Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott

Scott tackles an unusual ethical dilemma in her latest novel, Heartbeat. Seventeen year old Emma's mom, Lisa has "died" and is being kept alive on life support by her mom's new husband, Dan, so that their unborn baby son can continue to develop in-utero long enough to be delivered. Emma is horrified by Dan's apparent unilateral decision, believing that this is not what her mother would have wanted. "I mean, I know it's a baby and it's partly Mom, but I wish Dan had just once thought about what Mom would have wanted." 

Shortly after her mother and Dan married, Emma's mom began taking fertility treatments. She spent two years in fertility treatments before she finally succeeded in becoming pregnant. However as Emma's mother had previously had a blood clot in her leg, her pregnancy was not without some risk. Then one day, at twelve weeks into her pregnancy, Emma's mother was reaching for a piece of toast and collapsed.  She had a massive embolism in her brain.

Dan was given the option to turn off the ventilator or keep Emma's mom on it and save their unborn baby. He chose to try to keep his wife alive to save their unborn baby believing that this is what she would have wanted. But Emma is distraught because she feels Dan has chosen the baby over her mom, who has now been on the ventilator for almost four weeks.

Emma's anger over her mother's situation is so overwhelming that it threatens to destroy her entire life. She isn't on speaking terms with her stepfather, Dan, and spends most of her time at her friend, Olivia's home. Emma was an excellent student working towards gaining admission to one of the top ten schools with the goal of obtaining her PhD in history. Now she doesn't care about school, her assignments are late or not completed at all. And most of all she doesn't care about her ex-boyfriend, Anthony, the self-absorbed boy who made out with her and then dumped her.

But then Emma meets bad boy Caleb Harrison. Emma has already formed an opinion about Caleb who has a reputation at school for being a "total druggie" and who steals cars. He drove his father's limited-edition Porsche into the lake and watched it sink. When Emma goes to the hospital to see her mom, she runs into Caleb doing volunteer work. 

When Emma really looks at Caleb she realizes that he is sad, although she doesn't know why. Emma continues to encounter Caleb at the hospital and when they talk she realizes that he understands how she feels. As their relationship develops amid a shared loss, Emma discovers that Caleb's empathy and understanding give her the strength to confront her stepfather about what she's feeling and about what happened to their family.

Discussion  

Heartbeat considers a very specific medical situation, one which has been in the media recently, involving keeping a pregnant woman who has been diagnosed as "brain dead" on life support so that her unborn baby might have a chance to survive to viability. The concept of brain death is something Scott never directly addresses in her novel but it is central to the story and important to understand.

A person is declared brain dead when a specific set of criteria have been met. These criteria were  developed in 1968 by the Harvard Medical School specifically so that organs could be retrieved from living donors for transplantation. What many people do not know is that organs "harvested" from a dead person without a beating heart are unsuitable for transplantation because they deteriorate within minutes of death. For organs to be suitable for transplantation, the donor must have a beating heart and continue to breathe and must do so until the last organ, usually the heart, is removed.

While most doctors have accepted the brain death criteria, some doctors are now questioning both the neurological criteria for declaring brain death and its use. One of the main criteria used in declaring brain death is the apnea test where the patient is removed from a ventilator to see if they can breathe on their own. This inability to breathe is not necessarily a sign of death. A ventilator might be needed to aid in the patient's recovery and in some cases removal either causes more damage or results in the patient's death. Complicating the brain death issue is the fact that patients who have been given a diagnosis of brain death continue to behave as a living person; hair and nails grow, food is digested and expelled, unborn babies continue to grow. Are these patients truly dead?

Further complicating this issue are the countless situations related in the media over the past thirty years, of people declared brain dead, who regain consciousness sometimes immediately prior to a a planned procedure to have their organs removed. It appears that the current brain death criteria suggest doctors do not fully understand injuries to the brain and how the brain heals from these injuries.

Recently there have been several situations which have re-ignited the discussion around brain death - namely pregnant women who have been kept alive so that their unborn babies might grow to 24 weeks and be delivered. There is no doubt that these situations are terribly traumatic and complicated for the families involved. Each case must be taken on an individual basis as each pregnancy is different.

While this short novel doesn't go into all this detail, Scott does a good job of demonstrating how traumatic this situation is to Emma and her stepdad. It rips apart their relationship as both make assumptions about how the other felt about the wife and mother they loved and lost and what she was experiencing during the pregnancy and what she would have wanted for their family. It underscores the importance of having a power of attorney for personal care. This would have been especially important in Emma's mother's situation as she had prior health issues.

As Emma's life disintegrates, it is her relationship with Caleb that ultimately helps her get back on track, confront Dan about what happened when her mother collapsed, and what their relationship will be in the future. Although Emma's situation is difficult, Caleb's is tragic as his parents seem unable to cope in any way with the death of their daughter, Minnie. Their personal tragedies allow Caleb and Emma to forge a bond and develop a relationship that is both affirming and supplies mutual support. With Caleb, Emma can begin to grieve and this helps move her forward to the next steps of acceptance and hope.

Fans of Elizabeth Scott will enjoy the emotional drama in this novel, as will those readers who read Lurlene McDaniel's novels which focus on characters struggling with a chronic illness.

Book Details:
Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott
Don Mills: Ontario  HarlequinTeen    2014
244 pp.

Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott

The story of my life can be told in silver: in chocolate mills, serving spoons, and services for twelve. The story of my life has nothing to do with me. The story of my life is in things. Things that aren't mine, that won't ever be mine. It's all I've ever known.
I wish it wasn't.

Stealing Heaven is one of Elizabeth Scott's earlier novels, having been published in 2008. It's an unusual story about a mother-daughter burglar team told in the voice of the daughter, eighteen year old Danielle. All Dani can ever remember is a life of stealing. She's never had a permanent home, she's never had real friends, and she's never been to school. Danielle and her mother specialize in stealing silverware from the homes of the wealthy. They move from town to town, try to blend in, research the wealthy homes, rob them and then move on. Dani's father went to jail years ago and then never returned after he was released.

Dani's mother decides their next job will be in the small vacation community of Heaven. They find a cheap place to rent and Dani who uses the pseudonym "Sydney", is sent to the beach to learn what she can about the community and particularly the wealthy who own homes in the area. Meanwhile her mother spends time at the local bar picking up men and sorting through tidbits of gossip.

But as she moves around in the little community of Heaven, Dani begins to form real relationships, something her mother has never allowed her to do due to the nature of their lives. At the beach she meets the chatty Allison Donaldson, whose family is wealthy. Allison, who wants to be friends with Danielle,  has a crush on Brad whose family is not wealthy. Dani also meets good looking James who is Allison's brother, and who tries to get Dani's attention. But Danielle doesn't like James, whom she instantly recognizes as being similar to her mother.

The relationship that has the most effect on Danielle however,  is the one she has with a local cop, Greg Tollver. Danielle first meets Greg several times at the supermarket and then later on when he is on duty at a yacht club party. The last thing Danielle should be doing is attracting the interest of the local cop. But Greg is kind, funny, and Danielle finds she can talk to him. She tries her best to push Greg away, not telling him her name, and constantly answering his questions with her own questions. But Greg's persistence finally pays off and Danielle agrees to go to Edge Island with him for a date.

After meeting Allison and James at the beach, Danielle learns that her mother is interested in robbing a house owned by the Donaldsons and soon discovers that this is Allison's home.Her mother begins planning the robbery of the home and sends Danielle to work as a maid. They decide that the next time Danielle goes into the Donaldson house to clean she will steal their 200 piece 1840 silverware set and leave Heaven.

Despite her mother's plans, Danielle experiences tremendous guilt and conflict because doing the Donaldson job means she will be stealing from a girl who has been kind and befriended her and it also means that she will have to leave behind both Allison and especially Greg. Danielle doesn't want to leave Heaven. She wants to have a home and friends. But she also feels that she owes her mother everything since she has always been there for her and cared for her. Danielle must decide where he loyalties lie with her mother or with those who care for her in Heaven?

Stealing Heaven is one of the best young adult novels I have read. The title is reference to several things; first of course the fact that Danielle and her mother are in Heaven to steal and secondly it is a reference to a sculpture of the same name which Danielle sees at a museum near the end of the book.

There are two outstanding features of this novel. The first is that Scott is brilliant at creating realistic, witty dialogue. The dialogue between Greg and Dani is especially well done, often quite funny but sometimes very touching. The author is able to provide her readers with an understanding of the relationship between the two main characters through the use of dialogue - how Greg truly cares for Dani and how Dani is attracted to him but can't comprehend his feelings for her. This is in contrast to her relationship with her mother who uses Danielle and is very controlling and manipulative. Their relationship is defined by what is left unsaid. Danielle wants to tell her mother how she feels about the life they are leading but she can't.

Danielle's mother "Miranda" is a genuinely unlikeable character throughout much of the book. Although she claims she loves her daughter, she has chosen her way of life for Danielle without much thought as to what this will mean for Danielle as an adult. She assumes her daughter will make the same choices as she has. Danielle's mother uses people, including her own daughter, something Danielle is keenly aware of and tries to avoid doing. We get a sense that Danielle doesn't want to be like her mother.

"I remember how much she (Allison) likes Brad, a regular guy, a guy who doesn't even have connections to money. Mom would call Brad -- she wouldn't call him anything. He'd have nothing she could use, and so she'd never notice him."

The second outstanding feature of Stealing Heaven is the conflict the main character feels. Danielle is struggling because she doesn't identify with her mother's life as a petty criminal. When they arrive in Heaven, Danielle knows that she is supposed to maintain her distance and not get close to anyone. But both Allison and Greg are not like other people Danielle has met in her life. Allison doesn't judge people by how much money they have and Greg is the first man who has respected her boundaries and who has shown genuine concern for her. This leads Danielle to the understanding that she wants more from life; she wants to have a home, to have friends and a real job. Unlike her mother, Danielle wants to make connections with people that last. Her mother has lost her ability to trust and form lasting relationships because of what happened between her and Dani's father and also due to the nature of the life she lives. Danielle isn't quite so jaded yet - she knows only what her mother has told her. Consequently, she is able to take the risk to trust when challenged by Greg and as she discovers, she is not let down.

Greg's shortening of Danielle's name to Dani signifies the beginning of the change of her identity from Danielle a thief, to Dani who can be anything and who makes her own life decisions. Greg encourages her to simply stop stealing and to create a new life for herself. It is because of Greg's support that Dani is able to make the decisions she does when her mother becomes ill. She now has the opportunity to actively change her life for the better.

Stealing Heaven is wonderful story of redemption, hope and coming of age. This book was a 2009 Best Books for Young Adults choice.  You can learn about Elizabeth Scott and her other books at http://www.elizabethwrites.com/

Book Details:
Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott
New York: HarperTeen  2008
307 pp.

Miracle by Elizabeth Scott

Now they hugged me like I was made of glass. Not like I might break, but like I was something priceless. They didn't hug me like they use to and that's when I knew I wasn't Meggie anymore. I wasn't even Megan.

I was Miracle.

Megan Hathaway is the lone survivor of a small plane crash in the Round Hills National Forest. She is a miracle. Surviving with only superficial scratches, it soon becomes apparent that Megan's real injuries are hidden. When she awakes in the hospital, at first she doesn't really know what has happened to her and she can't remember the crash. When the doctor asks Megan if she can remember the plane crash she says she can because she can see the worry and fear in her parents eyes. Megan doesn't want her parents to worry about her because they already have so many problems with her younger brother, David, who has many health issues.


When Megan is offered counseling prior to leaving hospital she refuses saying she is fine. But when she returns to school things are not fine. Gradually Megan's trauma begins to manifest itself in various ways. Megan finds she cannot sleep, that she has no feelings whatsoever about anything, and that she doesn't really feel alive. Her friends find her withdrawn, detached and uncaring.

For Megan however, the way people now view her is distressing. Her parents continue to talk about how she is a "miracle" and her friends treat her differently asking her opinion about things they never would have before the accident. When they ask her about the crash, they want to know how she became a miracle.

Gradually Megan's distress escalates, affecting every aspect of her life. She has flashbacks of the accident and the terrible fire afterwards, and is afraid of trees. Her schoolwork suffers and she begins cutting classes. Her senior year of high school is unraveling fast and she is soon at risk of not graduating.

Strangely, her parents seem happy to ignore all of this, and pretend that everything is just fine. Megan, is after all, their miracle. God has touched their lives in a special way. Fortunately, there are two people however, who do help Megan in their own way; the handsome boy next door, Joe Reynolds, and a retired teacher, Margaret.

Joe lives with his father. His sister Beth, died as a result of an asthma attack, and because Joe was not home when Beth was stricken, his father blames him for her death. After Beth's death, Joe's family imploded, his mother left to live with another man and his father lost his job. Even after living ten years next to Joe, Megan realizes that doesn't really know him at all. Joe and Beth connect because they have both had to deal with death and the resulting family issues. Joe is still trying to process what happened to Beth, while Megan is trying to remember what happened and understand how she alone survived such a terrible accident. Both are still dealing with survivor's guilt. Both Joe and Megan are also trying deal with problems in their respective families as a result of the tragedies they experienced.

Margaret is a lesbian whose partner, Rose, has also passed away. Both women served in the Vietnam War and both women had trouble coping afterwards with what they experienced. Margaret helps Megan realize that she needs to talk about what she experienced and that she needs to do this with her parents and a counselor. At first Megan doesn't really listen, but she soon realizes that what Margaret is telling her is truly what she needs to do. Margaret, as a veteran of the Vietnam war, is speaking from experience. When Rose had trouble many years ago coping with her own experiences from the war, Margaret tried to pretend that everything was fine. But things weren't and it took Rose many years before she was able to process what had happened to her in Vietnam. It is Margaret who gives Megan both the strength and the permission to confront her family, especially her mother, with her feelings.

When she does finally confront her parents, Megan comes to understand why her mother has wanted things everything to be just fine. Megan was her miracle from God, from the very beginning. She was her proof that God forgave her for hurting her parents. And this miracle was reaffirmed when Megan survived the plane crash too. But Megan's mother realizes that by putting all this onto Megan, she has prevented her from healing from the tragedy. Together they decide to try to help each other and work through what Megan has experienced.

Miracle is a well written, short novel that evokes strong emotions in the reader. It tackles a difficult subject of post traumatic stress syndrome in a forthright and authentic manner. The two people who understand Megan's situation best are those who have experienced an unexpected loss and intense grief in their own lives.


Miracle provides young readers with a good insight into post traumatic stress disorder, a condition they might not be very familiar with but might be hearing more about given the return of soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq. For teens who like realistic fiction, Miracle is a great choice.

Book Details:
Miracle by Elizabeth Scott
New York: Simon Pulse    2012
217 pp.