Review: Clean, Juno Dawson

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Clean by Juno Dawson
Published by Quercus Children's Books on April 5, 2018
Genres: young adult, contemporary
Format: Paperback
Buy on Amazon, Book Depository, Wordery
Goodreads

I can feel it swimming through my veins like glitter ... it's liquid gold.
When socialite Lexi Volkov almost overdoses, she thinks she's hit rock bottom.
She's wrong. Rock bottom is when she's forced into an exclusive rehab facility.
From there, the only way is up for Lexi and her fellow inmates, including the mysterious Brady.
As she faces her demons, Lexi realises love is the most powerful drug of all ...
It's a dirty business getting clean ...

☂️ TRIGGER WARNINGS:

addiction, drugs, needles, overdose, throwing-up, homophobic comments, self-harming, eating disorders, anorexia, sex addiction, OCD, sexual assault, suicidal thoughts, death.

☂️ DIVERSITY: POC main characters, fat side character, transgender main character.

There are no spoilers in this review.

I ENJOYED…

☂️

• After falling for Meat Market, I was eager to read more from Juno Dawson and jumped on the opportunity to get Clean. I don’t regret it one bit.
• If there’s one thing I found both in Meat Market and Clean, it’s how bold, unapologetically REAL the author gets with her characters, her stories and everything. Please take a moment to read the trigger warnings before heading into this book, as it can be a tough read to handle.
• The main character in this story, Lexi, is a rich London socialite struggling with a drug addiction and, as our book starts, she is sent to a very exclusive rehab center by her brother. Lexi’s journey through her addiction issues is brutal, her coming down from the effects of drugs tough, too. Yet, her growth as you read on is fantastic: it has ups and downs and relapses, moments of darkness and clarity and it’s painful and beautiful to read, too. Lexi is such a determined, strong character and you can’t help but root for her and hope for the best for her, too.
• I loved the cast of characters surrounding Lexi SO much as well. It’s a wonderfully diverse cast of characters, all well written, three dimensional and jumping off the page. They each had their own struggles and issues and each of them brought something more to the story. I loved it.
• What always surprises me, in a good way, in Juno Dawson’s books, is how raw the stories are. The topics tackled are tough and real and they’re never romanticized in any way. In Clean, you deal with many different addictions, but also gender identity, privilege, toxic relationships and more. Nothing is softened for the reader, the tough language, the tough moments, the toxicity of some situations, the long, up and downs road to recovery.

“Think we were both starting fires to see if any of them burned.”

I HAD A HARD TIME WITH…

☂️

• Honestly, the only reason I’m not giving this book 5 stars is because it was a tough read at times and I’m a baby okay.

OVERALL

☂️

Clean was an addictive (oh, pun) read right from the start. I loved the characters, the story, the writing and reading this book confirmed my love for Juno Dawson’s work. I can’t wait to read more now and definitely recommend checking out her books.

FINAL RATING : 4,5 stars!

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Did you read Clean or do you want to? What was your latest favorite read? Let me know in comments!

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