Right-Hearted: Finding What's Right With a Wrong-Sided Heart

by Daniel Wallock

Right-Hearted: Finding What's Right With A Wrong Sided Heart, is a short memoir about my life-threatening heart conditions and an unforgettable girl. I was born with a broken heart. Literally. My heart is on the right side instead of the left. I was also born with 6 other random congenital heart defects, which have demanded that I undergo dangerous open-heart surgeries since my birth 16 years ago. After my last operation 3 years ago, at barely 14, I was sent away to live so that I would not kill myself. I spent 2 years learning to accept my heart conditions and learning to appreciate my beating heart. The blurry ambulance rides, countless surgeries, metal machines and two years in a Montana therapy school have all contributed to the unique teenager I am today.


I never knew anybody who completely understood my unique struggles until that night under the full moon.


Standing before the sky I had little idea my next two weeks would be overwhelmed with wild love, lust, confusion, tears and a beautiful girl. She and I would share the stories of our hearts...our right-sided hearts. Right-Hearted: Finding What's Right With A Wrong Sided Heart is the story of two lustful teenagers who together confront their life-threatening conditions and learn to embrace their broken hearts.

Genres: Nonfiction

50 pages, Paperback

First published May 14, 2014

About the author

Daniel Wallock is a college student living in New York and the author of three books, which have been downloaded over 20,000 times across 25 countries. His poetry and prose have appeared in 20 publications including Burningword, Wild Quarterly, ExFic, The Vending Machine Press, Agave Magazine, VAYAVYA Poetry, Whistling Shade Journal, and The Bolt Magazine. Daniel has received numerous writing awards including 1st place in San Jose State University’s Nonfiction Short Story Contest. In addition to pursing a literary career Daniel spends time speaking for nonprofit organizations, doing marketing and media consulting, and designing websites.

Reviews

[M.S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, tragic, amazing. I've never read a memoir before, so I don't really know how the narrative is meant to be set out but I don't care. This is tragically beautiful, and I can relate in terms of love at first sight and the forces beyond comprehension as it reminds me of my own love story - we, too, weren't going to attend an event at our local youth centre but did for the first and only time ever and that's how we met. We, too, looked up at the stars as we walked alongside our local river. I commend you on your writing. It is amazingly well-written and I hope to read more of your works in future, both non-fiction and fiction. I read this in about 30 minutes - I never do that nowadays and usually if I do, it's for an author whose works I anticipate from reading previously, reading reviews or being published from a traditional publishing house. I am glad, though, as this is genuinely, tragically beautiful!
- M.S. Watson, author of Ice and Glass Bones.

[M.S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, tragic, amazing. I've never read a memoir before, so I don't really know how the narrative is meant to be set out but I don't care. This is tragically beautiful, and I can relate in terms of love at first sight and the forces beyond comprehension as it reminds me of my own love story - we, too, weren't going to attend an event at our local youth centre but did for the first and only time ever and that's how we met. We, too, looked up at the stars as we walked alongside our local river. I commend you on your writing. It is amazingly well-written and I hope to read more of your works in future, both non-fiction and fiction. I read this in about 30 minutes - I never do that nowadays and usually if I do, it's for an author whose works I anticipate from reading previously, reading reviews or being published from a traditional publishing house. I am glad, though, as this is genuinely, tragically beautiful!
- M.S. Watson, author of Ice and Glass Bones.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is basically a short non-fiction story of the author, Daniel Wallock. Within its pages, we're giving a good little look into a short portion of his life were he meets a young girl with the same experiences. I think it's an especially sweet story of how someone born with such a tragic condition can still find someone in life that makes them happy and a good outlook towards the future.

I won this book from a First Reads giveaway here on Goodreads. I received it today and read it within fifteen minutes. I think the only problem with the book is that it was too short. I really would like to have read more into these particular events and shared a few more moments with the young couple. Overall, I think it's well deserving of five stars and I will be looking into other of the author's books in future.

[Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

`Should have known you can't depend on technology to capture beauty and emotion.'

Young author Daniel Wallock has a running start on a literary career. He has published one book and his writing has appeared in Burningword, Wild Quarterly, Paragraph Planet, ExFic, The Vending Machine Press, and The Bolt Magazine. He's received four writing awards including first place in San Jose State University's Nonfiction Short Story Contest. He also received a Gold Key for nonfiction, the highest regional honor, from Scholastic's Art and Writing Awards. Daniel worked as manager of marketing at Ginosko Literary Journal and he's founder of This Very Breath Journal.

In this very brief love story Daniel relates his life before age 16, a life filled with the consequential multiple surgeries that resulted form his being born with dextrocardia, a congenital defect where the heart is on the right side of the chest instead of the left, a condition often associated with multiple associated defects such as double outlet right ventricle, endocardial cushion defect, pulmonary stenosis or atresia, single ventricle, transposition of the great vessels, and ventricular septal defect. Just how many of these defects Daniel had is not shared, but the concept is that this is a lad who very possibly could have not survived both birth and the subsequent operations. We meet him beneath a full moon, hearing the chatter of girls, feeling alienated and an outsider. The girls insist he attend a dance and reluctantly Daniel attends and there meets Chloe, a skip of the heart beat Chloe, whom Daniel feels is special. They attempt a dance, though neither knows how, and from that gentle moment they gradually open up to each other and Daniel discovers that Chloe had similar birth defects to his. A bond is formed - not one of pity but one of illumination of finding someone who understands and unreservedly accepts his past and enhances his present.

The beauty of this little book is in the manner in which Daniel Wallock writes. His story is unique, his discovery under the full moon is beautiful, and he relates all of this without self-pity or morose overtones. This is simply an eloquent little love story about two extraordinary survivors. Daniel Wallock appears to have a handle on a successful writing career.

[K.Q. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more like it.

Previously I had reviewed Daniel Wallock's short story Breathe: A Very Short Story and I didn't care for it. I ended the review hoping that this would be a better story.

Thankfully, it was.

The quality of the writing was much improved over Breathe, and there was an actual story here, not just a connect-the-dots of events.

It wasn't mind-blowing or anything, and many things were hinted at, vague, or just dropped. I still have so many unanswered questions. Daniel alludes to fleeting, but abusive romances in his past and I felt there was probably a goldmine of wonderful stories there. I'm not trying to go for the salacious details, but maybe the trial-by-fire would make the reader appreciate his time with the young lady in this book a bit more.

Also, for all his health problems, they're never really focused on. Again, I don't want the grimy dirt of human suffering, but it's more impressive that he play sports like a bad-ass when we actually get to read about his many near-death experiences.

I hope all this is coming out in a actual autobiography some day because I would be very interested to truly get to know Daniel, and not just what he picks and chooses what to tell us.

Daniel wants his stories, all of which are free, to be downloaded 100,000 times. Help make it happen for him. It costs nothing and you'd be helping a young man's dream come true.

[Angie · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book is not in any way close to its blurb. The blurb is deceptive, making you expect a segment of the book is going to explain Daniels heart condition yet the only reference to his heart condition is it's on the wrong side of his chest. Nothing else. Nada regarding his operations or the six random heart defects. Why did he want to kill himself? At no part does it ever tell us. What is the book regarding you might ask? Exceptional question. Daniel wants more significance in a relationship than just sex. The kid is only in high school! So anyway, he meets Chloe, whom he genuinely likes, but she just wants is "to get it on". Thenceforth the two fool around a lot and that is the basis of the story. There is more to the plot that I will leave a mystery as not to ruin the whole story. I should mention that the writing itself was favorable. The author seems to just have forgotten what topic he was writing about.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A desire to live and experience against all odds.
tars

This writing is a very short memoir about the author’s life-threatening heart conditions. He has had seven congenital heart defects and survived dangerous open-heart operations in his first sixteen years of life, having been born with dextrocardia. He meets a teen-age girl, with a wrong-sided heart and he artfully describes the choices these two teenagers face and experience. David has a talent for writing as he simply and unabashedly describes their emotions, actions, desires and disappointments in a manner that opens their world to the reader. He has already won some awards for writing and hopes to write a full book memoir of his life. I have only given four stars because it is so short, more like an essay, but it does have the quality of five stars.
I was given a complimentary e-book for an honest review.

[Kaleesha Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Right-Hearted and I think Daniel Wallock is off to a great start if he chooses a life of writing. There's a beautiful rawness to his tale, a realness, that I think a lot of us can relate to when we think of our own teen years. I cannot relate to Daniel's medical condition, and though there's not a lot of detail about it in the book itself (more can be found in his other writings), he wrote in such fashion that gave a taste of what it must be like, an underlying sense of the pain and loneliness of his life. There is depth to this young man, something resounding through the tale that has you rooting for him, feeling for him. There is room for Daniel's writing and story-telling to mature, but as it stands, it's good and worth a read.

[Dominic Tiberio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Calling this a book is a bit of a stretch. It is a short story and while I can definitely feel for the author, there just isn't much here and certainly not enough to warrant the very high ratings it receives. It is a bit unfocused and superficial for such a short piece. The subject is interesting and intriguing but the reader is always kept at arm's length and never fully brought into the real story and emotions which is profoundly disappointing.

[Shana Stumph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heartfelt

This short story, written by a young author, is both insightful and passionate. He portrays the basic human spirit, and one's struggle for love and acceptance, beautifully. I look forward to reading more by Mr. Wallock.

[Jackie Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Watch this young author as he has a future ahead of him. Is a short book about the young first love and the beginnings of maturity. Did like it and the writing and see this author improving with time. Please read.

[Ruth Johnstone · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful little book

[Shona Waby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this well written account of teenage love and life with serious medical conditions.

[Gen Giggles · Rating 3 out of 5]

A interesting work. Looking at first love is a topic that will never run dry even if the writing is. I liked the book but was not overly impressed.