Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)It's interesting how this book came into my hands. My sixth-grade daughter put it there. We spent some time in the bookstore together and she, as usual, picked out half a dozen books. I picked one and it was a loser. So, she offered me, "Lush" by Natasha Friend. I read it in just over an hour, mostly because I couldn't put it down. I will pass it on to her, with only a slight reservation about some youthful /immature sexual references, which, unfortunately, will cross her path one of these days in spite of anything I do or don't do/say.
This is the simple and well-written story of Samantha "Sam" Gwynn, a typical, suburban teenager. She's in eighth grade and on the verge of . . . everything. As if dealing with hormones popping all around her at school weren't enough to manage, at home she tries to cope with her father's drinking problem, her mother the enabling yoga freak, and her adorable little brother, Luke. She's feuding with her neighbor, Charlie Parker, believing he stole her bra and charged his buddies a buck to view it, and she develops a crush on a popular high school boy. Sam has friends (a fun and believable trio of girls from school), but she needs a confidant--someone to whom she can express her fears about her father's drinking. She sets her sights on a redheaded girl in the library named Juliet and composes a letter to her.
"My dad is what you would call a big drinker (which really equals a big alcoholic--I have done my research)," she writes. Sam leaves the first note with instructions to reply by leaving a note in an obscure book called "The History of Modern Whaling." Thus, an entertaining and mysterious correspondence ensues. As the story unfolds, Sam's humor and intelligence shines through. One can't help but fall in love with her and care deeply about what will happen to her and her family. Natasha Friend is dead-on accurate with the voice/s of the characters and they all pop off the page.
I highly recommend this book for many reasons, but particularly for any young person dealing with an alcoholic parent--or for parents of teens who face this issue in their families. References and resources for kids and teens are printed in the back of the book.
From the author of "A Line Between Friends," McKenna Publishing Group.
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