Leanne Olson

by Kalynn Bayron, Narrated by Clifford Samuel

Published March 7, 2023 by Macmillan Audio

My Dear Henry is a retelling of R.L. Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as a young adult gothic romance through a queer, Black lens. 

The narrator, Gabriel Utterson, is a Black teen training at a medical school, where he meets Henry, the son of one of the professors there, Dr. Jekyll.  Gabriel and Henry quickly fall in love, facing prejudice from their late 19th century London society.

Things change suddenly when Henry becomes cold and distant, and a new mysterious figure named Hyde is seen around his family.

I loved the concept of the retelling and thought the story worked especially well thematically.  Without getting into spoilers, I’ll say Kalynn Bayron really tied in Henry and Gabriel’s queerness and Blackness with the original story in a way that made sense and made it even more heartbreaking.

I enjoyed a lot about this book, but I did feel the pacing was a bit off.  Gabriel and Henry fell for each other so quickly, and the characters didn’t feel as real as I would have liked.  Later, the pacing slowed a bit too much, especially because the reader knows what’s happening when Gabriel doesn’t.  I also struggled with Gabriel’s actions, which without the reader knowing about the medical/supernatural aspect of Henry’s change, could really be seen as stalking a boy who broke up with him.  

Fortunately, the narrator Clifford Samuel did such a wonderful job of drawing me into the story that I kept listening, and I did wind up enjoying the book overall.  I think this one works particularly well as an audiobook.

🌟🌟🌟1/2

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for my review copy of this audiobook.

My Dear Henry is a standalone, part of the Remixed Classics series. I haven’t read any of the others yet but this one has me interested in reading more.