Lexi Volkov is uber-rich and utterly spoilt by her billionaire parents, so when she gets thrown into an exclusive rehab facility for heroin addiction she has literally hit rock bottom and surely from there the only way is up?
I didn't think I'd like Lexi to begin with, but she grew on me quite quickly and you quickly see that the only reason she behaves like such a nightmare is because of her addictions and the toxic relationships she clings onto. By about halfway through the book I really liked her and was totally rooting for her and believe it or not the author actually managed to make me feel sorry for the poor little rich girl.
I've never had to come off heroin myself, and I'm glad because it sounds absolutely horrific. Can't speak for the veracity of what Lexi goes through, but it sounded realistic enough and certainly kept me reading. Also, I don't follow the tabloids or reality TV or whatever, but even I could see that there were plenty of parallels to people in the public eye who suddenly check themselves into a clinic for 'exhaustion'.
the story isn't just about Lexi coming off heroin, but also the bit after, where she has to come to terms with her addiction and make the changes in her life that will let her stay clean. That, for me, was the really interesting bit.
In fact, this was a five star read until the last 5% or so, where I think the author just tried to cram too much resolution into too few pages. It felt muddled and disjointed from the rest of the book and it would have worked better if we were left guessing about what happened to Lexi after her second bout of treatment.
I've not read anything of Juno Dawson's before, so this was a really good intro into this author's writing. Recommended.
4 stars