The book is interesting and experimental in some ways, but the plot and characters are completely secondary to the commentary on drugs, which is disappointing. Already on Goodreads, before the book’s release, one can see reviews ranging from “It’s against drug abuse, so 5 stars!” to “It doesn’t mirror my experience with drugs, so 1 star!” I thought long and hard about whether the book even is trying to tell a story, or just send teen readers a message, and I ultimately I had to conclude that the story just isn’t quite there. Roxy, being an exploration of the opioid crisis, is one of those books where the reviews are going to be dominated by discussion of the message of the book, rather than discussion of the story. 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. Drawn by what the drugs offer-tempted to take that step past helpful to harmful…and the troubled places that lie beyond.īut there are two I. And you are only human, dazzled by the lights and music. 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.

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. Yet there you are, in the fifth house on the left, fighting for your life. Construction has already started, pushing toward this corridor of condemned houses and cracked concrete with the momentum of the inevitable. If they are not working, it means they’re eating.It will cut the neighborhood in two. He is also the coauthor of the accoladed novel Roxy. His books have all received critical acclaim and multiple starred reviews. Sofi Lapuente and Jarrod are partners in every sense of the word, with love and multiculturalism as an ethos-living between Madrid, Spain, and Los Angeles, California. Jarrod Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling coauthor of novel Dry, which he is adapting for a major Hollywood film studio with Neal Shusterman. Neal is the father of four, all of whom are talented writers and artists themselves. He also writes screenplays for motion pictures and television shows. Scythe, the first book in his series Arc of a Scythe is a Michael L. Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty award-winning books for children, teens, and adults, including the Unwind dystology, the Skinjacker trilogy, Downsiders, and Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award.

Neal & jarrod shusterman