Teen Addiction

 Addiction impacts lives in many different ways. Three new YA novels explore the topic from several points of view: the addict's struggles, the impact on the addict's family, and the culture of addiction enablers in the music industry. Tell Me When You Feel Something by Vicki Grant is a thriller which explores a tragic incident in the life of a closet teen alcoholic, who works in a simulated patient med school program.  You'd Be Home Now by Kathleen Glasgow details the struggles of a teen who becomes her heroin addict brother's caretaker when he returns from rehab. Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie is set in the 70s and focuses on an up and coming musician, whose career takes off when she gets involved with a star with substance abuse problems. 

In Tell Me When You Feel Something, Vivienne Braithwaite is living a lie.  Seemingly, the girl who has everything, wealth, beauty, popularity, a loving boyfriend, now lies in the hospital in a coma, after taking an unknown drug.  How she got the drug and why she took it are revealed in chapters which alternate between Viv's third-person narration of events leading up to the tragedy, her friends' first-person accounts after the incident, and police interviews of individuals involved with Viv. Viv, Davida and Tim are participants in the Simulated Patient program at the local med school. Viv strikes up a friendship with them and plays matchmaker, while her boyfriend is away at rugby camp.  Unbeknownst to them, Viv is a closet alcoholic.  Her parents are going through a traumatic divorce, after her father leaves her mom for a younger woman.  To deal with the stress of being the perfect student, girlfriend and "patient", as well as the go-between in her parents' escalating battles, she drinks vodka, which she has in her ever-present water bottle.  Seeking help from the doctor who heads the SP program, Viv realizes that during her periods of blackout drunkenness, someone has been abusing her.  The author effectively explores the way teens can spiral into alcoholism , detailing how enablers and those who are too self-absorbed to see what is going on, add to the problem. This suspenseful novel will keep readers turning the pages to find out who abused Viv and how she fares. 

You'd Be Home Now introduces Emory Ward, who along with her brother Joey are in a car accident where a classmate dies.  Joey wasn't driving, but he was in the back seat nearly overdosed on heroin.  He is sent to rehab and when he returns, their mother sets up a strict set of rules for his behavior and instructs Emory to keep tabs on him 24/7.  Although she loves Joey and wants to help him, the pressure is suffocating. She rebels by shoplifting and hooking up with Gage, a popular classmate and neighbor who insists on keeping their relationship secret.  Meanwhile the town's problem with "ghosties," homeless addicts that live by the river, reveals an even bigger problem.  As she loses the battle to keep Joey on the straight and narrow and he gets involved with the "ghosties," she begins to realize that she must be honest with herself and others and find her own way.  With the help of new found friends, Emory restructures the balance in her life and her place in the community.  The author, drawing from the play Our Town and her own experience with addiction recovery, illustrates the profound effect the opioid crisis and addiction have on individuals and their families.

Songs in Ursa Major opens at the 1969 Bayleen Island Folk Fest, where local musician Jane Quinn is asked to step in for the headliner, folk rock mega star Jesse Reid, and her life is changed forever.  Jesse, who is recovering from a motorcycle accident, falls for Jane while recuperating on the island and asks her band, the Breakers, to open for his 1970 tour.  Jane insists on keeping her relationship with Jesse as secret, because she wants to be known for her music, not just as an opportunistic female. As the Breakers travel cross country on the tour, her A & R rep pressures her to capitalize on her romance to sell albums.  Complicating the situation is Vincent Ray, the producer who finds Jane's talent and independence threatening, and tries to derail her career. Although he is adept at hiding it, Jesse is a heroin addict and as the tour continues, Jane finds out and is pressured to coddle him and keep his secret.  Ultimately, she heads back to the island to record her seminal solo album, Songs in Ursa Major. The epilogue details the continuation of their friendship, although somewhat briefly. The book is based on the relationship between James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, although it stands on its own as a hero's journey where a woman with incredible musical gifts struggles to overcome the roadblocks the music business throws in her way.  Predictably Songs in Ursa Major is being adapted as a movie.  I can't wait to hear the soundtrack!

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