REVIEW: Clean by Juno Dawson

Hello all! Hope you're all enjoying the summer so far!

My proof copy of Clean in all its shiny glory

Today I have a review of a super gritty and powerful read from Juno Dawson that I highly recommend.

Title: Clean

Author: Juno Dawson
Series: n/a
Pages: 400
Publisher: Quercus Books
Date of Publication: 5th April, 2018
Source: proof received from book club
Synopsis from Goodreads:
I can feel it swimming through my veins like glitter ... it's liquid gold.

When socialite Lexi Volkov almost overdoses, she thinks she's hit rock bottom.

She's wrong. Rock bottom is when she's forced into an exclusive rehab facility.

From there, the only way is up for Lexi and her fellow inmates, including the mysterious Brady.

As she faces her demons, Lexi realises love is the most powerful drug of all ...

It's a dirty business getting clean ...

My Thoughts:
I haven't read a book by Juno Dawson since Say Her Name which was published in 2014 so I thought it was high time to get back on it. Ever since I heard about Clean I was intrigued, however I tend to avoid books about drugs because drugs are bad and characters who take them make me mad. However, I couldn't resist the shiny cover and the glowing reviews so I decided to put my prejudices aside and give it a go.

Prior to reading this, I decided that I'd gone off contemporary fiction. I don't know whether it's whatever's going on in my personal life (there's some shite tbh) or whether I just am a bit bored, but I haven't enjoyed the last few contemps I've read as much as I was expecting to, but reckon had I read them this time last year, I'd have loved them. Anyway, despite deciding to read something that wasn't contemporary, this grabbed my attention and I gave it a go, and before I knew it I had read 100 pages.

The story starts with a bang as Lexi is 'kidnapped' by her brother and thrown into a rehabilitation centre on a remote island. At first, Lexi is rude and unstable and seemingly uncontainable. I was so ready to dislike her, but I soon realised I'd fallen into the trap that the book makes such an effort to challenge: that Lexi is more than just her addiction, her sickness. I wanted to hate Lexi because how could she do this to herself? But as the book went on I grew to like her more and more as I began to understand her. Juno does such a good job of making her seem so human, and it really blew me away.

The book doesn't shy away from anything. I'm not going to list all of the possible triggers because there are many and I don't want to miss one out, so I'll just say be careful going into it and no matter how good it is, be prepared to stop if it's going to affect you (pls feel free to ping me a message if you do want specifics). There was so much honesty in the writing and I have genuinely been changed by some of the things I read about in the book. I won't be so prejudiced now about drugs and the illness that is addiction. Any book that is able to do that, to influence and make readers more aware about very real issues is surely one to be celebrated.

Overall, I really loved Clean. I was so, so surprised by how strongly it pulled me in and I literally couldn't stop reading. I was late back from my lunch break at work because I was too engrossed (only by five minutes thankfully but still). It's gritty, it's raw, and I cannot recommend it enough.

What did you think of Clean? Have you read anything else by Juno Dawson?