Description

“Beautiful, tender, and relevant. Full of mystery, and not surprisingly, full of heart.”-Tillie Walden, award-winning author of Spinning

What would you do if you were the only person left with a heart? The only person left who felt anything at all? Would you give in to the pressure to conform? Or would you protect your heart at all costs? Part Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and part Severance, this debut teen graphic novel is a vivid and haunting read for fans of Nimona and This One Summer.

Not that long ago, the Scientist discovered that all sadness, anxiety, and anger disappeared when you removed your heart. And that’s all it took. Soon enough, the hospital had lines out the door-even though the procedure numbed the good feelings, too.

Everyone did it. Everyone except high school student June. But now the pressure, loneliness, and heartache are mounting, and it’s becoming harder and harder to be the only one with a heart.

One day, June comes across an abandoned heart in a jar. The heart in the jar intrigues her, it baffles her, and it brings her hope. But the heart also brings her Max, a classmate with a secret of his own.

And it may rip June’s own heart in two.

Part speculative fiction and part cautionary tale, The Faint of Heart is a moving and ethereal debut that questions morality and the feelings that seem too big to contain.

Publisher Review

"Beautiful, tender, and relevant. Full of mystery, and not surprisingly, full of heart." - Tillie Walden, award-winning author of Spinning "June lives in a future in which a reclusive Scientist has pioneered a procedure to remove hearts, thus eliminating all 'sadness, anxiety, and anger.' The downside is that it numbs pleasurable feelings, too. . . . The artwork effectively sets the scene, with bursts of color popping throughout an otherwise black-and-white landscape, reflecting the monochromatic, heartless reality of June's world. . . . A fast-paced dip into the possibility of a world without human emotions." - Kirkus Reviews "Wilson cultivates a gripping tale in which teenage June is the last person on earth with a heart in this speculative graphic novel debut. After an enigmatic figure known only as the Scientist pioneers a heart-removal surgery that promises to free patients from negative emotions, what's left behind is a world populated by emotionless drones. . . . This introspective read tackles issues surrounding the experience of navigating difficult emotions." - Publishers Weekly