Review: Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey

I just read Beth Fantaskey's brand new novel, Jekel Loves Hyde, through Around the World Tours. It was released this month, and is Fantaskey's second novel, after the wonderful Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side (you can read my 5/5 star review for that here).

Summary: Jill Jekel's a high school student, a "good girl," whose life is taking some bad turns as of late. Her father, a renowned chemist, was just murdered, and involved in some mysterious business that involved him taking her college savings right before his death. When her chemistry teacher nominates her to participate in a prestigious chemistry contest that could earn her a college scholarship, she decides to go for it. He also nominates the "brooding" and elusive Tristen Hyde, who Jill teams up with. Together, they discover that the novel of Jekel and Hyde may not be entirely fictional, and that Tristen may really be partly mad, like Mr. Hyde. It's then that they decide to look into Jill's father's secret past to try and recreate the formulas from the novels... and then... they start to drink them...

My Thoughts: What a fun and original premise for a novel, and very clever! I was really looking forward to reading this one as I loooved Jessica's Guide. I wasn't necessarily let down, but this story was a lot different than what I had anticipated. It wasn't light and cute like her previous novel, but very dark instead. It shows the more evil side of human nature. To me, this was a far more serious book than Jessica's Guide, which made me laugh a lot. This book didn't make me laugh at all, but it did keep me very intrigued, as it is part mystery - who killed Jill's father and why? Is the Jekel and Hyde story really true? I really enjoyed those mysterious aspects of the book and also the romantic entanglements of Tristen and Jill.

The Bottom Line: This is not light like Jessica's Guide - this is a dark but intriguing tale full of mystery!

My Rating: 4/5