A Review of 'Clean' by Amy Lynn Reed

"You're probably wondering how I ended up here.  I'm still wondering the same thing.

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 confront the truths about their pasts.  And they certainly don't want to share their darkest secrets and most desperate fears with a room of strangers.  But they'll all have to deal with themselves and one another if that want to learn how to live.  Because when you get that high, there's nowhere to go but down, down, down."

I woke up one morning and since I didn't have to go to school  or anything, I decided to delay my getting out of bed and read. To my pleasant surprise, this was a book that I couldn't put down.  It was like this when I started, but I was always forced to put it down, and at this point in time, I had no reason to.

I liked that this story was told from several points of view in creative ways.  Sometimes Christopher and Kelly would talk about what was going on in their present time, but other times there was a transcript of the group sessions or personal essays from everyone in the group.

This was a really neat story about several recoveries.  I liked seeing what was going on in the character's heads.  While Shirley, the group therapist, was a huge help to the teens in this rehabilitation center, a lot of the healing seemed to be going on in their own minds, which I guess is a huge part of what rehab is.  At least in this place.

The stories were sad and the reactions to these stories by the people who experienced them are painful because most of the time, they didn't mean to do the things they did.  While I couldn't relate to them personally, I was still able to feel for the characters and have sympathy for them and I was hopeful throughout their recovery.

The thing that was frustrating at times was the unwillingness of some of the characters to listen, come clean, and change.  But this is probably part of the recovery process.

This book is good for those who enjoy reading about a struggle and then a glimpse of triumph, this is the book for you.

I give 'Clean':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude