Reviews with content warning for Addiction - Clean

conflicted so i’m going to jot my thoughts down in a pro and con list:

+ addiction was represented very, very accurately and is not glamorized in the slightest.
+ comforted me and bought me back to my time in a clinic which was a healing, positive place and i think Juno did i remarkable job at capturing the atmosphere, solidarity and acceptance for who the person standing opposite you is (no matter how twisted and ugly) patients have
+ lexi was a super interesting character, with depth
+ does not use the love can save your mental illness trope
+ you can tell this is a really important issue to Juno, and that she knows what she’s talking about
+ super readable, reignited my joy for reading after months and almost years of not reading anything
+ first book i finished after school so sentimental value
+definitely important for younger readers i think
+ some beautiful sentences

- felt very rushed and not fleshed out, almost surface level as if the book was trying to tackle too much at once
- although i think the depiction of the rehab facility was super positive it is strange how they’re on a private island and it’s meant to be a world class centre, yet more than once patients are seriously injured and bear a ridiculous amount of responsibility which wouldn’t happen even in maximum security places. Also even in the voluntary clinic i was at they still had cameras to monitor the patients weren’t going to harm themselves which is what happened multiple times in this novel.
-> why was an ED patient being treated with the same programme and steps as a opiate addict? It doesn’t make sense.
-> for a world class center why aren’t they checking in on patients and making sure
a) they wake up and come to the meals
b) they aren’t up to high jinks at night
- weird bordering on classist / racist stereotypical representation of a black character with mental illness (super disappointed in this actually Dawson used a lot of harmful stereotypes, language and just the depiction of Sasha as the low income loony was not it)
- Never really got to see Lexi work through her trauma / familial problems or get to see it resolved but i guess maybe that’s a symbol of it being a lifelong thing she’ll have to find peace with

Overall: enjoyed but i think as someone who has been to a treatment facility i found more inconsistencies and errors that took away from the experience as a whole.

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char9341's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A wonderful book to read. Really fast paced. Different layout as there was no chapters, felt like a diary more than a book which I loved. Characters were really well developed and felt as if I knew them, especially the main one. Would definitely recommend to anyone who wants a book to read that they can’t put down. Within the first evening of reading I read over 70 pages without even thinking about it

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enmcurrie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The book follows 17-year-old socialite Lexi Volkov moments after overdosing on heroin, who gets transported to a luxury rehab clinic. It follows her recovery journey and how her elite status and family wealth has played a part in her addiction. It also talks about the recovery of other patients Lexi spends her time with. I thought it was a great book.

What I love about this book is just how raw and real it feels. It doesn’t cut corners it doesn’t try to belittle anything, it’s straight to the point in its handling of addiction and recovery and was really eye-opening to me. It’s so easy to be judgemental of addicts but they have so many more layers to them, and that’s conveyed clearly in this book. The plot is dark, but Dawson gives Lexi such a great dry sense of humour to counteract just how dark and heavy the storyline is, which I appreciated. The characters weren’t meant to be perfect, they say and do offensive things. They’re heavily flawed. But they don’t feel curated. The characters feel real, like you’re reading about the lives of random people you pass by on the street.
Lexi’s recovery felt real too, it wasn’t one dimensional and simple. It wasn’t cliche. The same goes for the other characters in rehab recovering.

The only issue I could comment about with the book would be the way it dealt with anorexia and overeating. I didn’t really like the favour and better treatment there was towards anorexia, but there was good representation there. Also, the ending felt a bit out of place and didn’t make all too much sense to me:

She spent the whole book saying she was a London girl but then just moved to a ranch in America all for a boy? I mean I kinda get it, but a little weird.

The ending was satisfying though and overall I really enjoyed this book. It tackled a lot of issues and it did it well. The pace was good. I would definitely recommend.

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