drugs

American Street by Ibi Zoboi

| Tasha

American Street by Ibi Zoboi

American Street by Ibi Zoboi (9780062473042, Amazon)

This debut novel combines magical realism with the hard streets of modern Detroit. Fabiola and her mother are journeying to live with family in Detroit, leaving their native Haiti behind. But while Fabiola is allowed to continue on to Detroit, her mother is held in a detention center due to issues with her papers. Now Fabiola must get used to living with her American relatives, including three cousins who are loud, fierce and not to be messed with. Fabiola struggles with the food, the culture, and getting used to a new life and school while worrying about her mother. Just as it seems that she is finding a way forward with a new boyfriend and new friends, the dangerous life that supports her family comes crashing down threatening to sweep Fabiola along with it.

Zoboi’s writing is exceptional. She has drawn on her own experience as an immigrant from Haiti in this novel, infusing it with vodou religion and spirits that both guide and haunt. As Fabiola follows the spirits to the truth about what is really happening, she risks everything that she has found to hold onto and love. This is a book that doesn’t turn away from the violence of Detroit, the guns, drugs and power struggles happening even as children die.

There are many moments in this book that a situation is so fraught with danger that it sears into the reader’s brain. Against those moments, Fabiola and her three cousins stand strong and tall. They are four amazing characters who shine on the page each so different from one another and ferociously both independent and interdependent at the same time. This is family on the page, pushing against the dangers that surround them and include them.

Beautifully written with strong characters and danger, this book is exceptional. Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from library copy.

 

 

Review: Love Is the Drug by Alaya Dawn Johnson

| Tasha

love is the drug

Love Is the Drug by Alaya Dawn Johnson

The author of The Summer Prince returns with another wild ride of a book.   Emily attends a prestigious prep school in Washington, DC.  Her parents have raised her not to ask questions and to show respect at all times.  She has her entire life under control: she’s part of the top group of girls at school, she has the ideal boyfriend, and she’s headed for Stanford in the fall, one of the small ways in which she is defying her mother.  But when she meets Roosevelt, a government agent, at a party, her entire life changes.  She wakes up days later with missing memories of that night, knowing only that her boyfriend helped get her into a car, took her away from the party, and that another boy, Coffee, desperately tried to stop them.  Meanwhile, the entire United States is caught in a viral disaster with many people dying.  Even Emily’s parents are trapped on the other side of the quarantine.  Now Emily is left to put the pieces of her memory back together and figure out the truth of why the government is interested in a high school senior.

Johnson writes with an elegant looseness here, along for the ride of the story arc with the reader.  There is a lot going on here, from budding romances to breakups to government agents to worldwide plagues to harsh parenting.  Yet somehow, amazingly, it holds together into a book that is an astonishing pleasure to read.  Well suited to the world of teens caught in a viral outbreak, the free flowing nature of this novel allows those teens space to breath, moments to connect, and a fairly rule-free environment to explore.

This is not a mystery where the pieces click together at the end into a satisfying result.  Rather it is an exploration of a theme with one great protagonist at the center, a girl who struggles with female friendship, refuses to fall in love with the boy she clearly connects with, and who battles her mother’s control even from afar.  Emily reinvents herself in this new world she finds herself in, and that is the story and the point.  This is a refreshing read that defies the expectations of dystopian fiction and creates something new.

A dystopian fantasy with an African-American heroine, this teen novel will appeal greatly to some readers who enjoy a lively, loose and wild read.  Appropriate for ages 14-18.

Reviewed from ARC received from Arthur A. Levine Books.

Review: Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson

| Tasha

beneath a meth moon

Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson

Released February 2, 2012.

Laurel survived Hurricane Katrina, but unfortunately her mother and grandmother died in the storm.  With her father and little brother, they moved away from the destruction and loss to start a new life.  Laurel made new friends, joined the cheerleading squad, and hooked up with one of the coolest boys on the basketball team, T-Boom.  T-Boom was the person who introduced her to meth.  The meth erased all of Laurel’s needs, all of her grief.  Before she knew it, she was addicted and she had lost her friends and family.  Laurel is alone on the streets, begging for cash to support her habit when readers first meet her.  This is a story of loss, the destruction of addiction, and what must happen to return from that abyss. 

Woodson has written a raw and painful book that does not shrink away from any of the emotions, torment and horror of drug addiction.  At the same time though, the book is filled with hope and chances for change.  It reveals the dark truths but is never without some light.  At times I read the book without being able to breath deeply, the tension and tightrope of Laurel’s life was so tangible.

Woodson’s writing is glorious even as it speaks about addiction. Here is a passage from early in the novel, Page 18, where Laurel is walking in the snow after taking meth:

Something warm and wet was surrounding me, and I laughed at the heat inside the snow.  The hurt of wanting to moon was gone now, replaced by something heavy.  Not heavy.  Light.  Free.  I was free.  Tears.  The warm thing wasn’t snow.  Where were the tears coming from?  Who was crying on me?  I stopped walking and wiped at my eyes, but whoever was crying on me kept on crying.

As we see Laurel disintegrate before our eyes under the influence of the drug, we also see why the drug is luring her to use it, understand the pull of this beauty.  Laurel is a character filled with emptiness and need, yet she is able to put into words the grip of the drug and its power. 

This book is short, powerful, and wrenching, yet at the same time it is filled with incandescent writing.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from ARC received from Penguin Young Reader’s Group.

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Recovery Road: Stunning Honesty

| Tasha

recoveryroad

Recovery Road by Blake Nelson

Madeline is in rehab at Spring Meadows.  She has been moved to the halfway house where they are allowed to go to a movie once a week.  What starts as a protest and a joke, becomes a habit for Madeline even after her only friend at rehab leaves.  She meets Stewart there, a gorgeous boy who is also at the halfway homes.  The two of them connect immediately and even though there are strict rules about associating with the opposite sex, they manage to start a relationship.  Madeline leaves rehab to continue high school, leaving Stewart to finish his time in rehab.  Now the question is whether their relationship live without the intensity of rehab and in the cold light of real life.

Nelson has captured the intriguing mix of boredom and intensity of rehab.  He explores addiction and recovery with an unflinching honesty that forces readers to see the reality of the situation.  Through his two main characters of Madeline and Stewart, readers can see the different paths that recovery can take. 

I don’t want to make this seem like a clinical look at recovery.  Rather, it is filled with emotions and connections and failures and humanity.  It is that humanity that makes the truth so brutal at times.  Madeline is a great protagonist: a person who has made many mistakes but is striving to fix their impact on her future.

One quibble I have about the book is the sudden change of Madeline’s opinion about going to college after high school.  While it is a choice that makes perfect sense, her rapid change of a strong opinion happened a bit too quickly for me.  I found myself thinking about how it would have made much more sense delayed by a chapter or two as Madeline continued to grow and learn.

This is a superior book about addiction and recovery that is honest and human.  Appropriate for ages 14-18.

Reviewed from ARC received from Scholastic.

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