Clean
Juno Dawson / Children's / Fiction
UK Publisher
Quercus Children's Books
Date Published
April 5th, 2018
Translations
Karakter Uitgevers (Dutch)
Helios (Estonian)
Hachette Livre (French)
Carlsen (German)
Newton & Compton (Italian)
Alma Litera (Lithuanian)
Vigmostad & Bjorke (Norwegian)
Grupo Saida de Emergencia (Portuguese)
Urano (Spanish)
Absynt (Slovakian)
Dramatic Rights
The Lighthouse
Read the book described as ‘one hell of a ride’ and ‘Gossip Girl meets Skins’.
Lexi has hit rock bottom. After almost overdosing in a penthouse suite her brother stages an intervention and takes her to the Clarity Centre, an island facility for troubled young people.
After a gruelling and painful detox, Lexi enters group therapy and meets her fellow ‘inmates’. Through her therapy sessions and the Clarity Centre’s Ten Steps Programme, Lexi gradually opens up about her fractured childhood, destructive relationships and the dark secret she has been running from.
But it’s her new friendships that make Lexi re- evaluate the path she’s on. Stripped of her status, she is free to laugh, dance, share and feel. Forthe first time ever, Lexi has true friends and findsherself powerfully drawn to Brady. But with the demons both Lexi and Brady need to overcome, is a relationship even possible?
Reviews
The pitch is ‘Gossip Girl’ meets ‘Girl, Interrupted’ and Clean is just as glossy, provocative and eminently page-turning as that would suggest, bold and incisive with razor-sharp writing. Yes, the language and content will be controversial, but it’s one of the few YA books brave enough to tackle addiction head-on.
- The Bookseller
[An] emotional freight train of a novel... a tale that emphasises the strength in recovery.
- Heat
Pacy, funny and in parts very touching... a rambunctious read about teen addiction, Clean hits the spot.
- i
Written with verve, wit and a mischievous love of language
- Stylist
Glamorous without glamorising addiction, and informative without getting preachy, this is a highly readable account of escaping from a self-destructive spiral, with an appealing love story woven in.
- The Irish Times
Mingles pitch-perfect pop-culture references with the layers of lies and self-justification in which the addict’s mind wreathes itself; it’s compulsively readable, hilarious and filled with uncomfortable truths.
- The Guardian
In the 20 years since Melvin Burgess's Junk, surprisingly few YA novels have dared tackle addiction. Juno Dawson's Clean changes that in spectacular style... As bold and gritty as it is fabulously glossy and readable, it's a provocative, important read
- Observer