review: our chemical hearts

Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland reminds me of a lot of other YA contemporary books I've read; a mashup of bits from All The Bright Places, Papertowns, Eleanor & Park, The Start of Me and You, and When We Collided. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because at the same time it did have its own touch and overall i actually quite enjoyed it! I received this as an advanced reader's copy and I am rating it 4 out of 5 stars. 

Synopsis from Goodreads:
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.  

I think my favourite thing about My Chemical Hearts is the narration by the main character Henry. He has a fun and refreshing personality that I haven't read much of in YA. Henry is definitely not perfect and can be very naive at times, but he's sassy and hilarious and i think I'd love being friends with him. He's not the hot dreamy perfect guy but he isn't a loner or anything either and I guess it's refreshing to read about a somewhat normal guy.

There were a LOT of literary and movie references mentioned and although some were a little bit trying too hard, I actually knew most of them and absolutely loved the Harry Potter ones! There's this one page of accurate and absolute genius where two of the characters have a message conversation about one of them not having read Harry Potter. Definitely my favourite page, i laughed so hard at how relatable that scene was.

There was discussion about life and death and oblivion and love and redemption and grief. I loved it. It was pretty deep, but it was a depth that i could still understand and appreciate and i really liked it. I like one of the character's(Sadie) opinion about love. I also quite like how it ended; it didn't seem cliche. I thought it was realistic and honest. I've been coming across books discussing about grief a lot lately, and the way one of the characters in this book dealt with loss seemed pretty extreme but eye-opening. I liked that it was a different angle of grief than what I've read about before.

My Chemical Hearts comes out in September and I would definitely recommend this book if you haven't gotten tired of the same YA contemporary plotlines, but even if you have, Our Chemical Hearts still has its own charm with the witty characters and semi-deep discussions. I read most of it in one sitting and probably would reread it someday.