Perfect Chemistry
I read Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles. The main character is Brittany Ellis. Brittany was perfect, her clothes were perfect, her family was perfect, her boy friend was perfect, and her car was perfect. Brittany’s life was perfect. At least that is what everyone thought at Fairfield High School. Brittany was the kind of girl who her appearance and what people thought of her was VERY important to her. Since her 20-year-old sister was “retarded” she felt she had to be even better to make up for her sister. Her mother’s opinion also mattered a lot to her, considering she looked just like her, just a forty-year-old version. Even if Brittany didn’t get an A on a test, her mother would call the school and work something out, just so she could go to “the perfect college,” she wouldn’t want to have anything that wasn’t perfect on her permanent record. Brittany was the captain of the cheerleading squad and she was dating the captain of the football team, Colin Adams. They were the “Golden Couple.”
It is not that Brittany was full of her self, because she wasn’t. She didn’t try to make other girls jealous, or try to get attention. She never wanted the image of being “perfect.” Since everyone thought she was, she thought had to live up to it. Brittany basically was just “perfect” at school. When she came home everyday after school she turned into a different person and helped her sister, she mothered her.
Brittany is a dynamic character, above that is was she was, until she met Alex Fuentes. He completely changed her, she went to not caring if her eyeliner wasn’t perfect, or even if someone else thought she wasn’t perfect. She just kind of stopped caring. The thing was Alex was in a gang; he was a part of the Latino Bloods. Dating him, made her not perfect. Brittany still had a head on her shoulders; she still planed on going to Colorado State, and was majoring in Chemistry.
About half way through the book Brittany is her self. Not who everyone wanted her to be. She shows the rebellious side of her and learns a lot more about her self. She doesn’t need designer clothes, all A’s, and the perfect everything to have a good life. Brittany can look in the mirror and be confident that she doesn’t need to wear 5 pounds of make up to be pretty. She knows now that all it takes to be pretty is to be confident and be yourself, not who everyone wants you to be.
I did not like the book Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles, I loved the book. One of the reasons I liked it so much is because Brittany gives up so much for Alex, and Alex gives up so much more for Brittany. Such as Brittany gives up Colin, ever since he came back from being on vacation things are different so they pretend that everything is okay so they can be the “Golden Couple.” She breaks it off with him and leaves her perfect image for the gang banger Alex. Hector, the head of the Blood wants Alex to do a very dangerous drug deal. Alex said from the beginning when he joined the Blood he would never do any drug deals. He had to do it to save his family though. Brittany hates the idea of this and says it will never work if he does it. If the end of that, he finds out he was set up. Thankfully he didn’t do the drug deal, or he would have been dead.
Ten months later after Alex shows up in her life again and tells her he never did the drug deal. I love the fact Alex gave up so much just to be with a girl. It shows how much he really loves her and wants to be with her forever.
I also didn’t like things about the book Perfect Chemistry too. One thing would be that how Alex started going after Brittany. It all started with his friend Paco. Paco bet Alex he couldn’t get in Brittany’s pants before Thanksgiving. If Paco won the bet he got Alex’s motorcycle. If Alex won the bet he got Paco’s car. I think that is terrible, Alex was using Brittany to get a car. When Alex finally wins the bet it isn’t so funny anymore. Alex actually fell for Brittany and now if Brittany found out about the bet she most likely would not be in his life anymore.
