Reviewed by Angie Fisher for TeensReadToo.com
Doug Schaffer is a sixteen-year-old self-proclaimed loser, although no one notices him enough to care.
When he falls for a girl at the mall he works at, he realizes the only way she'll ever pay attention to him is if he becomes a "bad boy." His plan? Become a meth addict, complete with the drama of rehab and returning with a reputation. What wasn't in his plan was the return of his formerly perfect brother, who was injured in Iraq and formed his own addictions.
What follows is Doug's sad, often humorous journey, albeit researched, into a life of drugs that he never fully embraces, but sucks him in nonetheless.
HIGH BEFORE HOMEROOM is a coming-of-age novel that, like life, isn't always easy to read, but is a very real depiction of the lengths teens will go to be accepted, regardless of the casualties they leave in their wake.
Maya Sloan may well be the most realistic voice to hit the young adult genre since Chris Crutcher, and I, for one, will certainly be following her rise to fame.
Doug Schaffer is a sixteen-year-old self-proclaimed loser, although no one notices him enough to care.
When he falls for a girl at the mall he works at, he realizes the only way she'll ever pay attention to him is if he becomes a "bad boy." His plan? Become a meth addict, complete with the drama of rehab and returning with a reputation. What wasn't in his plan was the return of his formerly perfect brother, who was injured in Iraq and formed his own addictions.
What follows is Doug's sad, often humorous journey, albeit researched, into a life of drugs that he never fully embraces, but sucks him in nonetheless.
HIGH BEFORE HOMEROOM is a coming-of-age novel that, like life, isn't always easy to read, but is a very real depiction of the lengths teens will go to be accepted, regardless of the casualties they leave in their wake.
Maya Sloan may well be the most realistic voice to hit the young adult genre since Chris Crutcher, and I, for one, will certainly be following her rise to fame.
