Till the Last Beat of My Heart
Louangie Bou-Montes
In this YA contemporary fantasy, the teen son of the local mortician accidentally reanimates the dead body of the boy he had more than friendly feelings for, but can he keep him alive for good before their time runs out? Perfect for fans of Cemetery Boys and The Taking of Jake Livingston! When you grow up in a funeral home, death is just another part of life. But for sixteen-year-old Jaxon Santiago-Noble, it’s also part of his family’s legacy. Most dead bodies in the town of Jacob’s Barrow wind up at Jaxon’s house; his mom is the local mortician, after all. He doesn’t usually pay them much mind, but when Christian Reyes is brought in after a car accident, Jaxon’s world is turned upside down. There are a lot of things Jaxon wishes he could have said to his once best friend and first crush. When he accidentally resurrects Christian, Jaxon might finally have that chance. But the more he learns about his newfound necromancy, the more he grasps that Christian’s running on borrowed time—and it's almost out. As he navigates dark, mysterious magics and family secrets, Jaxon realizes that stepping into an inherited power may also mean opening up old family wounds if he wants to keep the boy he may be falling for alive for good.
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~~Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC!~~
If you had the power to save someone you love at the cost of your own life, would you?
This book has such an interesting take on death, and I really liked how Bou-Montes explored it here. In this world, necromancy runs through families (At least, through Jaxon's dad's family. I wanted to know if any other family/groups had paranormal powers, but that really isn't important, given the grand scheme of the story), but Jaxon wasn't told about his powers until after he literally resurrected his ex best friend. From there, he has to take life energy from living organisms (i.e., plants, other people, and himself, but Jaxon mostly draws it from himself throughout the story) in order to keep Christian alive. The self sacrifice for love is literal here, and it makes it all the more angsty because Christian doesn't want the love of his life to practically kill himself for him. And even though Death is never personified, its presence is inevitable as Jaxon does everything in his power to help Christian out run it. The themes of grief and love are so strong, that attempting to outrun death isn't the way to go. I won't spoil what obvious two choices Bou-Montes made by the end, but I will say the acceptance was bittersweet, leaning a bit more sweet.
The characters are very fleshed out, particularly Jaxon and Christian. Christian is so adorkable with his big himbo jock energy, but the love and care he has for Jaxon actually got me good at some parts. Jaxon was very relatable with his anxiety and grump attitude to juxtapose against Christian's sunshine, though sometimes he got a bit dismissive in some situations when I felt it shouldn't. The rest of the side characters are enjoyable, too; Mami and Regan were the ones that stood out the most for me.
Overall, this is a pretty solid debut. The description saying this would be perfect for fans of Cemetery Boys is spot on, because I wholeheartedly believe that the people who loved that book would come and devour this gem up as well.
02024 reads: 314/250
content warnings: death, panic attacks, car accident
most dead bodies in jaxon santiago-noble’s town end up at his house since his mom is the local mortician. this has never fazed him, but when the most recent body belongs to christian reyes, his former best friend and first crush, his world turns upside down. jax accidentally resurrects christian, but he doesn’t have much time to learn his necromancy powers—christian is on borrowed time that won’t last long.
i was immediately intrigued by this book’s premise, so i had to borrow it on libby asap! i really enjoyed how the necromancy aspect played out. this was more of a character-driven novel, though, and i loved jax and christian. it was so cool reading about jax learning about his necromancy, though this was a frequent point of frustration for him. i also liked how jax and christian’s relationship played out, as they didn’t have the smoothest relationship.
i highly recommend this book to fans of ya fantasy!
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