Young Adult
Pages: 288
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: July 19, 2011
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. 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.
Clean is somewhat different to every other substance-abuse book I've read. I must admit I love and deeply enjoy reading about this subject though. But every other book I've read about it is either a before rehab part of it (Ballads of Suburbia) or somewhat of a love story inside rehab. This was very different though. It is told from two main povs but includes essays, group dialogue during sessions and questionnaire. It tells the recovery story of five troubled and very different teenagers and their process to overcome addiction and other issues.
I feel like I went to rehab and intimately explored one of the places I strongly hope I never visit in real life. It was very eye-opening and entertaining. It's also extremely gripping because it is short and formats keep changing and the subject is so dark you just cant stop reading. The content is all very dark and not at all sugar-coated, so some readers may find it hard to digest.
All the characters felt very real and I extremely liked Eva because she was so straight-forward and had a wonderful story-telling ability. It was very original how she wrote her story. But I found Jason a bit hard to swallow. Like, the poor boy had absolutely nothing good going on for him, and the only time he had deep scenes I felt they benefited the other character. The other four teens had something to hang on to, something positive that made them lucky in some way. But Jason was just... all screwed up. Which was weird.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this and I'm eager to read more form Amy because I really appreciate author who are not afraid to write about hard issues bluntly.
