Junk

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book.
Review: A slow start to what then became one of the most fantastic books I have ever read. The characters become your friends and you emphasise with their choices and actions. This is the first book I have ever read that has enabled me to see a reason why people use herion. The book takes you through the good and the bad times.

I for one after reading the book would never try heroin. I was shown how this drug could take away dignity, dreams and even lifes.

A brilliant book!!!

Rating:
Summary: Quite simply, just brilliant
Review: After meeting Melvin Burgess at the book launch of his new novel, 'Kite' (what a character!), i purchased 'Junk'. After the first chapter, i just couldn't put it down. It gave a real insight into the lives of Gemma and Tar. I also liked the way each chapter was written from the view of a different character.

P.S. Richard in the story is based a a real person that Melvin Burgess knew

Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: After reading the reviews for this book I quickly went out and bought it. It really is a great book. There's only 71 pages but alot happens. It's written in the way a play is. You feel so many emotions reading this book. Although it is a little confusing it's a great book! It's about this guy Tar who runs away from home at 14 and his girlfriend later runs away to be with him. It shows how they grew up and changed within themselves and the good and bad choices they made and how they quickly became addicted then tried to send it.

"Tar (to audience) Love is forever! Yeah, well I don't beliebe that any more. Being an addict. . . now that's forever. It was a love story. Me, Gemma and Junk"

Rating:
Summary: What a book!!!
Review: At first it was very difficult for us, as German pupils, to read the book because of the changing points of view. But after reading some pages, the book starts spellbinding you. The way Burgess describes the characters is very vivid so you can identify with them easily. before reading we thought that everybody taking heroin is neglected and dirty. But when you get to know the stories of the Junkies you start to think about them by another way.

By Jonas Lorkowski, Robin Horstmann, Fabian Kröll

From BGA in NRW, Germany

Rating:
Summary: Luv It
Review: Easy style true thug poor lives' destiny another narrator every chapter, drugs, freedom, love, death, hope, hopeless, stupid dogmatism, cops, street life when you are 14, -must read it.

Rating:
Summary: a fantastic book welldone melvin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: i bought this book after being reccomended it, and what a great book it is. I just could not put it down. This really did make me think about why people take drugs and the damageing effects it can have on people. As i am 13, i think it should be read in schools all over the country as i think it would really deter people from taking drugs. this book really seems to hit home and is the best way in teaching young children about drugs.

Rating:
Summary: Badly written, cliched and dull
Review: I find it interesting that the writer has gotten away with such terrible writing and such a lack of understanding of heroin addiction simply by aiming this poor attempt at a novel at "young adults". Is it because he could not get published if he tried to write for grown ups?
I picked up this book in an airport about to leave Los Angeles for London, 9 days after detoxing cold turkey from heroin and the Burroughs aping title and cover imagery made me think it would be an interesting read. I was wrong.
Written by a man who obviously has never experienced heroin use or addiction first (or Im guessing even second) hand, this woeful book patronises it's "teen" readers with old-guy-trying-to-be-hip teen speak (newsflash Burgess, no-one.... NO-ONE calls heroin "junk" anymore) and it's linear plotting.

Honestly, I was amazed that this book got published and then relentelessly promoted by a bunch of wannabe "hip" english teachers and social workers who again had no clue as to what the heroin scene was all about, as a book that could tell the kids "Drugs are, you know, bad and stuff."

Steer your teens to Trainspotting or even Junky if you want them to know what heroin is all about. Or, if you want them to think you are an out of touch old fool, give the a copy of this book.

Rating:
Summary: JUST FANTASTIC!!!!!!
Review: I'm 15 and I loved this book, it's great. Tar and Gemma are to kids that run away from home. They start "fun" with narcotics, heroine... They deal drugs & shop lift. Gemma starts a new life, she's now a punk. Don't won't to tell you anymore, but you should read it...

Rating:
Summary: book about reality
Review: In my opinion Junk isn't as good as a lot of others say. It's neither very interesting nor exciting. You always know what the characters are going to do next. The whole action is that some kids ran away from home, start taking drugs and then got into contact with thieving, prostitution, etc., because they need money to pay the drugs. This is very boring, nothing special happens. The only thing in this book which is really well-made, is that the story is real and that the author hadn't left out details or things which could be "too hard" for teenagers. Reality is hard and most times not nice. Grown-ups often can't imagine with what their children are confronted in school or when they are out with friends. This book is a good possibility to tell teenagers something about drugs, but it's not a book which I'd read in my free time. I'm interested in a lot of things and I've read a lot of different books but I think that this is one of the most boring ones. This book is not to entertain you or to make you learn something, it's just to make attention.

Rating:
Summary: A Dangerous World Put Forward
Review: Junk is an outstanding book that explores the world of drugs and throws you into the typical life of a 'junkie'. It is a powerful book that has you gripped from the start, like any good book that you simply cannot put down.
It has a great layout that puts you into the junkies' minds', looking out on their world, clearly giving you the ups and downs of junk. It shows just how dangerous a world full of junk can be.
This is a book that well deserves the 5 star treatment.