ARC Review: Roxy by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Posted November 9, 2021 by Lisa Mandina in Review / 2 Comments

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

ARC Review:  Roxy by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod ShustermanRoxy by Neal Shusterman, Jarrod Shusterman
Published by Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers on November 9, 2021
Genres: YA Contemporary
Pages: 384
Source: the publisher
Format: ARC
My Rating: four-stars
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Synopsis:

From the team that brought you the New York Times bestselling Dry comes a riveting new thriller that proves when gods play games, even love is a lie.

The freeway is coming.

It will cut the neighborhood in two. Construction has already started, pushing toward this corridor of condemned houses and cracked concrete with the momentum of the inevitable. Yet there you are, in the fifth house on the left, fighting for your life.

Ramey, I.

The victim of the bet between two manufactured gods: the seductive and lethal Roxy (Oxycontin), who is at the top of her game, and the smart, high-achieving Addison (Adderall), who is tired of being the helpful one, and longs for a more dangerous, less wholesome image. The wager—a contest to see who can bring their mark to “the Party” first—is a race to the bottom of a rave that has raged since the beginning of time. And you are only human, dazzled by the lights and music. Drawn by what the drugs offer—tempted to take that step past helpful to harmful…and the troubled places that lie beyond.

But there are two I. Rameys—Isaac, a soccer player thrown into Roxy’s orbit by a bad fall and a bad doctor and Ivy, his older sister, whose increasing frustration with her untreated ADHD leads her to renew her acquaintance with Addy.

Which one are you?

My Review:

So I haven’t actually read a book by Shusterman in a while, but I loved his Unwind series. So when the publisher reached out to me about reading this one, I was excited to give it a try.

This was an interesting book for sure. It wasn’t the easiest read. At times I was a little confused as to who was narrating. And while some of the drug names of the characters made sense, others I had to think a little to figure them out. It definitely made for a very unique story though!

It was interesting to read about the different drugs and their “families” or “uplines” as they may have been called. The different characteristics were creative and such a fascinating way to portray them. I have seen some people saying that this is criticizing all drugs, even those that are helpful, but I don’t feel that it comes across that way. I believe it shows how any drug can be misused and become a bad thing, even when it may have started as helpful.

As I said, a unique and different type of story, but I wonder if some of it might not keep certain teenagers’ attention in how the writing was. Of course I’m an adult, so my attention span is different, but there were times that I just kind of got bored and skipped or skimmed as I felt that things weren’t necessarily important to the storyline itself.

Still, it is one that I will be putting in my library for my students to give a try and see what they think of it as well.

About the Authors:

Photo Content from Neal and Jarrod Shusterman

Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty award-winning books for children, teens, and adults, including the Unwind dystology, the Skinjacker trilogy, Downsiders, and Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award. Scythe, the first book in his latest series, Arc of a Scythe, is a Michael L. Printz Honor Book. He also writes screenplays for motion pictures and television shows. Neal is the father of four, all of whom are talented writers and artists themselves. Visit Neal at StoryMan.com and Facebook.com/NealShusterman.

Jarrod Shusterman is the author of the short story “UnDevoured” in bestselling Unbound. He writes for film and television, and his talents extend to directing films and commercials. He was the story producer on the television movie Zedd—Moment of Clarity, and he and Neal Shusterman are adapting Dry for the screen. Jarrod lives in Los Angeles but enjoys traveling internationally and is currently studying Spanish. 

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