For any John Green fans out there, I’m sure Our Chemical Hearts is a fantastic book all about first love and teenage relationships. For me, a self-proclaimed young adult contemporary romance hater and someone who strongly dislikes John Green’s books, it was hell.
Now I know what you’re thinking: if you hate YA contemporary romance so much why did you read this? The answer? I was curious. I see this book every time I go to the supermarket and am consistently drawn to it. So, when I joined the Readers First programme and got the opportunity to receive a free book and this was one of the options I snapped it up in order to finally sate my curiosity. Also, it has fish on the cover. And I love fish.
Having now read the book, though, I wish I hadn’t. Never in my life have I been so angry at a love story. Normally I can grin and bear it or just roll my eyes for the entirety of the book. But this. This. There is nothing romantic or aspirational about Henry and Grace’s relationship. There isn’t even anything healthy about it. Henry is weird and, subjectively, obsessive, wanting Grace to either be someone she’s not or ‘fix’ her because he doesn’t want her to be depressed or grieving any more. He wants her to move on and focus solely on him but, newsflash, that’s not how grief works in a lot of cases. Grace, in her own way, is also weird and obsessive, but also unfair to Henry, using him as a stand-in for a lost love and trying her hardest to keep a dead person alive.
Because, yeah. There’s a heavy theme of death and grief throughout this book, despite the fact the Hot Key Books pie chart describes this story as ‘first love, bitter, and sweet’. In my opinion, there is nothing sweet about this first love, but it is plenty bitter and left a horrible aftertaste in my reading mouth.
And not just from the messed up romantic plot, either. I only ended up slightly liking one of the characters, as everyone in this book is a caricature of an adjective. Lola is ‘diverse’, Murray is ‘Australian’, Henry is ‘quirky’, Grace is ‘aloof’, Henry’s parents – as well as all the other adults mentioned – are ‘laid-back’, and Sadie is ‘punk’. I can’t even tell if this was done on purpose in a satirical, tongue-in-cheek way or whether it’s genuine. Either way, I couldn’t get on with the all the exaggerated mannerisms and speech as I’ve never actually come across people like Henry et al. in real life.
Perhaps the one saving grace is that Our Chemical Hearts isn’t a long book. But boy did it feel like it.
Now I know what you’re thinking: if you hate YA contemporary romance so much why did you read this? The answer? I was curious. I see this book every time I go to the supermarket and am consistently drawn to it. So, when I joined the Readers First programme and got the opportunity to receive a free book and this was one of the options I snapped it up in order to finally sate my curiosity. Also, it has fish on the cover. And I love fish.
Having now read the book, though, I wish I hadn’t. Never in my life have I been so angry at a love story. Normally I can grin and bear it or just roll my eyes for the entirety of the book. But this. This. There is nothing romantic or aspirational about Henry and Grace’s relationship. There isn’t even anything healthy about it. Henry is weird and, subjectively, obsessive, wanting Grace to either be someone she’s not or ‘fix’ her because he doesn’t want her to be depressed or grieving any more. He wants her to move on and focus solely on him but, newsflash, that’s not how grief works in a lot of cases. Grace, in her own way, is also weird and obsessive, but also unfair to Henry, using him as a stand-in for a lost love and trying her hardest to keep a dead person alive.
Because, yeah. There’s a heavy theme of death and grief throughout this book, despite the fact the Hot Key Books pie chart describes this story as ‘first love, bitter, and sweet’. In my opinion, there is nothing sweet about this first love, but it is plenty bitter and left a horrible aftertaste in my reading mouth.
And not just from the messed up romantic plot, either. I only ended up slightly liking one of the characters, as everyone in this book is a caricature of an adjective. Lola is ‘diverse’, Murray is ‘Australian’, Henry is ‘quirky’, Grace is ‘aloof’, Henry’s parents – as well as all the other adults mentioned – are ‘laid-back’, and Sadie is ‘punk’. I can’t even tell if this was done on purpose in a satirical, tongue-in-cheek way or whether it’s genuine. Either way, I couldn’t get on with the all the exaggerated mannerisms and speech as I’ve never actually come across people like Henry et al. in real life.
Perhaps the one saving grace is that Our Chemical Hearts isn’t a long book. But boy did it feel like it.