A couple days ago I finished reading the debut young adult novel Our Chemical Hearts written by Krystal Sutherland. Having watched the film adaptation a few weeks ago and being rather disappointed with how cringe-worthy it was, you’d think I’d be nervous about reading the source material, but I wasn’t! In fact, more than half way through the film both my friend and I agreed that this book was probably infinitely better, and it was!
To be fair, both the lead characters were incredibly irritating human beings, but I suppose most teenagers probably are. Grace’s hang-ups I understand more than Henry’s, but she was still being completely unfair to him, and maybe a little bit selfish. Though having never experienced any degree of trauma really, I guess I cant judge her actions too harshly. Also, I realize that Henry was experiencing his first love, but she gave him so many red flags! Hopeless romantic, indeed. There was definitely more to their characters than the movie presented, but that’s to be expected in a novel. More space for more depth.
Another thing I liked about the book was the time spent with his friends. Both Muz and La are really good friends and they are always there for each other, which I suppose could be a little unrealistic, but there needed to be some sort of positive distraction from the trash fire that was Grace and Henry’s relationship. Yes, they tried to steer him away from the flames, but there’s only so much someone can do. Either way, I really liked their closeness, and I felt like the film could have capitalized on that. Oh, well. Missed opportunity.
Overall, the film was able to capture the base of the story, but sort of ignored a lot of the details. In this case, obviously, the book was much better and I recommend it as a strong young adult entry to get your hands on. A nice debut from Sutherland and I look forward to what comes next from her.