Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey

Jekel Loves Hyde
by Beth Fantaskey

Genre: Young Adult | Supernatural Thriller | Romance

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, this good girl is tempted to peek inside, because the contents just might be key to winning a lucrative chemistry scholarship.

To better 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. As things heat up in the lab though, Jill’s accidental taste of a formula unleashes her darkest nature and will compel her to risk everything – even Tristen’s love – just for the thrill of being… bad.

Jill, a brilliant student, tragically lost her father and after learning some dark truths about him, must now win scholarship money to keep alive any hope of attending college. Tristen, an accomplished musician, is a British heart-throb, but deep down inside contains a dangerous monster just waiting to get out. Thus, both teenage descendants of the legendary Dr. Jekyll ( Jill Jekel ) and Mr. Hyde ( Tristen Hyde ) team up to recreate tricky experiments with the aid of an old box holding “original documents detailing the actual experiments that inspired the novel”. They both enter into their chemist partnership for different reasons, but soon realize things could never really turn out as they hope!

I had high hopes for this book since I thoroughly enjoyed Fantaskey's first book, Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, but this book just kept getting worse and worse. I don't mind a dark tale as long as it is a good tale, but this one was just too morbidly unsatisfactory for my taste. Rape, abuse, murder, depression . . . those are just a few of the grim subjects touched throughout the story. Also, I couldn't say I liked the main characters: Jill was either way too timid or too brassy & Tristen came off as too vigilant and intent on only doing what he wanted. I could go into a lot of detail here as well on how the writing style conflicted much of the plot, how unbelievable their romantic relationship developed and the unsatisfying ending, but won't since I'll just say I was sorely disappointed and begrudgingly finished the book even though I knew it would get a low rating.

Likes: Can't think of much since there was just too much sadness and self-pity going on throughout.

Dislikes: Lots, but mostly . . . contains really heavy topics . . . so don't expect a cheery or delightful read.

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