EVERY BORROWED BEAT

Convinced she’s identified her donor, a Utah heart transplant recipient investigates the girl’s life.

Four months ago, 17-year-old Sydney Wells got a second chance at life thanks to a donor’s heart. After some sleuthing, Sydney’s sure that donor is Mia Stoddard, who died in a flash flood. Compelled to learn about Mia so “this heart won’t feel like such a stranger,” Sydney crashes her memorial. There, Clayton Cooper, Mia’s best friend, asks Sydney to help him honor her by completing a vision board with a series of bucket list photos Mia took—the perfect opportunity for Sydney, who’s pretending to be Mia’s online friend, to gather information. As Sydney recreates the depicted scenes with Clayton and posts Mia’s photos on Instagram to inspire others to take risks, she realizes that “working on this Mia project has given me a purpose again.” But focusing on Mia threatens her long-distance friendship with fellow heart patient Chloe Munoz, who’s desperately awaiting a heart yet is always ready with advice. And if Clayton learns Sydney’s true motive for helping, their flirtatious budding romance could disappear. Stewart, a self-described “heart failure survivor,” poignantly explores the occasionally brutal realities of organ donation and transplant for patients and their families, particularly survivor’s guilt and grief. While Sydney and Clayton are multifaceted, Mia’s portrayal, which is filtered through others’ perceptions and the inspiration people derive from her life, occasionally feels less well-rounded. Most characters read white; Chloe is cued Latine.

Alternately heart-wrenching and heartwarming.