2 stars. This was a book that I wanted to like, and tried to like, but just couldn't pull myself into at any point.

I appreciate historic fiction and it was nice to see some nods to those pieces in the book---areas of study available to different classes of people, mentions of lamplighters, difficulty in travel, etc. Unfortunately, most of those areas felt superficial and thrown in more for ambiance than for plot thickening. The Jekyll and Hyde pieces in this story also seemed very cloak and dagger; the minimal details given to describe what was doing on [literally] behind closed doors left me unsatisfied. Gabriel was a stiff character, and the relationship between him and Henry just never took off.

I'll tell my students about: blood/gore/violence, LGBTQIAP+, parental tension, mental health issues


**Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the free ARC prior to publication. All opinions expressed are my own.**

You know, I was excited to read this, and I was excited to read [book:Cinderella Is Dead|43900612], and I felt a bit underwhelmed by both. I think Bayron has great concepts for books but that maybe, to me, fall apart a little in the execution. Like here I LOVE the big picture concept for the Jekyll and Hyde remix (<spoiler> that baby Jekyll's father, Dr. Jekyll, is so ashamed of his son's queerness that he attempts to fully remove it from him and then creates a sad blanked-out version of Jekyll and a Hyde who's actually compassionate but in a way that's scary to Victorians...</spoiler>). Like, that part is rad. But the instant romantic connection between Gabe and Henry felt...underdeveloped...especially given other attempts to depict the period's intense propriety etc etc etc. Just didn't quite add up for me but I still liked the big concept as well as some of the historical details involved.

Gabriel Utterson has been sent to London by his father to study medicine. Gabriel is interested in the law, not medicine, but his father insists that he give up his dreams of a career in the law. As a young Black man in 1885 London, Gabriel doesn't feel that he can go against his father's wishes. When Gabriel arrives at Miss Laurie's boarding house, he meets a fellow student, Henry Jekyll, who he befriends. When a scandal at the medical school leads to the expulsion of both Gabriel and Henry, Gabriel works hard to keep their blossoming romance afloat even when he feels that Henry is pulling away from him. When Gabriel goes to Henry's home to confront Henry, he meets the unusual Mr. Hyde, who seems very familiar. When Gabriel starts to see what he perceives that the growing link between Henry and Hyde, he realizes that he wants to fight for the love he shares with Henry. As Henry continues to distance himself from Gabriel, Gabriel starts searching for answers to Henry's changed attitude towards him and towards life outside the laboratory. The deeper Gabriel goes in trying to solve the mysterious behavior of his dear Henry, he comes face to face with a monster that just might destroy him. An engaging retelling of the Jekyll and Hyde story.

This book is the best book I’ve read in a long time.
Growing up, I loved reading Wishbone Classics. One of my favorites was The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I loved the dark, musty, eerieness of the story, along with the dark idea of finding a way to let your inner darkness out. Hiding in plain sight always enthralled me. After coming out as trans-non-binary this year, my love for this story just..makes sense.
This author did an incredible job of weaving this re-telling. I felt the same eerie darkness in the setting as I did with the original. The author’s note in the back really helped me connect with their reason for writing this tale.
This book is heart-wrenching, enthralling and haunting. I cannot thank Netgalley enough for allowing me to read an ARC of this book. Cant wait to buy a physical copy in March!!!

(5/10)
I love retellings of classics and mythology, especially when queer-coded works get queer reimaging retellings. My Dear Henry is a YA retelling of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I think the book does a good job of taking plot elements and themes from the original book, especially the letter-writing, gothic style, and the duality of man. I also like that it's a retelling where the main characters are black and trying to become doctors as black men in Victorian England. That adds a nice twist to the original work, as well. Where it fell a bit flat for me was in the overall writing. I think the book suffers from being in first person and the pacing is way too fast. I think if the book was longer and took time to breathe and slow down, I would have found it more enjoyable (for example- in the first 2 chapters, a year of time has gone by, the two main characters meet and instantly fall in love, and the science experiment on Henry has already started.) It's just plot point to plot point without taking some time to slow down and get to know the characters and feel something for them.

Overall, I thought it was okay! I have Cinderella is Dead and Poison Heart on my TBR shelf and I will give those a go as well.

Thank you to netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

I love the Remix series and Kalynn Bayron's interesting plots, so I was excited to pick this one up. I will admit, I have never read Jekyll and Hyde, and my only familiarity with the story is through cultural osmosis, so I cannot really speak to how this book translates the original story. I will say, I think that updating the sort of internal conflict Jekyll seems to have had in the classic with societal standards to include an internalized homophobia was a good move and done well and respectfully. The author is making a statement by having er main characters being Black boys in love in a society that barely recognizes them for the color of their skin, much less romantic attraction, and the way it's handled was lovely and a good resolution. I liked the characters, though I did sometimes get frustrated with Gabriel's lack of perception, even when he's stumbling onto clues that point to the truth. There's a lot of lead up to the end of the book, where things are revealed and resolved very quickly, and I wish the pacing of that had been better. But, this was a good book and I enjoyed reading it.

I had so much fun with this Jekyll and Hyde remix. My Dear Henry is such a fun spin on the classic tale we know and love. The story is well-researched and true to the time period. Highly recommended to any fans of the classic. The remixed classic series is an excellent series to check out even if readers haven't read the originals.

A fascinating retelling with a queer addition. I loved the characters and the mystery and enjoyed that the reader has the advantage of knowing the original story.

The story was good, but it wasn’t impossible to put down. A good take on Jekyll and Hyde, but not a lot of character development that could have made the story so much better. The best part was the ending in my opinion, not because it was over necessarily, but because of how it ended.

Great take on Jekyll & Hyde. I was a little iffy at first but the characters grew on me and I found myself sucked into the book. Kalyan Bayron does a great job of allowing you to relate to the characters and ours a fun spin on old stories for young readers.

I went into this book with very little knowledge of the original Jekyll and Hyde story beyond the very basics of the story, yet despite that I enjoyed this retelling very much, and the author did an especially good job of keeping the dialogue modern enough to not be boring, but it still felt like the atmosphere of London in the 1880s.

I haven’t read Jekyll and Hyde and only had a brief idea of the plot so I went into this book with not much expectations. The book shocked me and I read majority of this in one sitting because I was so engrossed by it. Kalynn Bayron is an amazing story teller and I loved how the relationship with Henry and Gabriel was written.

I will say though that at times the book was so fast paced that I found it difficult to fully connect to any characters other than Henry and Gabriel. When Henry talks about how he cares for Lanyon, a side character, I was a bit confused because it didn’t feel as though he was talked about enough for there to be a true friendship.

I can see how much research and care went into this book and I deffo recommend it !!

I enjoyed this a lot! It's clear Bayron did her research on the time period. I thought the queer take on Jeykll and Hyde was super clever and has a powerful message.

I first picked up this book because the cover was giving me Jesper from Six of Crows, but I was not expecting to fall in love with this remixed version of a classic! Holy cow, I sped through this one. A great read to pick up if you enjoy re-imagined classic stories.