Author(s): Melvin Burgess

New Young Adult Fiction (Ages 13+)

Everything is free. That's the secret. The only thing that isn't free is you. You do as you're told; you sit in your seat till they say, 'Stand.' You stay put till they say, 'Go.' Maybe that's the way you like it. It's easy. It's all there. You don't have to think about it. you don't even have to feel it. I sometimes wonder how this planet keeps on sticking to my feet. They did everything they could to pin me down ...my mum, my dad, school. They put me in homes with kind guys and they put me in homes with bastards. They did things to me you can't even talk about. I'm okay. What about you? Melvin Burgess's most ambitious and complex novel to date is a multi-faceted and vivid depiction of a group of young people in the grip of drug addiction, told in many different voices, from the addicts themselves to the friends watching from the outside who try to prevent tragedy.