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caremary624's review against another edition
5.0
I think this book was written just for me! It was EVERYTHING I love in a book. It was an angsty teen romance with a sprinkle of the walking dead and a whole lot of hilarity thrown into the mix. I laughed out loud several times while reading. Twilight meets Warm Bodies meets something totally different....
Stella is a plus sized, foul mouthed powerhouse of a heroine with insecurities that make her super relatable. The Blunt family relocates to Vancouver and Stella sparks the interest of the weirdest kid in school, Howard Mullins. Howard is a sweet, nice guy who has a slightly creepy obsession with Stella but a great match for her (well other than the fact he is undead). I mean he does love her for her brain after all...
The best characters in whole book were Stella’s parents — seriously, as a parent, I want to be them!
I leave you with this little gem— “I was in the zone. I felt graceful, like a fairy with a magic wand, except my wand was a chainsaw that scattered brains instead of sparkles.”
This book was an entertaining pleasure to read.... thank you for being free on kindle unlimited because I am not sure I would have found it if it weren’t.
I will absolutely be reading the sequel!
Stella is a plus sized, foul mouthed powerhouse of a heroine with insecurities that make her super relatable. The Blunt family relocates to Vancouver and Stella sparks the interest of the weirdest kid in school, Howard Mullins. Howard is a sweet, nice guy who has a slightly creepy obsession with Stella but a great match for her (well other than the fact he is undead). I mean he does love her for her brain after all...
The best characters in whole book were Stella’s parents — seriously, as a parent, I want to be them!
I leave you with this little gem— “I was in the zone. I felt graceful, like a fairy with a magic wand, except my wand was a chainsaw that scattered brains instead of sparkles.”
This book was an entertaining pleasure to read.... thank you for being free on kindle unlimited because I am not sure I would have found it if it weren’t.
I will absolutely be reading the sequel!
fangirljeanne's review against another edition
3.0
TW: ableism (really clumsy and ignorant discussion of autism among the characters that is not challenged)
DNF
I really enjoyed the writing. The fat rep was great and especially meaningful for me as I was a lot like Stella when I was a teen. I especially enjoy the banter between Stella and her parents (who are both present, alive, and fleshed out characters in their own right). It is especially enjoyable for me because of my familiarity with Twilight.
Sadly, it’s riddled with intellectual ableism (Tbf no more than most media), but the way the characters talk about love interest possibly being autistic paired with the way very common autistic behavior is characterized as soulless, creepy, or as sign of low intelligence made it too difficult for me to keep reading.
I think this would be a very enjoyable read for a (white) fat neurotypical YA fan. A fun twist on a lot of beloved Paranormal Romance tropes.
PS I felt a little weird about the monster man who wants to eat the human girl trope applied to a fat girl. It feels fetishistic, though it’s obviously not the intent of the text. This might just be my own experience of being a fat woman of color where metaphors of consumption are heavily intertwined in how our bodies are romanticized and are rooted in our bodies being commodified for consumption of white colonizers. Ymmv
DNF
I really enjoyed the writing. The fat rep was great and especially meaningful for me as I was a lot like Stella when I was a teen. I especially enjoy the banter between Stella and her parents (who are both present, alive, and fleshed out characters in their own right). It is especially enjoyable for me because of my familiarity with Twilight.
Sadly, it’s riddled with intellectual ableism (Tbf no more than most media), but the way the characters talk about love interest possibly being autistic paired with the way very common autistic behavior is characterized as soulless, creepy, or as sign of low intelligence made it too difficult for me to keep reading.
I think this would be a very enjoyable read for a (white) fat neurotypical YA fan. A fun twist on a lot of beloved Paranormal Romance tropes.
PS I felt a little weird about the monster man who wants to eat the human girl trope applied to a fat girl. It feels fetishistic, though it’s obviously not the intent of the text. This might just be my own experience of being a fat woman of color where metaphors of consumption are heavily intertwined in how our bodies are romanticized and are rooted in our bodies being commodified for consumption of white colonizers. Ymmv
celeste57's review against another edition
5.0
You can find this review and more at Novel Notions.
If you put Warm Bodies and Twilight in a blender and add a heaping helping of sarcasm, you would end up with Chemistry. It’s billed as a “sassy, body-positive, snarky twist on Twilight,” and it is absolutely the truth. I love the Twilight Saga and probably always will; it’s incredibly addictive and one of my ultimate guilty pleasure reads, even though I know it’s problematic on multiple levels. But Lynch added an element to her parody that was missing in the original; humor in droves. While Twilight might make you giggle or roll your eyes in places, it never made me physically bust out laughing, which this book did countless times.
Stella, our main character, is a plus-sized teen who knows kung fu, but her greatest weapon is her bitingly sharp sarcasm. This girl is crazy smart, and fully embraces who she is, even when she’s bullied by others for her size. Her confidence was what I was hoping to see in Seanan McGuire’s Beneath the Sugar Sky, which fell very flat for me in this regard. Chemistry didn’t let me down. Stella Blunt is everything Bella Swan should have been in Twilight; she’s strong and smart and snarky and unerringly sees the value in herself. She doesn’t need someone to take care of her. Stella’s confidence in herself leaped off the page, and that confidence and her amazing brain attract some unwanted attention in the form of the biggest loser in school: Howard Mullins.
Howie is everything that Twilight’s Edward should have been, as well. He’s respectful and thoughtful and kind, a chivalrous gentleman caught in the wrong era. He isn’t at all pushy or controlling, and would happily settle for Stella’s friendship if that’s all she decided to offer. While Edward is a more attractive male lead, Howie is the one I would actually allow to date my daughter. Well, except for the fact that he’s kind of a zombie.
This is probably the twist to the Twilight story that delighted me the most. Instead of stunningly attractive vampires with morose backstories that have left them scarred, we have a family of awkward zombies who stumble through life as happily as they can. The zombie element accomplished everything that the vampire element did in Twilight, but in a way that was funnier and somehow lighter. There was so much more gore in this book than in Twilight, but the tone was still somehow brighter.
I also loved the fact that Stella’s parents were still together and that they had a fun, amazingly close relationship with each other and their daughter. They’re the dream family unit, and I love them so much. I feel like part of what attracted Bella to the Cullens family was the closeness they had with each other and her desire to experience that closeness. Stella didn’t need that, because she already had it. The relationships in the book were wonderful, and made me very happy.
Every major event and plot point in the first book of the Twilight Saga was mirrored in some form or fashion here. If you’ve read the Meyer’s series, you’ll really enjoy watching as parallel events unfold in Chemistry, but in ways that are often radically different. If you’ve never read Twilight and maybe never intend to because you know it just won’t be your thing, you can still undoubtedly enjoy this book without feeling like you’re missing anything; it definitely stands on its own and is a self-contained story in its own right.
I am so incredibly impressed by Lynch’s writing. This is a self-published novel, but suffered from none of the editing issues I’ve found in many other self-published works. Nor did this book ever suffer from pacing issues or stilted dialogue or anything else that might cause a sudden disconnect with the story. I can’t believe that this is a first novel, and I applaud the author for her transparency about being autistic. She has my respect and readership, and I’m super interested to see where she goes with this series. For once, I’m happy that I have to deal with ads, because if it wasn’t for a special offer on my Kindle’s lock screen, I would have never known this book existed. It’s a hidden gem that deserves so much more notoriety.
The only warning I feel needs to be attached to this review is a profanity alert. This is a great YA story, but it is filled with profanity. Seriously, so profane. So, if you’re a parent who is thinking about letting your teenager read these books, just be aware of that. But other than that, it’s pretty much perfect. I recommend Chemistry to anyone who loves strong heroines, quirky romances, and insane levels of snark.
If you put Warm Bodies and Twilight in a blender and add a heaping helping of sarcasm, you would end up with Chemistry. It’s billed as a “sassy, body-positive, snarky twist on Twilight,” and it is absolutely the truth. I love the Twilight Saga and probably always will; it’s incredibly addictive and one of my ultimate guilty pleasure reads, even though I know it’s problematic on multiple levels. But Lynch added an element to her parody that was missing in the original; humor in droves. While Twilight might make you giggle or roll your eyes in places, it never made me physically bust out laughing, which this book did countless times.
Stella, our main character, is a plus-sized teen who knows kung fu, but her greatest weapon is her bitingly sharp sarcasm. This girl is crazy smart, and fully embraces who she is, even when she’s bullied by others for her size. Her confidence was what I was hoping to see in Seanan McGuire’s Beneath the Sugar Sky, which fell very flat for me in this regard. Chemistry didn’t let me down. Stella Blunt is everything Bella Swan should have been in Twilight; she’s strong and smart and snarky and unerringly sees the value in herself. She doesn’t need someone to take care of her. Stella’s confidence in herself leaped off the page, and that confidence and her amazing brain attract some unwanted attention in the form of the biggest loser in school: Howard Mullins.
Howie is everything that Twilight’s Edward should have been, as well. He’s respectful and thoughtful and kind, a chivalrous gentleman caught in the wrong era. He isn’t at all pushy or controlling, and would happily settle for Stella’s friendship if that’s all she decided to offer. While Edward is a more attractive male lead, Howie is the one I would actually allow to date my daughter. Well, except for the fact that he’s kind of a zombie.
This is probably the twist to the Twilight story that delighted me the most. Instead of stunningly attractive vampires with morose backstories that have left them scarred, we have a family of awkward zombies who stumble through life as happily as they can. The zombie element accomplished everything that the vampire element did in Twilight, but in a way that was funnier and somehow lighter. There was so much more gore in this book than in Twilight, but the tone was still somehow brighter.
I also loved the fact that Stella’s parents were still together and that they had a fun, amazingly close relationship with each other and their daughter. They’re the dream family unit, and I love them so much. I feel like part of what attracted Bella to the Cullens family was the closeness they had with each other and her desire to experience that closeness. Stella didn’t need that, because she already had it. The relationships in the book were wonderful, and made me very happy.
Every major event and plot point in the first book of the Twilight Saga was mirrored in some form or fashion here. If you’ve read the Meyer’s series, you’ll really enjoy watching as parallel events unfold in Chemistry, but in ways that are often radically different. If you’ve never read Twilight and maybe never intend to because you know it just won’t be your thing, you can still undoubtedly enjoy this book without feeling like you’re missing anything; it definitely stands on its own and is a self-contained story in its own right.
I am so incredibly impressed by Lynch’s writing. This is a self-published novel, but suffered from none of the editing issues I’ve found in many other self-published works. Nor did this book ever suffer from pacing issues or stilted dialogue or anything else that might cause a sudden disconnect with the story. I can’t believe that this is a first novel, and I applaud the author for her transparency about being autistic. She has my respect and readership, and I’m super interested to see where she goes with this series. For once, I’m happy that I have to deal with ads, because if it wasn’t for a special offer on my Kindle’s lock screen, I would have never known this book existed. It’s a hidden gem that deserves so much more notoriety.
The only warning I feel needs to be attached to this review is a profanity alert. This is a great YA story, but it is filled with profanity. Seriously, so profane. So, if you’re a parent who is thinking about letting your teenager read these books, just be aware of that. But other than that, it’s pretty much perfect. I recommend Chemistry to anyone who loves strong heroines, quirky romances, and insane levels of snark.
ajpotz's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
definitely something 13 yr old me would’ve cherished and day dreamed over. not to sure if it’s read-the-whole-series worthy though
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia and Gore
Moderate: Bullying
nikogatts's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
hauntedbybooks's review against another edition
5.0
I enjoyed Chemistry so much! The characters were so unique and funny, especially Stella. I love how much this book made me laugh. I didn't want to stop reading it. I can't wait for the second book. I received an e-book copy from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
jaironside's review against another edition
4.0
Tremendous fun with extra BRAAAIIIINNSSSS! ;)
I avoided this book to start with because I dislike spoofs (at least spoofs on successful books, of which Twilight has many - usually appallingly written) and Chemistry's cover screamed 'Twilight spoof'. On further examination there is so much more to it then that. This is a sharp, witty and extremely funny story that will appeal to both Twilight and non-Twilight fans alike. Yes, there's the obvious crossovers - the basic plot of a girl moving home and meeting a boy who turns out to be the man of her dreams minus the tiny detail that he is dangerous and is tempted to eat her. And some of the names pay a tongue in cheek tribute as well - Stella - Bella. Howard - Edward. the Cullins - the Mullins etc And maybe this started off life as a straight forward parody but it clearly reanimated into something completely different - with added brains.
Stella is not a meek and gentle girl. Stella is loud, swears like a trucker, is a size 18 and has a fair chip on her shoulder about it, intelligent, does not suffer fools gladly and totally kicks arse - literally, she does kung fu. By contrast Howard is a nerdy, 50s throw back, a pariah who everyone else shuns because he and his family are different. Bad different - creepy but can't say why different. It might not be love at first sight but it's definitely love by the third brain wave. Hilarity ensues because Howard has a secret...and he really does love Stella for her brains.
All in all a very entertaining read - one I would read again which is a huge compliment. Some of the scenes went on a little too long in the interest of milking every last laugh, and Stella would come through a bit more clearly if she dropped just a couple less F-bombs (actually if you're one of those people who is for some reason offended by swearing then give this a miss) but that's me being super picky. Really good fun that doesn't pull it's punches, isn't too clean and actually sounds like a seventeen year old girl.
Oh and it is so refreshing to see a teenager that has a really good, open and caring relationship with her broad minded, decent parents. We should all want parents like this or be aiming to be parents like this (undead shenanigans aside!)
Can't wait for History!
I avoided this book to start with because I dislike spoofs (at least spoofs on successful books, of which Twilight has many - usually appallingly written) and Chemistry's cover screamed 'Twilight spoof'. On further examination there is so much more to it then that. This is a sharp, witty and extremely funny story that will appeal to both Twilight and non-Twilight fans alike. Yes, there's the obvious crossovers - the basic plot of a girl moving home and meeting a boy who turns out to be the man of her dreams minus the tiny detail that he is dangerous and is tempted to eat her. And some of the names pay a tongue in cheek tribute as well - Stella - Bella. Howard - Edward. the Cullins - the Mullins etc And maybe this started off life as a straight forward parody but it clearly reanimated into something completely different - with added brains.
Stella is not a meek and gentle girl. Stella is loud, swears like a trucker, is a size 18 and has a fair chip on her shoulder about it, intelligent, does not suffer fools gladly and totally kicks arse - literally, she does kung fu. By contrast Howard is a nerdy, 50s throw back, a pariah who everyone else shuns because he and his family are different. Bad different - creepy but can't say why different. It might not be love at first sight but it's definitely love by the third brain wave. Hilarity ensues because Howard has a secret...and he really does love Stella for her brains.
All in all a very entertaining read - one I would read again which is a huge compliment. Some of the scenes went on a little too long in the interest of milking every last laugh, and Stella would come through a bit more clearly if she dropped just a couple less F-bombs (actually if you're one of those people who is for some reason offended by swearing then give this a miss) but that's me being super picky. Really good fun that doesn't pull it's punches, isn't too clean and actually sounds like a seventeen year old girl.
Oh and it is so refreshing to see a teenager that has a really good, open and caring relationship with her broad minded, decent parents. We should all want parents like this or be aiming to be parents like this (undead shenanigans aside!)
Can't wait for History!
ohthebooksyoucanread's review against another edition
3.0
I would like to thank Netgalley and C.L Lynch for the opportunity to read this book.
Title: Chemistry
Author: C.L. Lynch
Edition Read: ARC
Pages: 279
Date Finished: 1/3/17
Stella moves to Canada from the United States for her mom’s new job. She starts at a new school and doesn’t fit in at all. She is stuck in chemistry with a guy that stares at her. The next day, she finally makes a friend. Her chemistry partner still doesn’t get the hint and bothers her. The more she talks to him in chemistry, the more she starts to like him. Stella finally gives in to Howie and finds out what he is hiding plus why he is so weird.
I enjoyed the characters in this book. However, I was not a fan of the language. I am not saying that cussing is bad, but this book had too much cussing for me. I also did not like how some parts seemed to drag on.
I really had no idea what I was going to think about this book once I started it. To be honest, I went back and forth multiple times with liking and disliking the book.
Once again, I would like to thank Netgalley and C.L Lynch for the opportunity to read this book.
Title: Chemistry
Author: C.L. Lynch
Edition Read: ARC
Pages: 279
Date Finished: 1/3/17
Stella moves to Canada from the United States for her mom’s new job. She starts at a new school and doesn’t fit in at all. She is stuck in chemistry with a guy that stares at her. The next day, she finally makes a friend. Her chemistry partner still doesn’t get the hint and bothers her. The more she talks to him in chemistry, the more she starts to like him. Stella finally gives in to Howie and finds out what he is hiding plus why he is so weird.
I enjoyed the characters in this book. However, I was not a fan of the language. I am not saying that cussing is bad, but this book had too much cussing for me. I also did not like how some parts seemed to drag on.
I really had no idea what I was going to think about this book once I started it. To be honest, I went back and forth multiple times with liking and disliking the book.
Once again, I would like to thank Netgalley and C.L Lynch for the opportunity to read this book.