Author: Amy Reed
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Subject: Rehab, Friendship
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release date: July 19, 2011
Length: 288 pages
I got this book: Through Simon & Schuster for review
From Goodreads:
"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."
Personal opinion:
One thing that I noticed immediately was the style of the book. Not only is this book told through the voices of 5 different teens, but there are also chapters that the teens interact through group sessions, fill in questionnaires or write a person essay. This means that I got to see a lot of different sides of their stories. The author succeeded to give each one of them a different personality and this made the book easy to follow even with so many different narrators. I was easily drawn in and I did feel for everything the characters were going through and it was nice to read how the bond between the five teens grew during the book. The big downside to me was the ending. The author choose to end the story the moment everyone leaves the clinic and to me it felt like only half a story. I would have loved to read how they would get on with their lives after they left the clinic, even if it was only one chapter each. Frankly I dislike books with an open ending, because that is what it feels like to me. Still I would recommend this book because it doesn't shy away from the raw emotions and doesn't sugar coat the road to recovery. I never have walked that road myself and reading this book, really made me glad about that!
I liked it!
Purchase links: The book Depository
Other reviews: Sarah Reads Too Much
If you have reviewed this book and want your link here, please leave a comment with the link, and I will add it :)
I really liked this too, also except for the ending. I think this is the prefect example of a "topical" YA book that both parents and teens should read. My review: http://www.sarahreadstoomuch.com/2011/07/clean-by-amy-reed.html
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