Book description
Mesmerising, moving novel from an exceptional author about one girl's
struggle to cope after being wrongly admitted to a boot-camp-style
rehabilitation centre. A powerful and page-turning read.
Justine is trying to cope with the desperate loneliness she feels now
her twin brother, Joshua, no longer lives at home. After trying to drown
her feelings with her first ever experiment with alcohol, she is woken
early by her mother one Sunday morning. Bundled into the car by her
livid parents, Justine is driven to Come Clean, a rehabilitation centre
for drug addicts and alcoholics. Confused, vulnerable and covered with
vomit from her first hangover, Justine is forcibly admitted to cure her “addiction”.
There she begins a strict boot-camp routine of humiliation and
discipline, where they attempt to strip her of her identity in order to
rebuild her a better person. Justine escapes the daily torture at the
centre by talking to Joshua in her head, reflecting back on their
childhood and trying to puzzle out why her brother was a tortured soul…
and why he chose to leave her.
Because of the intensely personal nature of the narrative, this book
engages the reader instantly and, however tough the subject matter, it
is a real page-turner. At its heart, Come Clean is about a girl's
inability to deal her grief and her family's ignorance of her pain.
Justine shows strength, resilience, courage and hope while living a
nightmare reality.
This is a book which should and will attract controversy, as teenagers
and society struggle to identify the problems and the treatment for drug
and other teenage addictions. Terri Paddock is an American author
living in London. As well as writing, she runs the website WHAT'S ON
STAGE. Although she has written one book for adults, this is her first
book for children.
