Jekel Loves Hyde review -- Beth Fantaskey

Title: Jekel Loves Hyde
Author: Beth Fantaskey
Pages: 282
Format: ARC

Jill Jekel has always obeyed her parents rules; especially the one about never opening the mysterious, old box in her father's office. But when her dad is murdered, and her college savings disappear, she's tempted to peek inside, as the contents might be the key to a lucrative chemistry scholarship.

To improve her odds, Jill enlists the help of gorgeous, brooding Tristen Hyde, who has his own dark secrets locked away. As the team of Jekel and Hyde, they recreate experiments based on the classic novel, hoping not only to win a prize, but to save Tristen's sanity. Maybe his life. But Jill's accidental taste of a formula unleashes her darkest nature and compels her to risk everything, even Tristen's love just for the thrill of being . . . bad.

Review:

This review is going to be short, because it's late and I'm very tired.

I do, however, have a few points to make, and I'm going to do so below.

1) The Writing
The writing in Jekel Loves Hyde is, well, good. I can't really say anything else about it. It's better than most tragic YA writing, yet it isn't purple. It doesn't compare to Nova Ren Suma's writing, but that's an entirely different story. Jekel Loves Hyde is a well-written book, let's put it that way.

2) The Characters
Jill Jekel is an interesting character, because she's kind of fun to read, yet she's a total dork and really quiet and intrapersonal. Tristen Hyde is a total music nerd, which is fun to read about, but Fantaskey made several references in the book to the way his fingers fit over his piano keys and how hard he pressed and other extraneous information, which slowed down the story. Tristen didn't have nearly the amount of energy and spunk as the guy love interest in Fantaskey's first book, Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, but he's still interesting enough to read.

3) The Story
Being as I'm not a total chemistry whiz, I found it hard to grasp most of the concepts of their project. I would rather have had their relationship be based around something else and not a chemistry project, because the whole school-project-brings-two-opposites-together thing has been way overused in fiction in general. Also, the ending was a little contrived and cutesy-happy for me, but, hey, you can't please us all!

Four Owls