Magnolia Parks
Jessa Hastings, 2021
A London socialite and the boy she's loved since school keep breaking each other in a glossy, funny, devastating loop of parties, exes and unfinished sentences.
Feels like longing, passion and melancholy. About love, friendship and identity.
A page from the book
What if a broken heart were something a coroner could actually find?
Can you die from a broken heart, do you know? And if I did and they cut me wide open, would I bleed loving him? When they lift my heart out of my chest cavity to weigh it, does it weigh the same as his top lip? Is his name carved into my third rib to the left? Bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. He’s killing me. Loving him is killing me too, and I’m afraid because how many loves really, do you get in a lifetime? How many chances do you give it before you let it go? Jessa Hastings.Hastings self-published the novel in 2021; it became a BookTok favourite and was picked up for traditional publication in 2023.
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Questions readers ask
- What is Magnolia Parks like?
- Feels like longing, passion and melancholy. About love, friendship and identity.
- What should I read after Magnolia Parks?
- If you liked Magnolia Parks, try Flock (Kate Stewart), Conversations with Friends (Sally Rooney) and The Mistake (Elle Kennedy).
A taste of the feed
Why the stories that wreck us are the ones we keep.
My favorite books, love songs, movies, the ones that resonated with me, have kept me grieving long after I turned the last page, the notes faded out, or the credits rolled.
Flock · Kate Stewart
The person whose description of you becomes the way you see yourself.
After school we used to lie in her room listening to music and talking about why we liked each other. These were long and intense conversations, and felt so momentous to me that I secretly transcribed parts of them from memory in the evenings. When Bobbi talked about me it felt like seeing myself in a mirror for the first time. I also looked in actual mirrors more often. I started taking a close interest in my face and body, which I’d never done before. I asked Bobbi questions like: do I have long legs? Or short?
Conversations with Friends · Sally Rooney
When someone’s timing is both reckless and perfect.
What are you doing?” I whisper. “Well, you were looking at me like you wanted me to kiss you.” His blue eyes become heavy-lidded. “So I was thinking I might do that.
The Mistake · Elle Kennedy
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