The Broke Hearts

By: Matt Mendez

Narrated by: Ramón de Ocampo, Lee Osorio, Zac Aleman, Raquel Beattie

In this “moving and heartbreaking” (BCCB) follow up to Barely Missing Everything, JD and Danny, still reeling from the gutting death of their best friend by police gunfire, grapple with life-changing decisions and the kind of people they want to be, for Juan.

A year after losing their best friend, JD and Danny are still brokenhearted. JD’s impetuous decision to join the Air Force only makes him yearn for “before” more than ever. Danny, who’d rather paint murals than open a book and certainly never thought of himself as college material, makes the equally impulsive choice to do what Juan will never be able to and enrolls in a community college.

Danny’s father, The Sarge, is proud of him for the first time ever for living out Sarge’s own dream of being a first-generation college student, but Danny can’t shake the thought that it should be Juan, not him. And studying hasn’t gotten any easier for him despite his new academic goals. When Danny is on the verge of flunking out and JD gets notified of imminent deployment, the two are forced to confront their shared grief that led them to these paths. Can they learn to live lives that are their own in honor of Juan, rather than for him?

Excellent Book!

Intriguing story about working through loss and grief, and finding one's way through life's obstacles. I was completely absorbed from page 1!

Trying to deal with grief.

Both storylines are excellent, especially Matt's use of flashback's to danny's father's past, and for JD, film scripts to show what's going on with him. All narrators are excellent, even if Ramon is the only one I recognize. An amazing novel, exploring the lengths grief can drive someone at times.