Book review - Roxy

 

Title: Roxy

Author: Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Genre: realistic fiction

Similar books: You'd Be Home Now by Kathleen Glasgow

                      Fadeaway by E.B. Vickers

Rating:

 

well intentioned but less than ideal

Summary (provided by publisher): The freeway is coming.
It will cut the neighborhood in two. Construction has already started, pushing toward this corridor of condemned houses and cracked concrete with the momentum of the inevitable. Yet there you are, in the fifth house on the left, fighting for your life.
Ramey, I.
The victim of the bet between two manufactured gods: the seductive and lethal Roxy (Oxycontin), who is at the top of her game, and the smart, high-achieving Addison (Adderall), who is tired of being the helpful one, and longs for a more dangerous, less wholesome image. The wager—a contest to see who can bring their mark to “the Party” first—is a race to the bottom of a rave that has raged since the beginning of time. And you are only human, dazzled by the lights and music. Drawn by what the drugs offer—tempted to take that step past helpful to harmful…and the troubled places that lie beyond.
But there are two I. Rameys—Isaac, a soccer player thrown into Roxy’s orbit by a bad fall and a bad doctor and Ivy, his older sister, whose increasing frustration with her untreated ADHD leads her to renew her acquaintance with Addy.
Which one are you?

My opinion: Let's be honest: addiction narratives are inherently predictable. So anytime an author finds a unique approach it's worth a look. And Shusterman has found a unique approach in personifying the drugs. In fact, I would argue that this is not Isaac and Ivy's story. Roxy and Addy really take center stage. Thus we are empathizing with the drugs rather than the people. Ivy and Isaac are fairly underdeveloped. We also meet a wide variety of other drugs, identified primarily by nicknames, so unless you're familiar with drug culture some of them are hard to recognize. It's a unique story to be sure but I don't know what readers will take from it.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley