Perfect Chemistry, by Simone Elkeles

In Perfect Chemistry , by Simone Elkeles writes the story of two teenagers - Alejandro (Alex) Fuentes and Brittany Ellis who live on opposite ends of the same town and attend the same high school. The book is written in alternating points of view so one chapter will be told by Brittany as the other is told by Alex. Brittany is a typical all- American , popluar cheerleader with a football player boyfriend and perfect life at first glance whereas Alex struggles to balance a job at his uncle's body shop, maintain decent grades so he'll be the first of his family to graduate high school, and look after his motherand two younger brothers. However, there's a catch- Alex is also a gang member and him and Brittany have just been assigned as Chemistry partners for the year and they can't stand each other. They are absolute polar opposites and can barely stand being in the same room together, so having to put together a project that determines their grade in the class without killing each other first is a difficult task.

 As the story progresses, we see that Brittany is anything but  the spoiled, selfish rich girl Alex thinks she is and that there's way more to Alex than his sterotypical "Mexicano " roots and ties to the gang as he begins to dig into the truth behind his father's murder. Simone Elkeles does a great job in making sure both Alex's and Brittany's voices are heard and lets the reader decide for themself what they think of each teen as an individual. It's the type of book you can barely put down to go use the bathroom for and I highly recommended it to both teenage girls and boys seeing as how there's everything from romance to gang violence and every second is action packed.

- Rita , grade 12.