52. Jekel Loves Hyde - Beth Fantaskey

Harcourt, 2010
HC $17.00
282 pgs.
For: YA
Rating: 3

I had such high hopes for this novel, Fantaskey's second, because I really enjoyed her first, Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side. However, it didn't quite meet up to my expectations. The story is about two young people who go through some incredible experiences together - and they are fun, crazy, surreal experiences - but the way they deal with them and the way they don't trust each other...or themselves...enough to really talk to each other doesn't seem real to me at all. I guess that's what bothered me, half the time their relationship seemed.....off..... Also, there were a number of situations that were never explained....

Jill Jekel's father has been murdered and her mother has had a breakdown. Tristen Hyde, a handsome classmate, comes to the funeral (it is never explained why) and assures her that eveything will be all right. She is quite drawn to him, as he is to her. They are both brilliant chemistry students, and both have secrets attached to their ancestry and Robert Louis Stevenson's book The Strange Case of Dr. Jekel and Mr. Hyde. They decide to try to recreate the formula that created Mr. Hyde, and of course, they do. Tristen has always had a "monster" within him that he wants to slay.

So with this mix of fantasy, reality, and a touch of Robert Louis Stevenson, the tale emerges. It IS better than yet another vampire book, and the scientific/comparison to the novel part of it was quite interesting to mull over. But even as I write this, more unanswered questions that took place within the plot are emerging. Hmmmm.