Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland

 

I originally purchased the brand new, hardback edition of Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland for a dollar at The Dollar Tree before the pandemic hit. This young adult novel has been sitting in my 'to be read' pile ever since.

The artwork on the dust jacket and the storyline for Our Chemical Hearts captured my attention, so I wanted to give this novel a try. Besides, who can pass up buying a new hardback novel for a dollar?

The start of the novel draws you in quickly and captivates your attention from the get go. The writing is really good and funny too at the start of the novel. I even enjoyed reading the text bubbles of the text messages between the characters throughout the novel, which was a nice touch.

Grace Town is an enigma at the start of Our Chemical Hearts. She's the new girl at school, walks with a cane and limp, and dresses in boys clothing. You want to know her backstory... and you know it's going to be a doozy of a backstory. Henry Page falls for Grace Town almost immediately and they start a friendship of sorts before venturing into a sort of romance... But it's Henry that falls for Grace pretty hard. Grace is, essentially, damaged goods and she breaks Henry's heart in the end. Our Chemical Hearts is all about first love, heartbreak, and how one heals after heartbreak.

The middle section of Our Chemical Hearts wasn't as exciting as the start, but the ending was wrapped up nicely enough to balance things out.

Below is the plot summary for Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland found on Amazon's website:

John Green meets Rainbow Rowell in this irresistible story of first love, broken hearts, and the golden seams that put them back together again.

Henry Page has never been in love. He fancies himself a hopeless romantic, but the slo-mo, heart palpitating, can't-eat-can't-sleep kind of love that he's been hoping for just hasn't been in the cards for him—at least not yet. Instead, he's been happy to focus on his grades, on getting into a semi-decent college and finally becoming editor of his school newspaper. Then Grace Town walks into his first period class on the third Tuesday of senior year and he knows everything's about to change.

Grace isn't who Henry pictured as his dream girl—she walks with a cane, wears oversized boys' clothes, and rarely seems to shower. But when Grace and Henry are both chosen to edit the school paper, he quickly finds himself falling for her. It's obvious there's something broken about Grace, but it seems to make her even more beautiful to Henry, and he wants nothing more than to help her put the pieces back together again. And yet, this isn't your average story of boy meets girl. Krystal Sutherland's brilliant debut is equal parts wit and heartbreak, a potent reminder of the bittersweet bliss that is first love.

P. S. I did see the movie version of Our Chemical Hearts, called 'Chemical Hearts' through Amazon Prime. Meh, the movie version wasn't good at all. So much was left out of the movie.

I am giving Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland a rating of 3 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!