Book Review: "Beating Heart Baby"

Lio Min's debut novel is a heartbreaking (and heart-healing) story of queer teen love.

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I honestly had no idea what to expect going into Beating Heart Baby, the debut novel from Lio Min. It was the choice for this month of my queer romance book club, and the blurb sounded fascinating enough, so I figured that I would at least enjoy it. After all, what’s not to love about a teen queer romance between two boys who are in band together, one of whom happens to be trans? 

Suffice it to say that I was blown away by this book. While it is very much a part of the YA universe–a part of the publishing world with which I am only glancingly familiar–Min’s prose and their ability to immerse us in the viewpoints of the two protagonists is truly exquisite. From the moment we meet Santi (whose point of view occupies approximately the first third, we’re drawn into this heady world of teenage emotions, internet friendships, and music. Santi has had a bit of a hard life, but when he meets the moody and broody Suwa, everything starts to change for them both. 

Because we’re wedded first to Santi’s and then to Suwa’s point of view, this allows us to see how their lives have been shaped by their traumas. Each of them has endured quite a bit of difficulty at the hands of their family, and appreciated the way that Min was able to make us feel their angst and their difficulty without letting their traumas come to define their total personalities. Likewise, Suwa’s identity as a young transman is also a key part of his identity. In fact, it affects every aspect of his life, from his romance with Santi to his relationships to his father and his sister, to his body and his relationship with his music. It’s not every novel that can approach these issues with sensitivity and tact, but Min does so. Moreover, they manage to be inclusive without being trite or didactic. 

However, no romance novel would be complete without some form of conflict, and in this case it emerges from the characters’ past. Before the novel begins Santi had made friends with a mysterious person online, only for the whole thing to implode when his carelessness exposed his friend’s secret music to the world. I don’t think I need to tell you what the twist is here, but suffice it to say that it upends both of their lives, and the last two thirds of the book focus on Suwa as they first break up with Santi and move to Japan, only to find themselves drawn back to Los Angeles, where they have to figure out whether they want to get back with their boy best friend and what form they want their career as a musician to take. 

As much as Beating Heart Baby is a romance, it’s also about two young people trying to find their way in the world. This is the kind of book that hit all of my nostalgia buttons, making me wish that I’d had this kind of fiction when I was a teen in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s and that I’d had the kind of romance that Santi and Suwa are able to share. Because it’s clear throughout that, despite it all, these two characters love each other. They may not always be good at showing it, and they may sometimes fuck up (sometimes quite badly), but they always find a way to come back together. 

While Santi and Suwa are our primary points of identification, it has to be said that Los Angeles is as much a character as either of them. Throughout the book we follow Santi and Suwa as they make their way through this melting pot, and LA really does seem to come to life. Min’s obvious love of the city beats through every page, and the same can be said of music. Likewise, I loved that the characters' identities as Asian Americans is fully explored and given the depth it deserves (not always the case with romance, sadly).

If I have one complaint about this novel, it’s that there’s not a lot of follow-through when it comes to the dual point of view. After we leave Santi’s perspective at around the one-third mark, we never return to him, with our only access provided through Suwa. Now, I know this isn’t a traditional romance and thus doesn’t necessarily have to follow the beats, but as a reader I would have appreciated having a bit more insight into the transformation that Santi undertakes between the time that they break up and their reunion. Still, points to Min for taking some formal risks with the structure of the novel which, for the most part, manage to pay off quite well.

Other than that, though, I found Beating Heart Baby to be a truly extraordinary book, the kind that rips your heart and breaks it into a thousand pieces before painstakingly putting them back together. It’s the kind of book that was made for former band geeks like me swoon, and I’m not ashamed to admit that there were several points where I choked up and sometimes outright cried. Yes, dear reader, it’s that good.

I think what I appreciated most about this novel, however, was the extent to which it made us comfortable with ambiguity. By the end, it’s clear that Santi and Suwa have found their own sort of peace with one another and with their relationship, but it’s far from clear whether they’re going to be in this for the long haul or whether, at some unknown point in the future, they’ll once again find themselves on different paths. This, though, is one of the most realistic things about Beating Heart Baby. After all, none of us ever really know–particularly when we’re young–whether the person we’re in love with is the one we’ll stay with the rest of our lives.

Something tells me, though, that there’s a very bright future in store for Santi and Suwa.