Strong Hearts Are Mandatory: Heart of Glass

by Teelia Pelletier

Strong Hearts Are Mandatory is a series centering in an animal-dominated land known as Media. All of the land’s residents are gifted with intelligence, and a few even with the forbidden practice of magic. Within the contents of Heart of Glass, we follow the perspective of the main hero, a little noble cat known as the Radio Star. Radio is chosen to collect the fragments of a crystal heart left by a mysterious spider monkey only known as the Jester. She is accompanied by two companions, Pictures and Video, joining her in finding the shards scattered across all of Central Media in their occupations of surveillance and courier work, respectively. The opportunity to find the fragments of this broken heart is Radio’s first chance to venture out into the world that she’s only ever been able to listen to from the safety of her windowsill, and she's going to make every heartbeat count. She's just left to hope that Video and Pictures feel this opportunity is as beneficial for them, as it is to her.

Genres: Fantasy

257 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 10, 2017

Reviews

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong Hearts Are Mandatory: Heart of Glass Review Video

TRANSCRIPT

PLOT

Overall, the plot was pretty good. It started off by establishing the stakes in that the king got kidnapped and restoring a crystal will (hopefully) bring him back. Furthermore, the trio of main characters having to collect all the shards by traveling throughout the kingdom was a good way to keep the story moving and make everything feel cohesive. It was also fun to explore the kingdom as that helped make the world feel expansive and more fleshed-out.

As for the main journey itself, it was quite entertaining! Seeing all the different towns, cities, and even an abandoned settlement provided a fun variety. It stopped the environments from getting too stale and gave Radio an opportunity to see outside of her sheltered life.

Regarding the multiple twists at the end (which I’ll get into in the spoiler section), as shocking as they all were, I wished that they had been hinted at more throughout the story. Only a single twist was suggested and it was just once. Without the proper amount of foreshadowing, the last few chapters felt like they came completely out of nowhere and were disconnected from the previous writings. It was hard to feel any other emotion than confusion and wondering how the characters knew the information they did. However, as Teelia wrote the first book when she was eighteen, I’m sure this’ll improve as she continues on with the series.

WRITING

There were several elements I liked about the writing and other parts that I thought could be improved. One of the parts I enjoyed was how creative everything was in the world. Teelia definitely put a lot of heart into her story and wanted the reader to have a ton of fun!

The biggest critique I have for the writing was that there needed to be more sensory description, and the book could’ve been tightened up a tad more. For instance, there were lots of run-on sentences and more telling about what the characters were like personality-wise rather than showing.

When it came to dialogue and descriptions, words were often repeated or words meaning the same thing were used back-to-back. It wasn’t necessarily bad and didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the story, but once I noticed that pattern it was hard to not try and edit the book in my head while reading. But maybe that was just me.

WORLD-BUILDING

Honestly, the world-building, although creative and fun, was confusing and felt incomplete. One of the first issues I had was that the magical element was never really explained in what the limitations were or if there were different types of magic. From what the reader got in terms of magic (explosions and mind control) it made me wonder how that type of powerful magic could have been defeated by technology. Unless Central Media had some powerful weapons hidden away, it was hard to imagine the mages being defeated, especially the former queen.

Regardless of the magic not being elaborated on, it was interesting to see how technology had evolved in that some of it seemed like today’s modern society (like how drones were used to monitor the trio’s journey) but how there were still some medieval elements present like carriages. The mix of modern and medieval was quite unique and something that I enjoyed. Plus, it did make sense that the current government would prioritize its own technology over giving its citizens better transport as that tends to be the nature of most governments.

When it came to how the government was structured, cats were definitely the most privileged class. Not only was the universal language cat but the cats had an entire city for only their species. Furthermore, small mammals such as weasels or stoats were only seen as serving feline royalty, indicating that that was the highest on the social ladder those types of animals could climb.

CHARACTERS

RADIO

The Radio Star was the main PoV in this book and one of my favorites of the main trio. Considering Radio had rarely ventured outside of her own home (the exception being trips to her aunt’s city when she was kitten) she was the perfect narrator to help introduce the reader to this new land. That way, the reader could discover the world and Radio asking questions about Media wouldn’t be out of place.

Another detail I liked was that Radio had an interesting personality! Having grown up quite sheltered, she was naïve and came off as a bit of a brat which left a lot of room for character growth. It was also fun to see how her personality both meshed and conflicted with the other two protagonists.

Unfortunately, there were parts of Radio’s actions that felt out-of-character. For instance, a few days into their journey the group arrived at a village being terrorized by the Jester. However, Video was the one who wanted to stop and help the town. In another scene, a raccoon had been injured and Radio got huffy about the others wanting to assist him. This is despite how Video had been characterized as prioritizing the mission above all else while Radio was supposed to be the “heart” of the group.

A second problem I had with Radio was that she lacked agency until the last few pages and her arc felt rushed. Although being royalty it was understandable that she never fought the Jester, Radio also only observed what was happening while her friends made accomplishments.

That said, when Radio started to realize that Media wasn’t all that great, it was nice. She went as far as to make her life mission to build a city for the other animals which was a good goal. In other words, Radio decided to use her privileges to help other species in the future which seemed like a good use of her status.

PICTURES

The second of the main three, Pictures, was an okay character. His relationship with Radio (up until the last few chapters) was quite sweet. He also acted as a good balance between Radio and Video whenever the two didn’t get along. Unfortunately, besides those details, the readers never really got to know Pictures all that deeply so he was a bit of a 2-D character. (Which I suspect is because of a twist I’ll get into in the spoilers section.)

Other than that however, I did like him as a character especially when he put himself in harm’s way to save Radio multiple times.

VIDEO

In terms of characters, Video was my second favorite who fell slightly out of favor during two scenes (which I’ll get to in a bit). Being a courier of Media, it made sense that Video had a strict, militaristic attitude towards the mission and wanted to complete it as fast as possible. I also enjoyed how she was a foil to Radio and how their personalities played off one another.
However, there were two instances in the book where Video went from strict and pessimistic to downright mean.

The first incident occurred when the group went out hunting. During that time, Video killed an entire family of quail. Not only was that action wasteful (as Video cannot possibly eat that much food) but rather odd.

This is because in an earlier scene, the Jester was depicted as cruel for killing a mouse. However, when the trio went hunting, they also killed animals including mice but it’s supposed to be seen as fine. Why was one action villainous but not the other?

The second instance was when Radio woke up to find that Video and Pictures had been arguing. Not only did this scene seem to be thrown in just for drama but Radio being amused at the thought of Video beating someone up until they agreed with her was pretty scary! Resorting to physical violence to get one’s point across is not a good quality to have in a friend.

Those two instances aside, Video was the most active of the three along with having the most agency. As a result, this definitely made her exciting to read about!

THE JESTER

As the antagonist, the Jester was pretty fun! It was great to have a villain that could be both dangerous as well as willing to toy with his victims. This was especially noticeable in the way the Jester interacted with the Studio Star by trying to get her under house arrest but also teasing her about it.

My only one issue with the Jester was that there’s no real motive or backstory given to him. This made him feel somewhat incomplete as the antagonist. However, this was only the first book so I hope he’ll get fleshed out later in the series.

MAJOR SPOILER SECTION

One of the things that frustrated me the most was how Radio acted in the final chapters. When Radio insisted that the group traveled through her aunt’s city, Radio ended up derailing the mission. This resulted in the other shards being unable to be detected and the mission being declared a failure.

Now, I normally wouldn’t have an issue with this. After all, characters making mistakes which have huge consequences helps give them agency. However, since this was the only bit of impact Radio had in the book, it made it feel like her sole purpose in the group was to trip everyone else up. To me, it would’ve been better if Radio had displayed some more positive qualities and contributions beforehand.

Furthermore, the ending felt too quick. As it turned out, Pictures had been manipulating Radio in order to gain her trust so he could spy on the group for the Jester. Hence why the audience didn’t get much information on Pictures as a character. Pictures and the Jester working together made sense, but not their goal of trying to establish themselves as the new rulers of Media. What was their motive for such an act? Also how would that work? Surely the king must have some sort of successor in case a situation like that ever happened.

My complaints aside, the ending fight between Video, Pictures, Studio, and the Jester was fantastic! I could tell that Teelia had fun writing that scene especially with how Pictures met his end. I also can’t wait to see how Video will get out of being framed for the murder of Radio and the entire team of monitors!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, I give this book 3.5 stars. Although this book was rough around the edges and could’ve used some polishing, I still found it enjoyable! It was very creative and the trio of characters had personalities that worked well together. Plus, the Jester was such a delight to read about. Can’t wait to start the second book!

I hope Teelia will keep improving her craft and wish her the best of luck on her writing journey!

[Avalon Roselin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fun and imaginative story that is unfortunately held back by editing issues. Full review here, spoiler free: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkwSe...

[Katie McCarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong Hearts are Mandatory: Heart of Glass is a sci-fi/fantasy that takes place in a land called Media, populated by animals. It follows the story of a cat named Radio and her two companions, Video and Pictures, as they travel Media searching for shards of a crystal heart discovered on the scene of a crime committed by a mysterious spider monkey known as the Jester. The book was fairly enjoyable, and I would definitely recommend it, however there are some things that threw me off a bit.
The most noticeable was the evident lack of proofreading and grammatical understanding. There were often errors that, although they didn’t affect how easy the story was to understand, confused me and made me reread sentences to make sure I read it right. All the information being thrust into your face at the beginning may be overwhelming at first, but it does end up contributing to the experience in the end. Sometimes, descriptions may be a bit overdone, but they might help to pinpoint everything later on in the story.
The characters, I think, were very well done. They each had unique personalities and origins, though there were points in the story where I felt that the characters weren’t acting like themselves. The reasons were never explained. The book is written with Radio’s perspective in mind, which was a good choice. Radio is, just like the reader, pretty much clueless about the world, so she appears more relatable as the world is introduced to both the reader and narrator at the same time. I often felt myself experiencing the same frustrations and disappointments as the characters, meaning that the characters were easy to understand and their emotions were described well.
The author, Teelia Pelletier, is only a hobbyist, so some of the flaws were easy to understand, as she had to write this along with taking care of her other work.
Overall, I would recommend this book to young teenagers, as it may seem a bit boring to older audiences or hard to understand for younger ones. I think it’s worth reading.

[audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been a huge fan of Teelia's work, and jumped at the chance to purchase her book when it came out, because I was pretty invested in the story of Radio, and her companions. This was fantastic for a teenager to write, and the exstensive world that Teelia's created is amazing. I loved the character's personalities, and the ending (not spoiling it for anybody) was a twist that I wouldn't have expected if she had made so many hints in her artwork and animations.
There were some problems with pacing, and the amount of characters were nearing on Game Of Thrones level. I feel that Pictures and Radio's relationship came out of nowhere and was unexpected, with barely any chemistry between the two. The Jester was an interesting character, but I feel that he needs more development and was one-sided, but he still was malicious, with a cool and clean demenor.
Also, the humungous reference to Video Killed The Radio Star was kinda obvious, and gave away a twist, but still was clever.

Overall, I rate this story "Good for an 18 Year Old"

[ryvr · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick and easy read for me! I really enjoyed the story, but some of the editing mistakes made me have to re-read quite a few sentences. Besides that, this was really enjoyable.

[Alex T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/20...

[Katterley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the fantastic effort of an eighteen year old author. The story involves magic, a quest to save the characters' world, and fantastic world-building. The characters are full, rich, and ones you can relate to, with the narrator evolving throughout the story. A rich and wonderful read, especially if you like cats. Recommended for advanced middle graders, I would put the book in the young adult section of a library for the violence. The author started out as a Warrior Cat fan, but this is a much richer fantasy novel in a different world, and involves many more sentient, intelligence species, as well as a rich mythology in the Prologue. It is the first of six volumes, but you should look for the upcoming web comics on the author's DeviantArt page, too: http://teelia.deviantart.com/. Here is the YouTube channel to watch her animations of Mandatory and bits of the web comic that is like a spinoff, or separate arc of the Mandatory series. It's so involved!! https://www.youtube.com/ladyteelia
A must read!!