Jekyl Loves Hyde **

Jekyl Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey
This is the second published book by a journalist turned writer. Her first book, Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side was a fresh, fun, high school vampire novel. Jekly Loves Hyde is based loosely on The Mysterious Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. This is not the fresh, witty romance that her first novel is. There are parts of this book that are too dark.

Amazon.com Review

Product Description
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.

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—This melodramatic romance updates Robert Louis Stevenson's classic story. At the funeral for her murdered father, obedient, studious Jill Jekel is shocked to find herself comforted by a kiss from bad-boy Tristen Hyde. Then, at the encouragement of Jill's chemistry teacher, the two team up to work together on a project that could win Jill a hearty scholarship. Tristen, sure that he is descended from the original Mr. Hyde—a real person on whom Stevenson apparently based his classic novel—is desperate to cure the evil he feels growing inside himself. Believing that Jill's father had been investigating the original Jekel's sinister formula, Tristen manipulates Jill into breaking into her father's study and helping him create a new formula to fight his violent urges. Chapters from both teens' perspectives are narrated in moody, overwrought prose, perhaps as a nod to the gothic novel. Though the author satisfyingly builds and resolves the story's romantic tension, readers are left with key questions unanswered. Why is Jill tempted to drink a formula she knows will unleash evil? Why does the same formula that makes Tristen murderous merely make Jill sexually forward? And is finding love with the boy who drugged Jill's mother and repeatedly controls Jill's actions really a happy ending? Teens who enjoy brooding love stories will not be disappointed; those looking for an independent heroine will need to search elsewhere.—Megan Honig, New York Public Library
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Reading level: Young Adult

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books; 1 edition (May 3, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152063900
• ISBN-13: 978-0152063900