Our Chemical Hearts

Krystal Sutherland
Ines El Hammiri
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 02
ABOUT THE
SETTINGS
AUTHOR

03 04
CHARACTERS THE PLOT
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE CONFLICT MY OPINION

THE THEME
“Just because a love ends doesn't
mean it wasn't real.”

― Krystal Sutherland, Our Chemical Hearts

01 ABOUT THE
AUTHOR
Krystal Sutherland
Originally from Australia, Krystal Sutherland is
an internationally published author of books for
young adults. She is best known for her first
novel, Our Chemical Hearts which was
published in over 20 countries and was named
by the American Booksellers Association as one
of the best debuts of 2016. It’s made its way to
the big screen as it had a film adaptation in
which Lili Reinhart and Austin Abrams starred,
produced by Amazon Studios.
02 SETTINGS

This popular YA romance revolves

around two teens and their toxic
relationship as a deeply smitten
boy tries to save a deeply
damaged girl. The story mostly
takes place in a public high school

PURE LOVE AGENCY

in New Jersey.
 03 CHARACTERS

HENRY PAGE GRACE TOWN CORA HERNANDEZ

The male protagonist, the Female love interest, Grace,
kind of kid who seeks a transfer student who uses A member of the
stimulation and thrives on a cane to compensate for newspaper which Henry and
challenge, not in the form of her damaged knee following Grace run that is
reckless abandon, with a car accident, it appears discovering her sexual
drugs, alcohol, parties, and that her knee wasn't the identity through a crush on
thrills of that nature. Rather, only thing hurt in the La.
he prefers creative accident. MARK ‘MUZ’
stimulation. But, despite PATTERSON
seeking different points of LOLA ‘LA’ HAYNES
view and experiences, he is
A queer woman who is one Like La, Henry’s other friend,
not to be considered Muz lacks any common
worldly. of Henry’s best friends,
Cora’s love interest, and is thoughts or a generic
known for being her own personality. An enigmatic
person and not needing or space cadet.
desiring outside influences.
 04 THE PLOT

Henry Page has never been in

When Henry meets Grace, he
love. He fancies himself a
even admits that her
hopeless romantic, but the
entrance isn't memorable —
slow-motion, heart palpitating,
she simply shuffles into
can’t-eat-can’t-sleep kind of
class wearing oversize "boy
love that he’s been longing for
clothes" and holding a cane.
just hasn’t been in the cards for
When the class ends, he
him—at least not yet. Instead,
doesn't think about her again
focusing on his grades, getting
until they are both asked to
into a semi-decent college and
be editors of the school
finally becoming editor of his
newspaper. Grace turns
school newspaper was what did
down the job, saying, "I don't
it for him. Yet, everything’s
write anymore," which
about to change when Grace
causes Henry to grow
Town walks into his first period
curious.
class on the third Tuesday of
senior year.
 When Henry looks her up on Facebook, he discovers a
completely different version of Grace, one who is healthy and
vibrant. Grace asks him why he's never had a girlfriend in an
after-dark adventure of theirs, he tells her he wants the kind of
extraordinary love that his parents have. She tells him about the
severe car accident that caused major surgeries which led to her
limp and the tragic passing of her ex-boyfriend Dom. Henry is
drawn to this unusual girl, who makes his life more exciting.
Meanwhile Henry's distracted at school, failing his classes, and
behind on the newspaper, he later on discovers the truth about
Grace’s self- enclosure; she lives in her deceased boyfriend's
house with his parents and wears his unwashed clothes to
preserve his memory as she isn’t ready to move on.
THE CONFLICT
Henry’s behavior is the reason that their
relationship wasn’t meant to work out from the
start. His idealistic picture of Grace leads him to
want more from her than she can give, and his
constant efforts to “fix” her pushes her too close
to the edge. He claims to love her as she is, yet
the second she makes a single step forward in
her rehabilitation -- viewing recovery as a straight
line -- he expects that to be forever. Because
Grace returned part of Henry's affection, Henry
acts as if Grace owed him her unending love. He
finds it ridiculous that she hasn’t gotten over her
late boyfriend yet. When they break up, everyone
focuses on consoling him yet no one seems to
question his contribution to the relationship’s
decline.
 THE THEME

Our Chemical Hearts is

really about the roiling
chaos and confusion of
teenage life, of going
through experiences
such as love, sex and
heartbreak for the first and the huge impact
time, they have on the body
and the nervous system
causing people to
behave in ways they
wouldn’t have behaved
in if it weren’t for a
special someone.
 MY OPINION

Although the intrigue was well kept throughout the story, I

didn't like the way Grace remained a mystery to the
readers as the portrayal of the PTSD she suffers from, the
trauma which came along the tragic event she’s been
through and her disability wasn’t complicated enough, and
instead only served as plot twists and reasons as to why
she can’t be with Henry. Grace’s character was overall
neglected and overshadowed by Henry’s whims about her
not loving him as much as he does notwithstanding how
deeply broken the accident left her.
 THANKS!
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