PERFECT CHEMISTRY

I have decided to change the book I'm reading. To Kill a Mockingbird was a bit to slow to read I think. I will probably read it at another occasion, maybe in the summer. The book I've decided to read is called Perfect chemistry. The writer is Simone Elkeles. The story is about a 17 year old girl named Brittany. She's from a rich neighborhood, and seems to be very confident. In fact, the first sentence in the book is: "Everyone knows I'm perfect". But behind the perfect image is a vulnerable girl. Her older sister Shelly is sick. She can't take care of herself, and constantly needs someone to feed her, wash her etc. The last year in high school, Brittany is paired up with the ultimate gangster boy Alex in chemistry class. He's from Mexico and is a member of a gang. He has two little brothers, and is working hard to keep them out of the gang. When he was a young boy, he saw his father being shot when he was dealing drugs, but the murderer was never caught. This has affected him a lot.

Alex and Brittany have an assignment and they need to work together the entire year. They hate each other so Alex decides to make a bet with his friends. He says that he can lure Brittany into his life, but the friends say he can't. The game is on. They come from two different sides of the community, they have different friends, different situations, but the more they work together the more they realize that despite all the cultural differences they are quite similar. They both struggle at home, and they start to find the support they need and have looked for their entire lives in each other. But it's not supposed to be easy. Brittany’s parents are strongly against the Mexican gang member, and Alex's mom is not too happy about seeing a white rich girl at their house. On top of that, there is the bet situation, so what happens? The gang life is dangerous, and this love affair results in someones death…

This book was amazing! It's one of my favorite books, and I finished reading it in 3 days. It was easy to read the book because of the clear structure. Everything is explained very well, and the reason I could follow the plot so easily is that every other chapter is Alex and Brittany's thoughts. When one thing happened, you could read both sides of the story, and this was an interesting twist on the book. Later I will post a double entry journal on the book where I will elaborate on the themes and conflicts in the book.

Sources:

http://onceuponabookcase.blogspot.com/2010/03/review-perfect-chemistry-by-simone.html