Josh Vincent R.

Sario
X- Musa Acuminata
“MY HEART and other BLACK HOLES”
Written by: Jasmine Warga
A Book Review

A sixteen year old physics-nerd named Aysel has an obsession in killing herself. While

browsing the net she discovered a site for suicidal person called “suicide partners”, a section of a

website where Aysel found “FrozenRobot” which is the username of Roman who also has an

intention of taking his own life. But as their plan becomes more concrete, Aysel begins to back

out and tries to convince roman to live out their life so that they can discover more things

together. This book has 320 pages including the writer’s remark which is Jasmine Warga,

published by Harpercollins on February 17, 2015. Jasmine was from Cincinnati, Ohio but is now

currently residing in Chicago Area. She came from a long line of story tellers which is explains

her greatness and compassion for creating book like “My heart and other black holes”, “Other

words for home”, and “Here we are now”. The theme of the book is mainly anchored on

Overcoming depression and finding something to live for. It is applied to Aysel and Roman, the

two main characters of the story who clearly bot has bad beginnings and plotted their own deaths

but at the latter part of the story they realize that being with each other is something to live for.

The book exhibits genres like fantasy, self-help, motivational, a slight hint of humor, and

most importantly romance which writer clearly focuses on. Moreover, one of the most

distinguishable quotes on the story is “I once read in my physics book that the universe begs to

be observed, that energy travels and transfers when people pay attention. Maybe that’s what love

really boils down to having someone who cares enough to pay attention so that you’re

encouraged to travel and transfer, to make your potential energy spark into kinetic energy.
Maybe all anyone ever needs is for someone to notice them, to observe them.” This can be seen

on page seventy-four. I was so stoked upon reading again this quote after reading the whole book

because it depicted what Aysel did in the latter part of the story.

A story of two young person who has decided on killing themselves because of their

haunting past. Aysel, a sixteen year old girl who has been eager to ease herself by taking her own

life founds a way to make her last days better through a website named Suicide Partners. In this

site he met “FrozenRobot” which is the username of Roman, a guy who lives near her place. His

only condition to Aysel is that if they do it on April 7, which she agreed on instantly making

their last days shorter. She then found out that the reason why roman chose that date is because

that is the exact day when his sister died, which is also the reason why Roman wants to commit

suicide. As they take more dates, they get to know each other better, meeting each other families,

knowing each other’s hobbies, and many more. Even though they have nothing in common they

slowly start to fill in each other’s broken lives. But as April 7 comes near, Aysel begin to

question herself and realizes her affection for Roman and has decided to encourage him too to

end their plan. As soon as Roman knows that she is about to flake on him, he started to distant

himself a bit and when it is already her sister’s death anniversary he went on with the plan

without Aysel realizing that she still has a future and thaught that it is the best for her. But Aysel

knows what his planning, so before Roman loses his last breath, she saved him and change his

mind about life. Then they lived happy and contented with each other until they died naturally.

The book is full of amazing plot twist and most importantly full of lesson about freedom,

choices, limitations in life, and life itself. At first, Aysel might tried desperately to kill herself

due to her father killing someone which made the townspeople look at her like a monster and

Roman trying to commit suicide because he blames himself for the death of his sister. But when
they find each other their life shifted slowly towards acceptance and hope. You can learn in the

story that life can seem awful and unfixable until the universe shifts a little and the observation

point is altered, and then suddenly, everything seems more bearable.

For me the book is like the type of book which at first you don’t want to read but when

you do it you would wish it would have never end. While reading this book, it thought me to

understand people better. “Maybe we all have darkness inside of us and some of us are better at

dealing with it than others” this sentence by Alysa made me change my perspective on looking

on another person’s life. That it is better to think first what a certain someone is battling through

or try to be in his or her shoes before judging.

The book report clearly shows the flow of the story and it is very detailed up to the point

that I can feel what the characters are feeling. The one who made this review is really good on

constructing his sentence and made the story even more interesting with him unravelling the

moral of the story and his personal reflection. – Justin Paul R. Vargas

The Summary in this book review is actually great, it made me understand the story faster

and better. the one who made this review is really good at detailing every part of the story.

– Rigel Myrj Peollo

“I just figure the whole world feels sorry for you. You obviously aren’t looking for

someone to do what everyone already does” (Page 1). “The real voyage of discovery consists not

in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” (no page, can be seen before the first page).

“And their death was a supernova – their death demanded attention. I’m pretty sure my death

won’t qualify as a supernova. No one is going to be around to see my energy go out” (page 190-
191). “All he need to know is that I’m ready to die. That should be enough” (page 87). “I will be

stronger than my sadness” (page 259).