Review: Clean by Amy Reed.

Title: Clean

Author: Amy Reed

Published July 19th 2011 by Simon Pulse

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I liked this book, but I kinda didn't care much about it.
I mean it is such an unique concept, something you don't normally read in YA, so you understand why I felt like it had so much potential! well at least I expected more than this :(

This book centers in the life of 5 teenager drug addicts, but not only that, they all have really MESSED UP lives, and when I say messed up I really mean it.

They all either come from abusive or alcoholic parents or bad influence friends that have got them into serious trouble or they have been abused physically by random men. It really bugged me that instead of reaching out to the roots of each teen's problems, the book focused in unraveling more and more problems in each page.

Like just when you thought you knew everything about that guy, he will reveal some new completely unforgivable thing he did or was done to him, or when you thought you knew all there was to know about the obssessive anorexic she will come out with scars all over her body.

It made me feel overwhelmed, like the author was piling all the awful things she could find to make the book deeper. But I've read other books that focused in just one problem and have way more depth than this one.

It was also annoying the fact that there were five main characters. Despite having all this options I couldn't connect with either of them, I mean I feel depressed for all of them but after finishing the book I don't find myself thinking about the hope or possibilities for them in life. It is kind of like when you hear that story about a distant cousin of your neighbor that is in jail and you feel for your neighbor but you didn't really care for that stranger, well at least not more than you would care about another stranger/human being.

But don't get me wrong this was not a total waste, there were funny moments thrown here and there. And the each character's personality was well-developed, I just wish it wasn't this many information about them thrown in such a short period of time, because it felt rushed. But the prose was excellent and the one thing I loved about it was the way the book was written, each chapter was either told from someone's point of view or by everyone's in some kind of weird-but-entretaining way, from questionaires to pieces of the essays the guys wrote. I loved that!

So I didn't love it but didn't hate it and I don't even know how to express my thoughts on it. This book just was, it didn't left me wondering or wanting more, but I don't completely regret reading it.