Heartthrob

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Second-life is Hell.

EJ, a young and dead secretary, struggles to find her place amidst the turmoil of an unforgiving dystopia. Romance, intrigue, strife, and the violence of neo-modern life all take their toll on the ghoulish debutante as she tries her best to stay sane and safe. Tensions are high and climbing by the second within her home city of Vitus, and all she can do is try to stay afloat. Between finding peace with her own unlife and the attentions of the city's denizens, can she avoid being drowned in the rising tide?

A dark romantic thriller for mature audiences. Enjoy responsibly.

Updates come out on Saturdays, at 8:30 PM CST, for that authentic nighttime feeling.

Part one availablehere for purchaseon Amazon! EBook and paperback formats! Great for fans of toxic yuri, cyberpunk, protagonists who suffer, and character-driven stories!

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2024
Author: MarcieTheVillain

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 764
Views: 78,118

Chapters(89 total)

What readers say about Heartthrob

“The best way I could describe this is, if you like the comic book "Fables" you're gonna love this. A thriller mistery featuring mythical creatures acting as regular humans while going through the stress of their daily lives and the problems that come with i…”
Breno RanyereRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“A creeping dread works it's way through this rollercoaster of a work. Set against a dystopian capitalist hellscape where even after you've been worked to death, you can keep working in undeath. Our protagonist is a cute little ball of anxiety and dysphoria,…”
GhostlyGooseRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

Breno RanyereRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The best way I could describe this is, if you like the comic book "Fables" you're gonna love this.
A thriller mistery featuring mythical creatures acting as regular humans while going through the stress of their daily lives and the problems that come with it...
While also dealing with a couple of supernatural elements.
The way things are described is very detailed and expressive. Everything feel like it has a meaning and a personality, making the world and setting feel more real as if the reader was there.
I was a bit put off by the cast's rather foul way of speaking but got used to it very quick.
This is honestly not my kind of thing, not a big fan of thriller, sex scenes, and people being rude to each other all the time... But its just told so well that it kinda helped me keep reading it.
My only major problem is that some of these paragraphs really could use a cut or two.
Overall, not my kind of thing, but even I can recognize that there is a lot of effort and skill behind it.
Recommend it if you are a fan of heavy dramas in fantasy settings.
GhostlyGooseRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A creeping dread works it's way through this rollercoaster of a work. Set against a dystopian capitalist hellscape where even after you've been worked to death, you can keep working in undeath. Our protagonist is a cute little ball of anxiety and dysphoria, who just needs someone in her lif. Unfortunately for her everyone needs to get ahead somehow and that means using each other. Every source of comfort is poisoned, we know it she knows it, but alas how can one decline a brief escape from life (or unlife). Sexual, emotional and violent thrills that drop to a state of tension. Overall fantastic work.
GrimDuxRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
all the good reviews in my opinion.
Marcie builts a very interesting story here, starting small and deceptively works following a not often used trope of getting too intimate to our main characters very early.
Uncomfortably intimate for some, I will venture a guess, but it is as I said early. Personally I found the much hyped scene, beautifuly written.
Moving on.
Early is a key word here. Vitus is a big world/ city, lively, bright and dark at the same time, a neon dystopia that whispered Blade Runner to my senses. Because it does play with the readers senses.
Very descriptive, with the author giving a helping hand (much more than I believe is perhaps prudent at times) but never really missing the point and getting us out of a scene. Quite the contrary, every character, every place and most actions are well-described, rich decorative language is used, when it is proper and we get to learn our protagonist very well.
The themes are many and birthed mostly out of our 'heroine's' agst over her life's troubles. Real problems that deal with personal demons, acceptance and the strive of all beings for success, survival and a chance at happiness in life.
The world is large and I expect more will be revealed as it is still too early in the story. Set in modern times, it remains grounded giving us glimpes of life in Vitus. More political intrigue is unveiled with each chapter. As are the antagonists. I won't spoil it here and will leave this part for when I will edit this review to an advanced one.
Extremely well crafted prose but for minute details. No editing problems worth of note and the style, while thick and condenced, lessen's in later chapters. I will again have to read more here though.
It is a story for people with an open mind and heart. It won't shy away from 'difficult' scenes or topics. It will drive ahead, sensual and descriptive as if to shout to the heaven's: there's no borders to what a person should enjoy or what can be stimulating.
Or humorous.
"Safe word
Hi_Im_RenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Oh gosh, I really shouldn't rave like this but dang! I absolutely loved my time with this, every second of it. I can't give this less than 5 stars, I simply can't! I want to give it 6 stars but that isn't possible so I'll settle for this.
This fiction has one of the coolest concepts I've ever seen, Cyberpunk+Undead and it wasn't even halfway through the first chapter that I was completely sold on this world (I went to bed thinking of how economics would apply to this world, that's how deep I went into the rabbit hole) In only the four chapters I read, I fell for the characters so hard with their hidden complexities oozing out. The imagery is amazing too, I feel like I could see everything. I just really loved this fiction, Heartthrob Fridays are going to be a thing for me now.
I do feel like there are things that could be improved, however, even with the few things that occasionally threw me off it's still my personal favorite on RR (at this time)
Go read this now, it's too good to pass up.
JMMatheisRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
*Firstly, this is a no spoiler review.*
Heartthrob… if there is one word I could use to describe it so far, it would be “vivid”. I think that every word I could use to describe MarcieTheVillain’s writing could have that one word attached in its various forms. She is definitely demonstrating a firm and bold hand at utilising the genre and I am looking forward to seeing where it goes.
Style:
The style, it IS style, It screams style, in all the different facets of the second-life that is being portrayed. The descriptions and imagery that the author utilises has caught me going back more than once just to make sure I read it correctly. Marcie wields similes with slick grace and dark humour, turning what would normally be a mundane description into a glorious parade of energetic, yet gritty imagery. The first chapter and that description of the main character’s death!!! One line of dark humour painted a picture of a thousand words that has me chuckling to myself even now.
The style itself at the moment brings to mind hard-boiled, film noir with the inner narrative and voice, but without the detectives and cops. While in opposition, at times it screams sensuality and in the next breath, whispers sensitivity.
Those descriptions of food I just read…
Story:
The story is moving along at a well-defined pace. Considering everything that is being packed in, Marcie is demonstrating great control of the pacing.
The story itself is linked inherently to style, the world she is painting is surprisingly deep and well imagined with an easy to relate to and understand take on modern society (with a twist). I do not want to do any spoiling here so I will just say that it is well conceived and despite it not being my usual read, this got me hooked within the first two paragraphs of the first chapter.
Tension and foreshadowing are used well and to great effect! Exposition is cleanly implemented and feels like it an organic part of the story.
Characters:
The characters… There is a lot of de
KathyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I have to say that this was really enjoyable to read. The story and the world are original and intruiging, and the writing makes it so immersive. There were a few points where it could have been better, but I think that feeling comes from the exceptional standards the writer sets for the readers from the start.
The style excels at description. Occassionally it slips towards the purple, but only rarely and usually with intent. Descriptions are often original and interesting too rather than formulaic, which I really enjoyed. Food is described with luxurious detail because the main character is a zombie, and it adds to their perspective. The dialogue feels genuine. It's a luxuriously immersive read, and never feels info-dumpy.
The story really ramps up as it goes along, and more and more of the world is shown off. There are so many directions where this story can go, and I'm excited for all of them.
The character of CJ is very well done. At the beginning of the story, I will say she has more passive elements to her actions than active, but I feel that this will become a character arc for her to take control of her life as it goes on. The side characters have really strong personalities and I'm just excited to see more of them.
I'm really looking forward to reading more, and highly recommend it to anyone who likes the undead, evil corporations and neon lights.
CShadrockzRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I reviewed this at chapter five - The story is well-written and absolutely engaging from the first chapter. The prose is unique, carrying passive sentences to demonstrate the passiveness of our main character. The story itself is nice, and paced well with great imagery. Some things could improve like more showing vs telling in the narration, especially as more scenes unfold and new characters are introduced. Another note is to give more distinction in the narration when the perspectives change, only because the first perspective of our main character is so defined and distinct, I craved seeing how it switches between the characters.
The fifith chapter so far is my favorite and a great catch/hook for readers not sure if it's a story that'll keep them captivated or not.
Overall, a good read and visceral.
KaibaHoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
It was slightly tough for me to read due to how thick the paragraphs were, but overall it's a pretty interesting story. I haven't read/watch a lot of stories like this. This isn't a story I would personally read, but I would recommend it to others who like stories like this.
Style - Overall, the style of writing is fine. It's descriptive, and chuncky. Not in a bad way, but in a way where there's a lot information and background. I found myself grazing through larger paragraphs, and I had to stop myself several times and go back. Though my only one, not quite a complaint, is that the dialogue of different people are mashed together. "person one speaks" "person two speaks". Instead of:
"Person one speaks"
"Person two speaks"
But that looks like it's a problem only exclusive to chapter 1.
Grammar - I didn't see anything wrong with the grammar, or it sticking out.
Story - It's kinda your basic love story. You get a good idea of what the world is like and they're are no short cuts in describing the world. The motivation of the character, even though it's simple, is very understandable have a nice day. Who doesn't want to not lose their job?
Character - The characters felt a little bland to me, nothing really sticked out. EJ give me a regular person, well as regular as you can get with being dead and all, someone who's not trying to stand out.
Ria CorvidivaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
In the not-too-distant future, death is no excuse to stop living, or stop working. Neo-feudalism has returned to a capitalistic hellscape, where fiendish vampires reign over a city of humans and the lesser undead unfortunate enough to have to trade soul-sucking drudgery to prolong their second lives.
It is here that we meet Esper James, or EJ, as she prefers, an accountant and office drone desperate to win the accolades of her boss, the domineering (in very much a dominatrix way) vampiress Judas.
Over the first third of the story, we are introduced to two other leads, the human necrophiliac 'dancer' Puri, and Est, a cybernetically-modified woman from neo-Italy serving as a soldier in the Pope's Holy Army, a crusader sent to cleanse the disease of undeath wherever it sprouts.
I won't say that I know enough about the romantic thriller genre to comment on how it varies from the genre's constructs, but the author has expertly constructed a series of vivid images of the gritty, grimy, fleshy dystopian underworld with enough intrigue and suspense to leave readers questioning: just where do EJ's loyalties lie, and do any of her flings, prospective lovers, actually care about her, or just how they can use her for her own ends.
I find myself wanting a little more backstory into how this world developed from our modern one, though that's a personal sticking point.
No serious grammatical issues, although there were a couple of word choices I was unsure about (syncopate -> synchronize?), and though the genre is not necessarily my go-to, the story provides enough to leave me wanting more, wondering where and when these conflicting interests and lusts will boil over, and who will be left alive, or unalive, as the case may be, when the dust finally settles.
Plus, we all need more stories with sapphic characters, and that alone makes this worth it, in my admittedly very biased opinion.
WoodenDrumRhythmRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Don't get me wrong - this a great novel. The... scene was entertaining to read, if you know what I mean... however, I'm not sure if it's because this novel is young or maybe it's just me, but I don't see how the few early chapters will tie into what the synopsis is suggesting - mainly the recent cases of dead mentioned.
I don't know. I really mean this in the nicest way possible, but the first few chapters seem like a bit of filler when you take into account the synopsis. Hopefully author can tie it all together and make me look like a stupid dumb hater.
A promising novel with great grammar and word choice. Personally, the formatting of chapters isn't for me as I generally need bigger spaces between sentences and I do prefer separating dialogue/ inner monologue from actual sentences.
But who am I to judge? To each his own, and I can definitely see why this novel is rated so highly.
Lub it, Marcie. <3