Discussions
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Alexandra L
i havent read this book and i need to know everything about it. what is it about? who are the main characters? How do they fit into the story? what is the main problem facing the main characters? And what are the highlights in this book?
posted 3 years ago.
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Zoey K
ummm ok im bored so ill summerize: its about a blond popular cheerleader named brittany ellis who has the perfect image, the perfect boyfriend, and the perfect clothes. She is paried up with Alajondro in chemistry who is the exact opostie, bad boy, player, mexican and gang banger. They start to fall for each other and the probelm of the story is that they cant be together beacuse of stereotypes and what people will think, they come from two toatly differnt worlds and the ending is that in the end they are together forevr i hate to spoil it and would reccomend reading it, this is a really short summary and i left out all parts and jsut gave u the bottom line
posted 3 years ago.
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OSN Justin BieBer is soo SMEXXIIIII!!!!!!!!!~ Duin Tha Kalaboochie ~
two teens from completley diffrent worlds! the main characters are alex and brittany (as seen on the cover) alex is a poor mexican guy whom is also a latino blood. (gang member) brittany is a rich white chick whom pretrays to the world that she lives the perfect life with no problems when in fact she has an older sister (shelby) whos autistic.(mentally retarded) and cant du aniithing for her self. Some how through a series of events the two became "envolved" with each other and once Alex rea;izes he does in fact love Brittany, he wants out of the Latino bloods. knowing it was a dangerous life for her. this puts Brittany in grave danger, because she does follow him without him knowing she finds her self in situations that could petentially kill her. Alex was assigned bigger jobs to do such as drug deals and such. there was a big one coming in the story and he and his best freind paco knew something bad was ganna go down but he knew he had to du it or face horrible consiquences such as death. the night before the drug deal bRittany follows him again. she wears only a trench coat and launsuray underneath. she knocks on the door holds open her coat and shuts her eyes tight. the door opens and a man with a voice deeper than alexs clears his throat. she opens her eyes to see alex's uncle stareing down at her. quickly she re-robes herself. of course he laughs and calls for alejandro (alex) . when he does come his uncle tells him to lock up when he was "done" and then he leaves. of course you know wut comes next they have sex but the sugnifficant part about it was she told him she was still a virgin so ya. after he cuddnt stay he had to go du the drug deal. brittany started to stall him and he became suspicious. it turned out that she and Paco (alex's best friend and also a latino blood) had come up with some plan to keep him from going. Paco was going to take his place. when alex found out he was infurriated! he asked her all the details about it. like when did he leave. she told him the same time she left her house. he skillfullly pulled on his clothes (speddily) and dragga brittrany into a car. he gets in on the other side and the zoom off the drug raid. when the get to the wood that it wus to take place in the see paco in the distance the move silently through the bush. when the come close enough to smell colone on him a firearm was sounded and Paco goes tumbleing to the ground. brittany shrieks sounding the men whose faces wer consealed in the darkness to scatter. Alex runs to paco side. Blood was gushing out of him and he Alex had to watch as his friend slowly slipped away from lhis world. when his body went cold alex closed his glisend eyes and brittany had already called the polices. there wer cops and parametics everywhere but alex knew they wudnt catch the guys. the next day alex had to tell Paco's mother that he had died. the was an erie cloud lingering over the town for a awhile and alejandro knew his days as a latino blood wer number. because it originally was supposed to be him at the drug deal it wud have been him who died. Alex finally decided he wanted out...the initation for gettin out of the latino bloods is a servre beating from every single gang member with aniithing they feel. you moret han likly wont servive it But his chances of servival are alot better if he does rather than stay in the latino bloods. then ur branded with a symbol of sume sort (i forget wut) Alex manges to servive and makes a life for himself in mexico. brittany never sees him again. a year later brittany goes to a college close to where she can care for her sister (because shes her everything). she wondered wer alex had went for so long and after awhile he became a distant memory for her. ONe day brittany goes to visit her sister at the facility her parents put her in and the nurse tells her she has a visitor. she goes in to see shelby but instead see alex standing over her playing a computer game with her. he sees that hes been spotted and stands up staright. brittany notices that he wering a uniform to a college. she could have sworn he was dead some where. she runs over to him and hugs him. she asked him wut wus he majoring in... Chemistry he siad.. u? chemistery she said!! (the sugnifficance of that is that they met in chemistry class and wer lab partners. they wer sworn enemies bc they wer so diffrent but now as you can see thats not the case)
19 Years later......
Alex and Brittany get married and have a son. Hes a brown boy with head full of wild hair like alex but has those soft blue eyes like Brittany. and his name .. is Paco.
hes in high school now as a senior and his first block chem class he has the same teach as brittany and alex had. when she assigns him his ladb partner .. another white chick. but theres sumthin diffrent with her. its like she actually likes him. and the cycle continues! The end:)posted 3 years ago.
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Victoria K removed this reply 3 years ago
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Victoria K
2. Discuss what you feel are the major themes in this novel and what specific moments and passages most strongly give evidence of these themes? A theme should be more than just a topic like “forgiveness”. Theme is rather what events in the novel might say about a topic such as “the ability to forgive despite many insults and hurts.”
“How people react to interracial dating” is one of the big themes in Perfect Chemistry. When Brittany and Alex first stated interacting, both parties’ parents disagreed. Brittany’s mom doesn’t want somebody like Alex in her life, because she believes that her daughter will be tainted. “‘Who’s Alex?’ Those are the first words my mom asks me after I arrive back home from the airport with my dad. ‘He’s a guy from school I’m partnered with for chemistry,’ I answer slowly. Wait one minute. ‘How do you know about Alex?’ ‘He was here after you left for the airport. I sent him away. I don’t want him near the house,’ she says. ‘The neighbors with start talking about you.’” (Perfect Chemistry, Simone Elkeles, pg. 101) Brittany’s friends also don’t agree with their relationship. “‘So, did you move on to Alex? Colin thinks you’re mixing more than just test tubes with your chem partner.’ ‘No,‘ I lie. Even though Sierra is my best friend, she holds the belief that there’s a definite social divide. While I want to tell her the truth, I can’t. Not now.” (Perfect Chemistry, Simone Elkeles, pg. 225) Alex’s mom thinks Brittany is just trying to play with his mind and his heart. “‘Yes, well, I know we got off on the wrong foot. And I’m sorry if you felt disrespected in any way the last time we met. I just wanted you to know that I didn’t go over to your house with the intention of kissing Alex.’ ‘Forgive me if I’m curious, but what are you intentions?’ ‘Excuse me?’ ‘What are your intentions with Alex?’ ‘I…I’m just not sure what you want me to say. To be honest, we’re figuring in out as we go along.’ Mrs. Fuentes puts a hand on my shoulder. ‘The dear Lord know I’m not the best mother in the world. But I care about my sons more than life itself, Brittany. And I’ll do anything to protect them from harm. I see the way he looks at you, and it scared me. I can’t bear to see him hurt one more time buy someone he cares about.’” (Perfect Chemistry, Simone Elkeles, pg. 237)The only people who don’t really object are Alex’s friends, because they think he is still doing it for the bet.
3. How can the death of a close family member or friend affect people?
The death of Alex’s father has sent him into an ice block. He feels like he is untouchable, because he has learned not to care about anything or anyone just incase it gets pulled away right in front of his eyes. It also sends him into a vengeful spiral that causes him to almost get himself killed. “I storm into my house and find mi’ama in her room. ‘You know who killed Papa.’ ‘Alejandro, don’t.’ ‘It was someone in the Blood , wasn’t it? The night at the wedding Hector and you were talkin’ about it. He knows who it is. You know, too.’ Tears start welling in her eyes. ‘I’m warning you, Alejandro. Don’t do this.’ ‘Who was it?’ I ask, ignoring her plea. She looks away from me. ‘Tell me!’ I scream at the top of my lungs. My words make her flinch. For so long I just wanted to take the hurt away from her, I didn’t think to ask what she knew about my father’s murder. Or maybe I didn’t want to know, because I was afraid of the truth. I can’t let it go any longer. Her breathing is slow and jerky as she puts her hand to her mouth. ‘Hector…it was Hector.’ While the truth sinks in, dread, shock, and pain spread through my body like wildfire.” (Perfect Chemistry, Simone Elkeles, pg. 318) He decides to use revenge to get back at Hector for his father’s mistake. I think it is wrong to go after Hector, because all it does is cause more hurt and heartache in the end. Brittany wouldn’t have wanted him to go, and Paco gets shot as a cause of the whole drug deal.posted 3 years ago.
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Victoria K
1. Find the “title track”, the passage in the novel where the word or phrases from your novel is used. What is the immediate context of this passage? In other words, what is going on in the events of the novel when this title word or phrase is given? What is the title word or phrase’s significance to the whole novel?
The word “perfect” is used in many contexts throughout the novel, but the one that stood out most to me was on the first page. “Everyone know I’m perfect. My life is perfect. My clothes are perfect. Even my family is perfect. And although it’s a complete lie, I’ve worked my butt of to keep up the appearance that I have it all. The truth, if it were to come out, would destroy my entire picture-perfect image.” (Perfect Chemistry, Simone Elkeles, pg.1) Brittany, the main character, talks about her image, and how her life is seamlessly perfect. It is all an image, and this novel is about breaking down her image enough to where she will let herself love someone who isn’t as picture-perfect as she is. An Alex also has to break down his tough-guy image to fall in love with a snow-girl; a rich white girl. Eventually, both throw their reputations out the window and form a flawed, but beautiful relationship. The author also uses “chemistry” in the context of being a class that both Brittany and Alex, the other main character, are lab partners. They take a journey throughout the novel where they have some very rough patches in their relationship, but they also have some good times shared. The chemistry between the two is raw and untouchable. Many people try to break them up throughout the book, but they don’t listen to a word that they say. Brittany and Alex may take a long break near the end, but it is that raw chemistry that brings them back together in the end.posted 3 years ago.
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Becca H
This book is amazing it is one of those books that you just cant put down. An amazing book about two toatlly different people from totally different worlds that fall in love! A true romance!!!!!
posted 2 years ago.
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Jay Johnson
this is book is an modern time romeo and juliet
this book is really goodposted 2 years ago.
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Allison removed this reply 1 year ago
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