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A review by mylxa
Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey
3.0
Reading this, I felt like I was reading a comic book. And I MEAN a comic book, not a cool "Graphic Novel". Just like Jessica's Guide, it was definitely pulpy, not high art, and DARN I got sucked in again. At the climax I was holding my breath a bit, and there was the "don't want to put it down" moment. I was happy with the ending.
The characters the author sets up felt just like those in Jessica's Guide, and it was a disappointing. My first thought was "Wow, her formula is very clear isn't it". There's a "good" but uncool girl who thinks she's unattractive. There's the cool "bad boy" who we are supposed to be unsure about. In both books, he's European with an accent. There's an "evil" girl who's the good girl's competition for the guy and life in general. Then, somebody who comes along to mess things up when the guy and girl get close. Lastly a dangerous adult figure that claim to reveal the guy's true, dark and unworthy nature, that the guy and girl have to deal with to be together.
Jill Jekel and Tristan Hyde are supposed to be an unlikely couple, and are brought together by a science project. They have another connection which they find out about later. The project is essentially to re-create the potion that transformed Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde. I felt that this aspect was unforgivably hokey. Drugs and alcohol are so present in the lives of young people; Plenty of those will "transform" a good kid into a bad one. Maybe Fantaskey thought that was too mundane.
I liked the mystery about Jill's father, and her connection to Tristan's father. I thought the conflict between Tristan and his father was interesting and effective. There was a true tension, and I was somewhat scared by their final confrontation. The small amount of violence that was part of this mystery felt very accurate. I can easily imagine someone dabbling in unknown substances to be dangerous. I don't think the story would have lost anything to call the problem a drug addiction, a mental illness or a personality-disorder. Again, too mundane maybe.
Jill's experimentation with the potion was funny; the extent of her transformation I guess was clever but not wholly surprising. There was a little bit of "sexy" going on in the story too, which was ok. THAT part, I felt like Fantaskey got right with regard to portraying real kids.
In the end, I think of it as essentially a romance novel. I do like my romance novels, it's true. But I felt like this one missed the opportunity to do something very clever with the Jekyll/Hyde set up. Oh well.
The characters the author sets up felt just like those in Jessica's Guide, and it was a disappointing. My first thought was "Wow, her formula is very clear isn't it". There's a "good" but uncool girl who thinks she's unattractive. There's the cool "bad boy" who we are supposed to be unsure about. In both books, he's European with an accent. There's an "evil" girl who's the good girl's competition for the guy and life in general. Then, somebody who comes along to mess things up when the guy and girl get close. Lastly a dangerous adult figure that claim to reveal the guy's true, dark and unworthy nature, that the guy and girl have to deal with to be together.
Jill Jekel and Tristan Hyde are supposed to be an unlikely couple, and are brought together by a science project. They have another connection which they find out about later. The project is essentially to re-create the potion that transformed Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde. I felt that this aspect was unforgivably hokey. Drugs and alcohol are so present in the lives of young people; Plenty of those will "transform" a good kid into a bad one. Maybe Fantaskey thought that was too mundane.
I liked the mystery about Jill's father, and her connection to Tristan's father. I thought the conflict between Tristan and his father was interesting and effective. There was a true tension, and I was somewhat scared by their final confrontation. The small amount of violence that was part of this mystery felt very accurate. I can easily imagine someone dabbling in unknown substances to be dangerous. I don't think the story would have lost anything to call the problem a drug addiction, a mental illness or a personality-disorder. Again, too mundane maybe.
Jill's experimentation with the potion was funny; the extent of her transformation I guess was clever but not wholly surprising. There was a little bit of "sexy" going on in the story too, which was ok. THAT part, I felt like Fantaskey got right with regard to portraying real kids.
In the end, I think of it as essentially a romance novel. I do like my romance novels, it's true. But I felt like this one missed the opportunity to do something very clever with the Jekyll/Hyde set up. Oh well.