Reviews with content warning for Violence - Perfect Chemistry

This book provides such a good, clear example of living on the wrong side of the tracks. Where on one side you have gangs, and turf wars; and on the other you have rich houses and hidden problems. The love story between Alex and Brittany is so wonderful, and I loved seeing them get an upper hand on Colin. I also loved that the author didn’t pull her punches when showing that getting out of a gang is hard, and the lifelong consequences of that.

While also portraying gang violence, it also highlighted a family’s love for a member of their family with disability, and the story portrayed her with respect, and Shelley holds a piece of all her hearts.

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kanthereader's review against another edition

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Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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alexabyers's review against another edition

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challenging dark inspiring lighthearted tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Alex and Brittany

Brittany is the popular girl at school who is deemed to be living the perfect life but behind the house door, her world is in shambles constantly. Her older sister needs help from a caretaker, her mother critiques her every breath, and her dad is never around. She just wants some normalcy and to not have to be perfect 110% of the time.

Alex is from the other side of town. He is in the gang that took his fathers life but only because he has to to protect his mom and brothers. Brittany makes him want to get out but he knows he can’t otherwise he could be killed.

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daisha101's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I had high hopes, but found this disappointing. It’s filled with stereotypes and the characters lack depth.

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naewuvs's review against another edition

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lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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alexamp4's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This was a middle school fave. I remember finding it extremely hot and romantic and like aspirational (in the way twilight is aspirational). But wow it’s pretty racist. And ableist maybe? Lots of Latino stereotypes. Alex’s ex girlfriend, Carmen, is especially a poorly written character. I find it interesting the author thanked some Latino studies students/professors in her acknowledgements when I feel like she did a really bad job not just in overall representation but in writing dialogue in Spanish. I’m not a Spanish speaker but I think the line, “ ‘She might be a mamacita but she ain’t got nothing on this hombre.’” Is bad in any language. The dialogue in general was pretty bad.
I also think using Brittany’s disabled sister as a plot device to show how “bad” her home life actually is is pretty ableist. Although I will say I think the way Brittany and Shelly’s relationship was portrayed was a pretty good example. The choice to have Shelly choose to move to a “facility” is an interesting one that I’m not qualified enough to deem problematic or not.
Overall, this book has pretty shitty writing and I can’t even give it a good rating for what it is because of how racist it is. I’m interested to look up this author’s work now and see if she’s improved her representation at all. Although I definitely still see the appeal it had for tweens at the time but I think tweens now are too woke for this.

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