Heartbeat

Heartbeat #1-5

by Maria Llovet

IF NO ONE IS INNOCENT, IS ANYONE TRULY GUILTY?

Eva, a high school outcast, finds herself witness to a horrible the most popular boy in school enjoys the taste of blood and will kill to get his hands on it. Horrified and intrigued, Eva lets herself be pulled into Donatien’s macabre world. He offers the escape she has been looking for…but how much is Eva willing to betray her moral code in order to find something that gives her life meaning? And will she—or Donatien—ever find redemption? Acclaimed writer and artist Maria Llovet (Faithless) presents a dark, violent, decadent, and disturbing story in which life and death, blood and love are inextricably intertwined. Collects Heartbeat #1-5 for mature audiences.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Romance, Bande Dessinée, Comic Book, Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2015

About the author

Maria Llovet is a graphic novel author and illustrator from Barcelona.
Her work explores themes of desire, intensity, and aesthetics, blending emotional depth with striking visual storytelling.

Reviews

[James Francisco Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Her heartbeat... It was pounding so loud... I wanted to touch it with my own hands..."

[Amin Matin · Rating 3 out of 5]

اثر عجیب و دارکی بود، برداشت خاصی از پایان داستان ندارم، صرفاً پوکر فیس دارم به صفحه مانیتور نگاه می‌کنم و تایپ می‌کنم.

[Sem · Rating 2 out of 5]

Immensely beautiful and very, very poorly written, Heartbeat sees Maria Llovet - the person behind the amazing art on Faithless - flex her writing skills. Now, it seems that this was originally published in 2015 so, hopefully, she's grown as a writer since then because damn this is pretty weak. It's like a teenage fantasy of a person that read Aku No Hana and scrolled through too many goth-girl Tumblr accounts - bloody, edgy, and wholly laughable. From blood drinking to incest to steamy sex scenes, this is aesthetically pleasing but a headache to get through. Perhaps a more capable writer could have spun this into something better but Llovet is, at least in this instance, a far superior artist than writer.

I'd love to see her art again and again but if she tries her hand as a writer again, I'll be cautious.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un cómic un tanto creepy pero que no tiene desperdicio alguno. Además, aunque pueda pasar desapercibido a primeras, la historia tiene una gran crítica social y apunta hacia algunos de los grandes problemas -la violencia machista-.

María Llovet apunta por hacerlo de una manera más original al meter efectos paranormales a la historia, pero que honestamente creo que lo que hacen es -aunque pueda parecer raro- darle más credibilidad al camuflar esa crítica en una historia a mí parecer un tanto insípida.

[Adam M · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was disappointing and made me mad. You can read my review for No Flying, No Tights here.

[Alex Sarll]

Looking for something to vary the mood over this last tedious year, we've watched a fair amount of disreputable European cinema – French lesbian vampire films of which, despite its name, the BFI Player seems to have an inexhaustible supply; the astonishing amount of giallo which Amazon seems to have bulk-bought to up Prime's numbers. Very, very rarely does it live up to its scandalous promise; too often, the effects are risible and the actors - especially, and understandably, the actresses – are uncomfortably going through the motions, meaning the viewing experience feels creepy in all the wrong ways. Now, imagine instead that a similar sort of narrative, of bullying, lust and vampirism at an elite school, could be rendered in an art style which recalls Manara with occasional nods to Mucha, so gorgeous that sometimes I would just stop and stare even at a page where nothing was happening (clouds in the sky; knees on a bench; a bee on flowers). Where there are no ethical issues about what you're watching, because the characters exist only as ink, paper, pixels, ideas being transmitted straight from Maria Llovet's mind to the reader's without some poor sod having to enact them. So one can simply gaze, enraptured, at the blood-soaked kisses. That's Heartbeat.

[rikajewellee · Rating 4 out of 5]

it feels weird to give this graphic novel 4 stars because the content in this one is disturbing, so i don't know if i can say that i enjoyed it.
but it was... something else. it's like a train wreck you can't look away from.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adore the art, the grotesque of this short little gem. Knocked a star because I'm peeved when the main character of an artist look the same in other works (Faithless).

[Alessandro Andreanelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un misto di erotismo e macabro, Heartbeat è una GN dal sapore Dark Academia scritta e illustrata magnificamente da Maria Llovet, il cui stile iper dettagliato e particolarmente ispirato ci fa sentire all'interno di una piece tragica ambientata nel Dia de los Muertos.

Eva frequenta con una borsa di studio la prestigiosa scuola privata Lenox Fragonard, dove viene presa di mira dalle compagne ben più benestanti, tra cui Violetta, che non perde occasione per schernirla e aggredirla per le sue umili origini.
Immersa in un costante monologo interiore e sopraffatta dal senso di non appartenenza, per puro caso Eva sbircia da una porta socchiusa qualcosa che non avrebbe dovuto vedere: il popolare Donatien che beve il sangue di una sua compagna mezza nuda. Da quel momento in poi, Eva si ritrova invischiata in un vortice di desiderio e crescente follia. Ma è forse in quella goccia di sangue caduta per rompere l'equilibrio che si trova il suo posto nel mondo?

Macabro, appassionante, sensuale e al tempo estraniante, Hearbeat è una rapsodia di sentimenti e colori. Una storia di rivalsa attraverso il sangue, dove l'abusata diventa abusante, dove i cattivi ragazzi la fanno franca e dove il sangue va a sancire il legame tra eros e thanatos.
Una delle migliori GN che abbia mai letto, impossibile staccarsi.

[Jessi · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite comic from Maria, it was so much better than Faithless or even luna.
I can feel so connected to the main character not because of *murder* but her unhealthy ways, her boyfriend. as I've been there once...
Thank god I escaped him...
Bravo honestly I enjoyed it.

[Imogene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Should come with a gigantic trigger warning across the cover.
Teenage me would have been......troubled
2.5 stars

[victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

je n'avais jamais entendu parler de HeartBeat ni de son autrice, mais je me suis laissée tenter par les dessins qui, aux premiers abords, m'avaient plutôt plus. malheureusement l'histoire n'est pas parvenue à me convaincre, le propos est vraiment limite à mes yeux, puis de façon plus générale, je pense ne pas être la cible pour ce genre d'histoire

puis bon un peu la flemme des histoires toxiques cishet romantisées au bon d'un moment, surtout quand les protagonistes sont des adolescents

[Stoffia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je mets trois étoiles parce que j'hésitais entre en mettre une seule, ou cinq.

Heartbeat est un espèce de teen drama erotico-cannibaliste, auquel il faudrait que j'ajoute tous les trigger warning imaginables.

Les illustrations sont magnifiques, les personnages plus complexes que ce à quoi on s'attendrait, mais les thématiques sont traités dans aucune sensibilité. Au point où l'on peut avoir l'impression que l'autrice nous dit que finalement, les relations toxiques, c'est vraiment cool.

Et pourtant, je l'ai terminé avec l'impression que ce comic était toute de même plus que du simple "shock for shock value".

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Individual issue reviews: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5

Total review score: 2.31

[Miguel Blanco Herreros · Rating 2 out of 5]

Arte fantástico, guión pobre cuanto menos.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was delightfully creepy and beautiful.

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never seen sound effects done in such a stylized manner. They truly stand out. Then there's the blood. As gruesome as you might expect it to be, it's in fact used in sex scenes - nothing more explicit than bare breasts, though. The central theme seems to be love, though not the most constructive and reliable version of it. or maybe it's more obsession that drives these characters to murder and into each other's arms. The story is dark and narrated by one of the characters which adds more depth to it.

Eva is the poor kid in school, so she is targeted by bullies. She hates it because of how she is treated and even contemplates suicide. One day she stumbles onto one of her friends named Amber dead and covered in blood in the arms of Donatien, another student from school. He is drinking Amber's blood. The image Eva accidentally takes with her phone will haunt her dreams.

Eva refuses to say anything to the detective that is investigating the murder. She has nightmares that feature the killer in sexual instances. She becomes obsessed with the idea of drinking blood like the killer did. Meeting Donatien face to face turns into something unexpected. He teaches her how to enjoy some freshly harvested blood for the blood drive - from his lips. She falls in love with him and finds some happiness for the first time. They cut each other to enjoy the taste of blood.

Mack, Amber's brother and Eva's only other friend, suspects that Donatien is the killer and is worried about Eva getting close to him. Donatien plans to kill him as well, though Eva objects. She loses her phone and Violetta finds it and the picture of Amber. Violetta has been bullying Eva forever, though she also has a crush on her. She blackmails Eva into becoming intimate with her - I think that counts as rape, but that lesbian kiss is beautiful.

With her own safety threatened, Eva agrees to kill Mack and Donatien does the same to Violetta. As the two walk off confident in each other's love, the wounded but still alive Violetta is seen reaching for her phone.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 2 out of 5]

Narrative: **
There was no narrator-credibility for me because she has a youth of seventeen recounting the whole thing psychologically with a "wisdom" impossible to attain by that age. She talks as a full-grown adult would when recounting their past with wide hindsight, age-intelligence and her own philosophy of it all!

The girl and antagonist are sort-of hollow too. Then, as for the latter: since this isn't a vampire thing, what were his motives anyway? There's more I didn't like that's basically early-works stuff...

Art: ***
I wouldn't abide, and sure couldn't ignore, the ever-present over-stylized clothing, probably trying to slide fashion her ideas into the public eye, that I even objectively denied- no private school would have their students represented by a frilled-neck vintage wardrobe. Her aesthetic freestyling extends to the characters too. The bad guy's hybrid look (neck^ ) just doesn't compute within a homo sapiens-simplicus cast because it's as if, instead of getting mother/father traits 50/50, he got all 100% of both- but that could still totally jive, to my eyes, if he didn't have that stupid poufimpossible manga-hair.

Oh yeah!
Still trying to exercise flair everywhere, she sets most in a quite weird atmosphere. Her private school has trashed rooms, perfectly accessible, that have been aging over decades with paint chipping and wallpaper limping- that even assigns cleaning shifts to their students! That's what those institutions want parents to think their children will never have to do!! (It's the hire->someone->for->it->trajectory-> we didn't even have a "Shop" class at mine.)

[Kastie Pavlik · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Llovet's art. Her name overrides what little will power I have when buying books, so I got this tpb when it popped up in my comic preorders as a new release of an older title. From Faithless to Luna to this and almost everything she's done, the main character looks the same. It was different in Porcelain and might be different in Crave, but I haven't started that yet, or Eros/Psyche. But I'm a fan. I love her style and it is consistent across everything I've read.

The stories tend to make me think about them to understand the underlying message. When I finished this, I was disappointed because it feels unfinished and like not what the blurb teased. This reads more like a teaser for a larger book. And there's even symbolism weaved in as usual - Donatien means God-given and his back tattoo - et lux in tenebris lucet- means: and the light shineth in the darkness. So I was coming up with theories of angels and vampires, but there ends up being nothing there. There's nothing supernatural to it at all.

This is a story of losing morals and being bad bc you jdgaf anymore. There are a ton of lose strings and what symbology is there gets lost (I could make an argument for the caged bird, and that the ultimate moral of the story is what drives a caged bird to madness, what could've stopped the madness, and what that madness looks like when it manifests, but...).

Look. It's art. And I love the art. So 4 stars for the art and the teaser of a story.

[Ondřej Halíř · Rating 3 out of 5]

S tímhle mám velký problém, na jednu stranu je to nádherně kreslený školní psychologické drama o psychických problémech a jak se vlastně sami ničíme. Což autorka řeší skrze poměrně čtivé, ale někdy matoucí monology hlavní hrdinky.

Na stranu druhou to je ale zase klasický teen cringe, kdy se hrdinka Eva zamiluje do psychouše kterého uvidí zavraždit její spolužačku. A prakticky to celé je o tom jak ho chce a ví že je to špatně. Takže je tu prostě masturbace, sex a vše to působí stylem, že na tohle už jsem prostě starej 😀

Jinak jsem na posezení celé volumko přečetl a to hlavně protoze me bavila kresba a zajimalo me kam se pribeh vyvine a to i kdyz uz od zacatku tusite jak to skonci.

Fajn jednohubka s atmosferickou kresbou a fajn momenty, jinak ke to proste teen cringe :D

[Βαλάντης Δοξάκιερ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Macabre Themes, Immensely Gorgeous Art/Backround Settings/Character Designs & Art Style & very odd, disturbing but still warm & comfortable story & characters a lot!!!!
Raw meets the Breakfast Club(If you seen these 2 movies you will definitely understand completely why I am calling this book by mentioning these 2 films).

I just wish this book had more issues & a much better dsrker, bittersweet or a little more pleasant but not too much happy ending for Eva & Mackenzie with these 2 characters separately or together.

I really enjoyed a lot this comicbook graphic novel even for the settings that the storyline & plot of this book had taken place, this graphic novel reminds me a lot of french or even european in general comicbooks & graphic novels a lot.

[ZD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool. 4 stars for the art, very detailed, good sense of "cinematography," architecture, design and color. The story really wasn't there for me, felt like it needed more issues. Never been a big fan of the highschool/private school genre. Would love to see more stories set in the same place of Japaris or wherever it was. Has a dreamy vibe, more of an "ambient" comic, really appreciated the "pillow panels." A fast read, maybe too fast and may have missed some subtext. Some similarities to Faithless in the main character setup.

[July C. B · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 estrellas.

Esta novela gráfica ya desde la sinopsis prometía ser sangrienta y retorcida. Y lo fue. Va sobre una chica que descubre que el chico más popular de la escuela es un asesino al que le gusta el sabor de la sangre... y ella se siente intrigada por su red macabra. Obviamente, no es para el todo el mundo, y mi recomendación es que lean la sinopsis y vean qué les parece. Lo que sí me hubiera gustado es que fuese un poco más larga, para que la trama tuviese un desarrollo menos apresurado.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maria Llovet writes and illustrated what amounts to an extended origin story of sorts. But an origin of what, exactly? We don’t get a clear answer though we are given some good ideas as we watch isolation, desire and brutality toxify into something of a slow, sensual horror in what should be a garden of dreams, exquisite, evocative artwork shines throughout as we watch the inevitable unfold. Predation rarely looks this alluring. And only once we turn away from it do we see how ugly it really can be.

[Domenico Frezza · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heartbeat è un fumetto con tanto potenziale che a parer mio rimane inespresso, con una storia che nonostante incuriosisca molto finisce per cadere spesso nel banale.

I disegni sono molto particolari, li ho apprezzati particolarmente e alcune tavole mi sono rimaste molto impresse, anche se i primi piani sui personaggi sono quasi imbarazzanti sembrando modelli 3d pescati da un videogioco di terz'ordine.

Nel complesso è stata una piacevole lettura, abbastanza disturbante.

[Domenico Frezza · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heartbeat è un fumetto con tanto potenziale che a parer mio rimane inespresso, con una storia che nonostante incuriosisca molto finisce per cadere spesso nel banale.

I disegni sono molto particolari, li ho apprezzati particolarmente e alcune tavole mi sono rimaste molto impresse, anche se i primi piani sui personaggi sono quasi imbarazzanti sembrando modelli 3d pescati da un videogioco di terz'ordine.

Nel complesso è stata una piacevole lettura, abbastanza disturbante.

[Francesca Giardiello · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una Maria Llovet curata, colori evocativi e una storia drammaticamente poetica.
Un'immersione nelle perversioni, nei dubbi e nelle paure adolescenziali esasperate fra sangue e sensualità.
La ricerca dell'Io e del proprio posto nel mondo diventa un viaggio attraverso dubbi e porte che vanno via via chiudendosi. Heartbeat diventa un fumetto di crescita e formazione che ho letto con enorme piacere.

[Devon Munn · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I saw this was originally published in Spanish. Makes sense since the setting has a more European feel. Also common complaints I see of Maria Llovet's work is the amount of erotic content and I get that but for me I see no problem in regard to this artist specifically because it's part of her brand of art

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art was beautiful, even if the whole story was kind of fucked up. It's a romantic horror book about some fucked up people giving in to terrible impulses, playing with blood, and having some fucked up relation to the concept of death and blood. I love the perspective in each shot, the panels are cinematic and show a huge range of emotion from page to page.

[Ostrava · Rating 1 out of 5]

Muy flojo. Como a muchos otros el arte me ha parecido interesante, pero el guión deja bastante que desear...

Me imagino, claro, que este seguramente haya tenido prioridad sobre la historia, pero incluso de ser ese el caso, el arte no es lo suficientemente bueno o variado como para merecer una recomendación.

Lamentablemente no puedo decir que me haya gustado.