Disclaimer. This book has a lot of triggers. It casts a long and heavy shroud over every event in the book, which makes every emotionally taut-filled like a never-ending sense of anguish and foreboding lurking around each corner. This book was a lot. There were so many complex societal issues crammed within this book like gender roles and expectations, sexual assault, gun violence, PTSD, activism, dealing with grief and so much more. Most of these topics I felt were short-changed by the ambiguous nature of how the trauma is presented to the reader. What exactly caused the trauma is only revealed at the end of the book, which unfortunately does a disservice to the overall message. A message that is probably still very unclear to me, if I am being honest with myself. I sympathize with Annabelle a lot but I did not feel it necessary to turn her tragedy into a psychological mystery. Every vague recollection of the past or observation of the future felt like I was being pulled into two different directions. Either I was constantly feeling targeted and regulated into the constraints of a world in the wake of the Me Too movement. Or do I have to constantly live in terror and anticipation for the next mass shooting? It was an exhausting experience just trying to finish reading this book. If you had a different experience than mine, great. This book just wasn't for me. ( )

I have chosen this book foe my "Book with a Female Protagonist" Category for Extreme Book Nerd....mostly because I wasn't sure where t put it.

"A Heart in a Body in the World" is the story of Annabelle and her running, yes running, across the United States. What is she running from? What are the thoughts that swirl through her mind. The reader is left in the dark about a mysterious character (aptly called The Taker) until near the end of the book. So most of the reading is a backstory....and yet present day/mood.

Many other reviewers on Goodreads remark about the pacing and the dialogue. I find that the tale did bounce around and was a bit clunky. While I do expect that with teen literature, I did not fully want that from a Printz honor book.

One of the compelling things I found in "A Heart in a Body in the World" was the relationships between Annabelle and other characters--her Italian Grandpa Ed, her brother, Malcom; her friends Zach and Olivia; and all of the people that she encounters along her journey. While other small roles did border on stereotypes, I enjoyed seeing who Annabelle would meet and how it would impact her moving forward.

So then we fast forward to the catalyst of the story. And it is of a tremendous pain involving gun violence. Here's the thing. It was "refreshing: in that it was not a sexual crime (which many, MANY teen books are). However, we quickly went from not knowing the plot to thinking we were anti gun. Annabelle's character wants gun reform and has gone to DC to talk about it. Yes, guns have been used as a weapon of mass destruction against others. Yes, we need to adapt our system. BUT guns do not kill people. People kill people. "A Heart in a Body in the World" drifted into "the blame game" rather quickly. Which I could have done without. ( )

I slept through chunks of this but ended up relistening to too many segments that I gave up caring. And then I listened to the last part while biking home from a concert, and I was already in a heightened emotional state due to hearing beloved songs live, and ended up bawling while biking down the West Side Highway. Not my best moment.

After hiking a hundred miles, the last few with extremely raw feet, I loved hearing about Annabelle's sore feet and blisters and visit to the doctor. The Agnelli Curse cracked me up so much. Luke! Luke! Luke! And the fact that he understood and was so kind and was so patient, ugh, my heart clenches. All the heart facts. (Though I did not need to know that cockroaches have twelve hearts. Eh.)

This was lovely and powerful and so well done and so important and so true and so so so.

And Julia Whelan is an excellent narrator and I think her voice really added to the story and to Annabelle's character. ( )

CW: School shooting

4.5 Stars ( )

Ok, so this is not my ideal genre -- emotions! boys! teen life! Contemporary stuff, no magic.

That said:

This is a very timely novel, about gun violence and the control of women. The tension of the story is masterfully drawn out over the course of the book -- who is Seth? Where is Kat? Is Belle going to jail? It lays out the details gradually like a line of treats.

It's hard to put down, because tension, because Annabelle is a fully fleshed character who is all kinds of messed up and we don't know if she can/will heal.

A tiny thing that vaguely troubled me:

I am a Seattle-ite. I LOVED all the local details that are spot on (there are many, many). Greenwood Market closed in 2012, so that stood out as a jarring detail.

Advanced reader's copy provided by Edelweiss. ( )