There was just enough information left out to leave me wanting more without making this a frustrating read. Overall, if you like urban fantasy, mysticism, dark storylines and a morally grey main character, this book is for you.

I didn’t enjoy this book at all. The character development was poor from the start and I never got to fully connect with the characters. The plot was also a bit confusing and felt randomly pieced together, almost as if the story itself was rushed. Overall, I was quite bored.

There were SO many unexpected twists and turns throughout this book. What started as a seemingly normal breakup story, turned into so much more. Our main character, Michael, I found to be somewhat unlikeable, very 'woe is me' and pretty much causes a whole heap of trouble because he couldn't deal with the rejection. However, theres so much more hidden within the story that brings about a deeper understanding of the fact that he maybe was fated to go down this path from the beginning. I also loved the descriptions of the various 'creatures' and sketchy places throughout the book, I found it easy to imagine how everything looked and felt the disgust and confusion of the various characters.

This wasn't for me. I was confused about what was happening and I didn't enjoy this.
I received a copy via NetGalley and all opinions are my own.