Hello and welcome to my stop of My Dear Henry book tour! Thank you, Hear Our Voices, for this chance!
A teen boy tries to discover the reason behind his best friend’s disappearance—and the arrival of a mysterious and magnetic stranger—in misty Victorian London, in Kalynn Bayron’s My Dear Henry, a gothic YA remix of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, sixth in the Remixed Classics series.
London, 1885. Gabriel Utterson, a 17-year-old law clerk, has returned to London for the first time since his life— and that of his dearest friend, Henry Jekyll—was derailed by a scandal that led to his and Henry’s expulsion from the London Medical School. Whispers about the true nature of Gabriel and Henry’s relationship have followed the boys for two years, and now Gabriel has a chance to start again.
But Gabriel doesn’t want to move on, not without Henry. His friend has become distant and cold since the disastrous events of the prior spring, and now his letters have stopped altogether. Desperate to discover what’s become of him, Gabriel takes to watching the Jekyll house.
In doing so, Gabriel meets Hyde, a a strangely familiar young man with white hair and a magnetic charisma. He claims to be friends with Henry, and Gabriel can’t help but begin to grow jealous at their apparent closeness, especially as Henry continues to act like Gabriel means nothing to him.
But the secret behind Henry’s apathy is only the first part of a deeper mystery that has begun to coalesce. Monsters of all kinds prowl within the London fog—and not all of them are out for blood…
Thank you so much, NetGalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and Fiewel and Friend, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.
TW: attempted rape, sexual assault, homophobia, queerphobia and racism.
Gabriel Utterson is a 17 years old law clerk and he came back to London after a scandal that led his and his best friend, Henry Jekyll, expulsion from the London Medical School. Whispers around the nature of their relationships followed them, but now Gabriel has a chance to start over and to reconnect with his best friend and not only through the letters they exchanged. Only that now Henry seems to be completely different from the boy he knew. Distant, cold, cruel. While trying to understand what changed between them, he encounters a mysterious boy, with a fascinating charisma, who claims to know everything about them. Jealous and afraid, Gabriel starts to investigate, to understand why Henry is now so indifferent and apatic. But when someone gets murdered and the mysterious stranger is accused, everything changes.
Set in a misty Victorian London, My Dear Henry: A Jekull & Hyde Remix is part of the Remixed Classics series and written by the brilliant Kalynn Bayron. The story is told from Gabriel's POV, introducing the reader to his and Henry's lives at London Medical School, their growing relationship and how everything fell apart. Now set years after the scandal that ruined them, Gabriel is determined not to lose Henry again, or, at least, to understand what happening to him and why he's changed so much.
With care and sensitivity, My Dear Henry tackles on racism, queerphobia, sexual assault, attempted rape and power imbalance. Told by a queer Black young man, the story is a remix of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, it's the story of two queer Black people struggling to survive, learn and thrive in a society that reject them, first for their skin color and then for their sexuality. In a Victorian London where Black people where kept at the margins, struggling with works and surviving, Gabriel and Henry fight to be more than society wants them to be. First by learning and studying, then by allowing themselves to be themselves and free.
Dealing also with parental abuse and expectations, this book is brilliantly written and intriguing and, even knowing the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, it was really incredible seeing the spin in it and what Hyde represents.
I really loved reading this book. It's a quick read, very engaging and I couldn't stop until the end. Very beautiful and intriguing.
“I burned them, but not before I memorized every line, every loop and curl of your terrible handwriting. I can recite them by date. They are not lost, but they now exist only where I can access them.”
“If he was Hyde, then I would be Seek.”
“There was much to fear. I knew that better than anyone, but I made up my mind in that moment that I would not let it rule me.”
“You were whole, Henry. And I loved you with my entire heart. You were enough just as you were and we are enough as we are- right here, right now.”
We hadn’t disappeared simply because polite London wished us to be invisible. If I wasn’t rendered invisible for loving Henry, I’d be rendered invisible because of the colour of my skin. There was nothing polite about it. “We can exist” I said to him “And we do. We endure because we have no other choice.”