Thursday, October 29, 2015

ebook review: Placebo junkies

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: 

15% impression: entertaining. Character voice is for the most part distinctive even if it's a little rough. But unremarkable. Would definitely make a good tv show or movie.

20% impression: I really love the romance aspect of this book. You know insta-love? Its the opposite of that.

30% impression: I really enjoyed the blog entries scattered throughout the pages. The voice was biting and cynical, but wholly entertaining.

80% impression: It was a little slow in the beginning but I started getting more and more sucked into Audie's story. I fell for her, hard, and stared at my screen reading with my phone hidden in the crease of a physical book even when I was supposed to not have my phone out. I gushed to my coworkers. I don't know or care what they were talking about; I jumped and went "oh my god, she was [spoiler redacted] the ENTIRE TIME!"

But would I buy it? For myself, probably the kindle version. It just doesn't fit in with the other covers. For my teenaged sister, definitely a hard copy.

Many thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this book for free so I could review it,

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