Hearts Still Beating

By Brooke Archer

Book Overview

Now in paperack, the immersive and romantic post-apocalyptic sapphic novel perfect for fans of Krystal Sutherland, Adam Silvera, and The Last of Us.

Mara is dead--mostly.
Infected with a virus that broke the world and turned her into a monster, Mara awakens in a facility to learn a treatment has been found. No longer a Tick, Mara is placed in an experimental relocation program. But she's sent to live with the best friend she hasn't seen since the world ended. Since their first and only kiss.

Rory is alive--barely.
And her nightmares are as vicious as the Ticks that infected Mara and permanently injured Rory. Even after the Island--one of the surviving communities--rebuilds itself, Rory fears a Tick attack from the mainland at any time. But the Ticks that show up are medicated--not quite themselves but no longer raging monsters. Among them is the first girl Rory ever loved...the one she thought was gone forever.

As Mara and Rory struggle with the violence they've inflicted and experienced, they must lean on each other to survive their brutal world--or risk losing each other all over again.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0593698347
• ISBN13: 9780593698341
• Release Date: May 2025
• Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

Zombie apocalypse sapphic love story

Hearts Still Beating is set in an apocalyptic world in which a zombie virus has ravaged the population, turning the infected into cannibalistic killing machines called Ticks. Scientists have developed a medication which can reverse the zombie changes and restore an affected person's humanity. Mara, who did horrendous things as a Tick, is one of these patients, called the Altered. Her treatment is successful and she going to live with her godparents and her former best friend and crush Rory. Rory has been traumatized by loss (as has all of humanity) and is resistant to Mara's arrival, worried that she will start killing again. The story is tense, compelling, beautiful, emotional, violent and tragic. The world building was excellent. This book makes the reader think about what makes a person human vs. a monster. Hearts Still Beating is a story about the triumph and survival of love after trauma and change. I could not put it down.

The Walking Dead meets iZombie meets Warm Bodies

This book is everything you could want in a post apocalyptic zombie story. There’s romance, comedy, action, drama. It’s dark and gritty with flashes of light. It’s exactly what you think it is and not at all. I had a hard time putting it down when I needed to. It is 300ish pages of a beautifully written tale of two young women surviving the end of the modern world and finding their way back to each other and a life worth living. It’s The Walking Dead meets iZombie meets Warm Bodies. The attention to detail was amazing. Visuals clear and easy to picture. A wonderful read for long time zombie fans and a perfect story to introduce newer fans to the genre. I absolutely loved everything about this book. Each chapter was marked as from the point of view of Mara or Rory and it kept the read from becoming stale or too one-sided. I can not recommend this book enough.