Tag Archives: drug abuse

Review: Tessa by Melissa Wiltrout

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Tessa
Melissa Wiltrout
Life Sentence Publishing
Published September 3, 2013

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Fifteen year-old runaway Tessa Minor is forced to return home after being caught shoplifting some food from a grocery store. She dreads the moment she has to face her father again, knowing he’ll make her pay for every hour she’s been on her own. She wakes in the back yard shed at home, battered and bruised from her father’s punishment. When she’s finally able to return to school, Tess dodges questions from her friends but can’t help feeling curious about the new girl, Heather, who speaks openly about her faith and is warm and kind to Tessa. In the midst of a violent altercation at home, Tess escapes through her bedroom window and runs to Heather’s home, where her grandparents take care of her. Gradually, their steadfast love and faith permeates Tess’s home life, and Tess begins to see changes even in her parents’ behavior. But after living in filth and terror for so long, Tess isn’t sure she can trust that the changes are for real or that they erase the horror of her past.

Tessa’s immaturity and tenaciousness made her a believable girl in her early teens, though her bad attitude was sometimes a little much to swallow. Wiltrout captures the chaos and uncertainty of life with an abuser, but it was difficult to understand why Tessa’s mother stayed with him, since she didn’t seem really dependent on him. The spiritual journeys each character takes were largely believable and authentic. Often the critical moment came not through conversation with another person but because of it, which feels more true to life. Forgiveness and consequences were also nicely balanced in a story which deals with redemption of someone with a serious criminal history.

While some of the story elements were a little underdeveloped, Wiltrout shows an overall good sense of story and character development as well as a nice grasp of how to authentically incorporate spiritual awakening into her scenes.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild and infrequent.

Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
When Tessa meets Heather and her grandparents, she also wins an introduction to their faith as Christians. Soon Tess begins to see God moving through her small family.

Violence
Tessa’s father mercilessly punishes her for running away and anytime she makes a mistake. Angry and brutal, he beats her severely enough for her to lose consciousness.

Drug Content
Tess’s dad also demands she help him concoct methamphetamine in an abandoned structure. While Tess never uses the drug, she suffers physical consequences from exposure to the chemicals used in the process. No ingredients are named, nor is the process described in any detail. Participants ultimately serve time in jail.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: White Lines by Jennifer Banash

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

White Lines
Jennifer Banash
G P Putnam’s Sons
Published April 4, 2013

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Seventeen-year-old Cat slogs through school days, waiting for nighttime, when the flashing lights and pulsing music of New York’s hottest clubs to bring her to life. Waiting to float away on the little white lines. What started as a dream, an unending party, twists into something more sinister. Cat can feel her life rocketing out of control, but she feels powerless to stop it. As pressure from her boss and her abusive mother pile on top of her, Cat wants to retreat further into the haze of anonymity in the club scene. All that holds her back is the mysterious boy who makes her want to experience life and feel things that ordinarily terrify her. As the pull of her night life and her attraction to Julian yank her in different directions, Cat must make hard choices and force her fears into words before she fractures completely.
In a genre already crowded with stories of teen drug experimentation, self-destruction, and recovery, Banash boldly writes with equal measures grit and empathy. Cat’s battle extends far beyond drug addiction into issues of abandonment and abuse, which only adds to the believability of her plight. Though the end was a little too neat and tidy to fit the rest of this dark tale, the message of hope and recovery is sure to be encouraging to readers who’ve struggled with addiction personally or through a friend or family member.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Infrequent but severe.

Sexual Content
Brief but intense kissing scene. References to sexual encounters that happen off-scene.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
One boy attempts suicide publicly by first trying to throw himself out a window and then cutting himself. Another boy eggs him on. Cat’s mother physically and emotionally abuses her. A few scenes contain brief but strong descriptions of this abuse. She suffers from a violent recurring nightmare in which her mother brutally murders her.

Drug Content
Cat and her coworkers frequently abuse drugs like cocaine and extasy. Consequences for the behavior are severe and while the abuse is pretty thoroughly described, it is not condoned in any way. This is a cautionary tale of disaster averted by rehab and therapy.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: You Know Where to Find Me by Rachel Cohn

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

You Know Where to Find Me
Rachel Cohn
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published March 4, 2008

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Two cousins share a world of made up stories, dreams and long summer days until one, the perfect, beautiful one, chooses the unthinkable: to end her life. In the wake of that loss, the one left behind, Miles, must find her own way through her first summer without Laura. Friends and family rally around her to try to draw her out of her deepening isolation and depression, but their efforts often fall short and they are unable to touch the gaping wound inside of her. Miles’s story is a powerful, emotive tale of a girl walking through grief not knowing what is on the other side and if she can make it through and who, if anyone, will stick with her through that dark journey.

This was a tough read for me. I felt like the drug abuse was portrayed as this kind of glamorous experience, even though there were some consequences. It was explicit enough to almost feel like a how-to in some places, which was really too much for me. I deeply invested in the characters, but that investment also made it difficult for me to get through some of the darker parts of the story. Normally, I’m up for all the angst. I’m not sure why this one really haunted me (not in a great way) or what. Sensitive readers may find this one to be a bit too much to bear.

Language Content
Light. Very little bad language.

Sexual Content
In one scene, the main character touches a boy inappropriately on top of clothes. The scene is very brief. Laura’s father is gay, but the story does not delve into his relationships. Two men kiss near a fountain in the background of one scene.

Spiritual Content
Miles, despite calling herself an atheist, expresses anger toward God and briefly discusses the possible existence of heaven with another character, who expresses a belief that it does exist.

Violence
None

Drug Content
Yeowza. Before Laura’s death, the girls shared pharms like percs and oxys they snatched from parents’ unused prescriptions. Twice Miles visits the home of a renown drug dealer and checks out his stash. She depends more and more on the pharms and their effects after Laura kills herself and presents them as really benevolent for much of the duration of the story, though other characters do encourage Miles needs to quit using.

**SPOILER ALERT**
While Miles drug use is pretty explicit, the consequences include an accidental overdose and a commitment to rehab. She feels relieved to be breaking free of her addiction, even though she knows it’s going to be an uphill battle.

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