Book Review: Placebo Junkies

About the Book

Title: Placebo Junkies

Author: J.C. Carleson 

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: October 27, 2015

Genres: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction

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Going Bovine meets Trainspotting in this gritty portrait of at-risk teens gaming the prescription drug trial system.
Meet Audie: Professional lab rat. Guinea pig. Serial human test subject. For Audie and her friends, “volunteering” for pharmaceutical drug trials means a quick fix and easy cash.
Sure, there’s the occasional nasty side effect, but Audie’s got things under control. If Monday’s pill causes a rash, Tuesday’s ointment usually clears it right up. Wednesday’s injection soothes the sting from Tuesday’s “cure,” and Thursday’s procedure makes her forget all about Wednesday’s headache. By the time Friday rolls around, there’s plenty of cash in hand and perhaps even a slot in a government-funded psilocybin study, because WEEKEND!
But the best fix of all is her boyfriend, Dylan, whose terminal illness just makes them even more compatible. He’s turning eighteen soon, so Audie is saving up to make it an unforgettable birthday. That means more drug trials than ever before, but Dylan is worth it.
No pain, no gain, Audie tells herself as the pills wear away at her body and mind. No pain, no gain, she repeats as her grip on reality starts to slide….
Raw and irreverent, Placebo Junkies will captivate readers until the very end, when author J. C. Carleson leans in for a final twist of the knife.

My Review of Placebo Junkies

Placebo Junkies is not the typical novel I usually pick up, but it sounded intriguing. I decided to go outside my usual comfort zone, and boy was I rewarded. Placebo Junkies is twisted tale full of unexpected turns right up to the very end. It looks at the underbelly of human testing and clinical trials and what some people do to but it is also very much a story of a young girl trying to survive on her own. 

Audie’s story is one of terrible circumstances and her battle to exert her control over her situation. She also has one good thing in her life, her boyfriend Dylan. She wants nothing more than to give him the best experience in life before his cancer possibly takes him. This love story is beautiful, but tragic in many ways. 

I have to say I loved the writing style that J.C. Carleson chooses to express Audie’s story. It alternates between Audie’s different clinical trials and the pain surrounding selling your body for science. The author also uses Audie’s “Guinea Pig” blog posts to give more insight into Audie’s viewpoint on human test subjects and her life. I also love that as a reader I had no clue what was going to happen or what was going on around Audie until the very last few pages. 

This book is not an easy read for the squeamish, even though it does not go into severe graphic details. I still found it enjoyable in the sense that the book kept me enthralled with trying to find out what was going to happen next, and what exactly was going on with Audie as the story progressed. I would recommend this to also most anyone. I think it is especially enjoyable for fans of realistic fiction or medical based books. 

**Unabridged Bookshelf received this book, in exchange for an honest review**

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The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

Title: The Book of Blood and Shadow
Author: Robin Wasserman
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: April 10, 2012

THE BOOK OF BLOOD AND SHADOW

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It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up.  When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love.  When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark.
But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead.  His girlfriend Adriane, Nora's best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora's sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.
Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.

MY REVIEW

The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman is an amazingly intricate tale of mystery and lost span over 400 years. After losing her brother, Nora was not sure she would even feel happy again, until she gains admission to Chapman Prep. At Chapman, she meets Chris, the only one who knows the truth about her brother, and his soon to be girlfriend, Adriane. Nora feels comfort in her new life, that her home life and absent parents cannot provide. After Chris goes to college, just down the block, their group grows to four, with Chris roommate, Max.

Chris, Max, and, through a special independent study, Nora begin working on trying to translate the Voynich Manuscript, as so many people have before them. Nora is given the less important task of translating the letter of Elizabeth Weston, a seventeen-year-old girl, in 1598. In a turn of events, Nora begins to uncover the secrets of the Voynich Manuscript, which leads down a dangerous road. There are people who want the secrets, and who will do everything to get them. When Nora discovers her best friend, Chris, murdered in his home, and his girlfriend and her other best friend catatonic over his body. Nora does not know what to do, but when Matt, her boyfriend, is blamed for the murd4er, she knows it is up to her to do something.

The quest for answers takes Nora on a trek across the Atlantic to Elizabeth Weston’s home, Prague. There Nora has to find the answers she seeks, while hiding for the secret religious sects who want to either use her knowledge or kill her. Either way Nora is in a world of danger, without her friends by her side. Following in the footsteps of Elizabeth is the only way Nora is going to make it out alive. There is a lot more I want to discuss about this book, but I am trying to avoid spoilers.

The amount of research that the author, Robin Wasserman, did for this novel is outstanding. Elizabeth Weston is a real person and a poet, and so is the Voynich Manuscript, which scholars still attempt to this day to decode. While there are real people in this story, the work is completely fiction. The research and using actual historical people adds a level of realism to the story, and adds a bit of terror to the story. The details and stories in this book is incredible, I have a desire to visit Prague I never thought I would.

It took me longer than I expected to finish The Book of Blood and Shadow, because I savored every second and did not want to miss any details. There are so many subtle clues that are woven into the story causing twists and turns at every single corner. Every time I thought I understood where the story was going, it would change direction. It takes a lot nowadays for a book to hold my complete attention for that long, and I have to commend Robin Wasserman on writing a remarkable book that I never saw coming.

**Unabridged Bookshelf received this book from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review**