Jar of Hearts

Jar of Hearts is a 2018 psychological thriller by best-selling author Jennifer Hillier. The narrative centers the lives of former best friends Geo and Kaiser 14 years after the disappearance of Angela, the third member of their high school trio, as long-kept secrets emerge and embroil them once again in the chaos spawned by their traumatic pasts. With interlacing scenes from the past and present and an intimate look at Geo’s romance with a future serial killer, Jar of Hearts examines The Enduring Trauma of Violent Crimes, The Psychological Weight of Guilt and Secrets, and Manipulation and Control in Abusive Relationships. Hillier followed Jar of Hearts, which won the ITW Thriller Award and was shortlisted for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, with 2020’s Little Secrets and 2022’s Things We Do in the Dark.

This guide refers to the e-book edition of the text published in 2018 by Minotaur Books. 

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness and death, graphic violence, emotional abuse, physical abuse, child abuse, child sexual abuse, child death, sexual violence, rape, addiction, substance use, mental illness, suicidal ideation, cursing, and sexual content.

Plot Summary

When Angela Wong’s body turns up 14 years after her disappearance at age 16, Detective Kaiser Brody—one of Angela’s best friends—obtains the evidence he needs to identify and arrest Calvin James, a serial killer known as the “Sweetbay Strangler.” Kaiser learns that Georgina “Geo” Shaw, also best friends with him and Angela, was involved in covering up Angela’s murder. Geo testifies against Calvin in exchange for a reduced sentence; she’ll serve five years in a women’s prison. In her testimony, which leads to Calvin’s conviction for Angela’s murder and the murders of three other women, Geo reveals that Calvin was abusive and controlling. She admits that although Calvin alone killed Angela, Geo helped bury her body and covered up the truth about what happened to her friend. Her silence left Angela’s family and community in pain and without closure. Her silence also allowed Calvin to remain free and keep killing.

After Geo is raped on her third night in prison, she enters a partnership with Ella Frank, who runs the prison’s largest illegal drug operation. In return for protection, Geo provides Ella with financial services, including money laundering, which she orchestrates through phone calls with a “financial planner.” Geo works in the prison salon and befriends a woman named Cat Bonaducci, her first real female friend since Angela. Geo finds other ways to get by too, including a sexual relationship with a corrections officer that earns her small perks and comforts. 

Shortly after Geo begins her prison sentence, Kaiser tells her that Calvin escaped and is on the loose. Afterward, Kaiser keeps tabs on Geo, paying for reports on all her activities, phone calls, and letters. Though he’d felt sure that Calvin would try to contact Geo, he doesn’t find any evidence that she’s heard from the fugitive. The only noteworthy correspondence is a series of 10 letters sent to her from the same address, all signed with various superhero aliases. However, they turn out to be from a teen in foster care doing a social studies project about life in prison.

A few days before Geo’s scheduled release after five years in prison, two bodies are unearthed in the same location where Angela’s body was buried, in the woods behind Geo’s childhood home. One is a young woman whose body has been dismembered, just like Angela’s. The other is a two-year-old boy. A heart has been drawn in lipstick on the boy’s chest, as well as the words “SEE ME.” The victims are soon identified as Claire Toliver, a law student, and Henry Bowen, the child whom Claire gave up for adoption. The similarities to Angela’s murder lead Kaiser to suspect Calvin. He interviews Claire’s roommate and learns that Calvin dated Claire and is Henry’s biological father.

Flashbacks show Geo meeting Calvin when she was 16 and he was in his early twenties. She was enamored with his beauty and charm and fell in love. He became controlling and abusive, but Geo hid that fact from her friends. One Friday night, Geo and Angela got drunk at a party and decided to go to Calvin’s apartment, where they continued drinking and dancing. Geo passed out and woke up later to find Calvin raping Angela. When Angela threatened to go to the police, Calvin strangled her to death. Using threats and manipulation, he forced Geo to help him bury Angela’s body (though a later flashback reveals that it was her idea to dismember it). The next day, Geo told Angela’s parents and the police that she had last seen Angela at the high school party, and she pretended to help look for her. Guilt overwhelmed her over the following days, and she decided to confess. Before she had a chance, though, Calvin snuck into her room to say that he was leaving town. He raped her before he went, and Geo didn’t see him again until his trial, 14 years later.

Geo goes to stay with her father in her childhood home after she’s released from prison. The adjustment is difficult, and she finds that her criminal record and notoriety mean that nobody will give her a job or a home loan. Someone keeps painting hateful graffiti on her garage door and car. She begins spending time with Kaiser, who tells her about the murders of Claire and Henry and warns her that Calvin may come after her. Geo, who knows that Kaiser has always been in love with her, sees him in a new light now, and they end up sleeping together. Later, Geo hears from Kaiser that two more bodies were found and that Calvin was seen in town.

The newest victims are a young woman named Sasha Robinson and her four-year-old biological daughter, Emily. Sasha’s body has been dismembered, and Emily’s body has a heart and the words “SEE ME” drawn on her chest in lipstick. Kaiser learns that Sasha gave Emily up for adoption because of her drug addiction. Sasha’s grandmother identifies Calvin as Emily’s biological father. Kaiser thinks back to the months after Angela disappeared. Geo avoided him and then stopped coming to school for the rest of the year. The real reason why suddenly occurs to him; she was pregnant.

A flashback reveals that Geo chose the couple who would adopt her and Calvin’s child because they seemed incredibly loving and committed. The letters she received in prison but doesn’t read until her release tell a different story. Dominic, her son, experienced neglect and abuse under his adoptive parents’ care and then ended up in the foster system. He’s now 18 and wants to meet her. 

Geo needs to warn Dominic that he’s in danger because Calvin is finding and killing his biological children. She invites him over, but once he’s there, Geo senses that Dominic hates her and realizes that he killed Claire, Henry, Sasha, and Emily. Dominic attacks Geo and makes it evident that he plans to rape and kill her. She’s saved, however, by Calvin, who says that he came back to keep her safe. Geo retrieves the gun she hid under her pillow and kills both men.

Later, Geo goes to the cemetery. She visits Angela’s grave and then Dominic’s; the latter is buried next to Geo’s mother in their family plot. She knows that people won’t understand her need to show him the love she never could when he was alive, but she accepts it. She’s in a relationship with Kaiser now and pregnant with his child. For the first time since she was 16, Geo’s happiness outweighs her grief.