Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Perfect Chemistry (Perfect Chemistry, Bk 1)

Perfect Chemistry (Perfect Chemistry, Bk 1)
GeniusJen avatar reviewed on + 5322 more book reviews


Reviewed by Emily Ann for TeensReadToo.com

Who says that southsiders and northsiders can't mix? Well, other than everyone at Fairfield High School on the outskirts of Chicago.

Northsider Brittany Ellis has everything any teenager wants: popularity, money, and good looks. On the surface, her life is wonderful, but her perfect persona is just a cover-up for her troubled home life.

Southsider Alex Fuentes has a bad-boy reputation, but all he wants is to get out of his gang and graduate.

When they are thrown together as chemistry partners, life starts to make more sense. Written from both Brittany and Alex's perspective, this story shows what's going on below the surface for each person as they break through stereotypes and expectations that threaten to keep them apart.

This is like a modernized Shakespeare story, and after reading hundreds of books with plots similar to Romeo and Juliet, some stories start to blur into each other. PERFECT CHEMISTRY is not one of those books. It was addicting and the story was vibrant. The characters came to life and it was like I was there watching the story unfold.

The way Simone Elkeles wrote the story was absolutely perfect.