Title: Clean
Author: Amy Reed
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Price: $9.99
Release: 7/19/2011
Grade: A
Audience: older teens and Young Adult
Synopisis:
You’re probably wondering how I ended up here. I’m still wondering the same thing.
Olivia, Kelly, Christopher, Jason, and Eva have one thing in common: They're addicts. Addicts who have hit rock bottom and been stuck together in rehab to face their problems, face sobriety, and face themselves. None of them wants to be there. None of them wants to confront the truths about their pasts. And they certainly don’t want to share their darkest secrets and most desperate fears with a room of strangers. But they'll all have to deal with themselves and one another if they want to learn how to live. Because when you get that high, there's nowhere to go but down, down, down.
My thoughts:
I really enjoyed reading Clean. Not only was it a fantastic work of fiction, it had a purpose. Don't get me wrong, I don't think every book needs a purpose. This book just had so much potential to reach readers that I would have been disappointed if it did.
Teen rehab is not a new subject. Some parts of this were similar to Impulse by Ellen Hopkins. They both had their own spins though, so I didn't feel like I was reading the same story in a different book. It was full of very adult subjects. Obviously drug addiction is a big one. Another prominent aspect is sex. It is thrown around quite often but that is common with drug addiction. It is heartbreaking to hear about young people who give their body for drugs.
My only problem with this book was the amount of characters. Since they were all introduced so quickly I thought they were each going to play a role in telling the story. I was happy to discover that only two were the "main" storytellers. We discovered the other characters through their eyes and through personal essays included in between some chapters.
I would recommend this book to all my older teen readers and anyone who has contact with teens. It was truly one of the best addiction books I have read.
Also, Amy, If your reading this I would love to see a sequel ;). I want to know how these kids turned out. I want to finish Olivia's story with her!
2 comments:
When I read the summary, it reminded me about the Ellen Hopkins book, too. I'm glad to hear this isn't a carbon copy of that book. And that it's good, even to someone who's read "Impulse". (Thanks for mentioning the title, I remember the book, but not the name of the book. Would have driven me nuts trying to figure it out. Yes, I guess I could have gone on GR, but that feels like cheating. So, I usually try to puzzle these things out for a day or two.) I'll have to see if I can find this book. Great review.
I still have yet to read Ellen Hopkins (though it's very much on my to-do list!) but anyway, you had me at psychology. I love fantasy, but it's nice to see people dealing with real issues in books too. This sounds great! Nice review.
C.J.
Sarcasm&Lemons
Post a Comment