- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Collins Flamingo (9 Sep 2011)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007172478
- ISBN-13: 978-0007172474
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 509,160 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Come Clean
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Mesmerising, moving novel from exceptional new author about one girl’s struggle to cope after being wrongly admitted to a boot-camp-style rehabilitation centre. A powerful and page-turning read.
Justine is trying to cope with the desperate loneliness she feels now her twin brother, Joshua, no longer lives at home. After trying to drown her feelings with her first ever experiment with alcohol, she is woken early by her mother one Sunday morning. Bundled into the car by her livid parents, Justine is driven to Come Clean, a rehabilitation centre for drug addicts and alcoholics. Confused, vulnerable and covered with vomit from her first hangover, Justine is forcibly admitted to cure her “addiction”.
There she begins a strict boot-camp routine of humiliation and discipline, where they attempt to strip her of her identity in order to rebuild her a better person. Justine escapes the daily torture at the centre by talking to Joshua in her head, reflecting back on their childhood and trying to puzzle out why her brother was a tortured soul… and why he chose to leave her.
Because of the intensely personal nature of the narrative, this book engages the reader instantly and, however tough the subject matter, it is a real page-turner. At its heart, Come Clean is about a girl's inability to deal her grief and her family’s ignorance of her pain. Justine shows strength, resilience, courage and hope while living a nightmare reality.
This is a book which should and will attract controversy, as teenagers and society struggle to identify the problems and the treatment for drug and other teenage addictions.
About the Author
Terri Paddock is an American author living in London. As well as writing, she runs the website WHAT'S ON STAGE. Although she has written one book for adults, this is her first book for children.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is quite simply wonderful. The descriptions of the Come Clean centre are both harrowing and shocking, but they are interspersed with poignant reminiscences as Justine looks back on her childhood with Joshua, her twin and soulmate. This juxtaposition makes the horror of her time at the centre all the more powerful.
This novel to tackles the themes of family, love, identity and hope in a refreshingly honest and original way. Not a book for the fainthearted but a must read for everyone else.
OK I admit it, I cried.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
OK, I admit it, I cried at the end. Luckily I was at home at the time.
This really is a beautiful book about love, family, hope and the strength of the human spirit. The main character, Justine, is really put through the wringer and the reader is with her every step of the way. You can't help but feel her helplessness as she goes through hell at the rehabilitation centre. The horror of her experiences at Come Clean are made all the more poignant by being interspersed with memories from Justine's childhood and her relationship with her twin brother.
This isn't a book for the easily shocked, but it really is a must read for everyone else!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I am currently re-reading the book. When I originally read it, I was shocked and sometimes sickened by the treatment of Justine at "Come Clean". It was also fustrating how she couldn't get away, and how the simple neccessities of life were often denied to her and the rest.
But, when I came to re-read it, I took the time to read the author's statement at the front- "For my sister, and other Straight inc. Survivors"
Horrified at what this could mean, I instantly went onto Google and was disgusted at how sickeningly accurate and completely TRUE "Come Clean" is.
There was, and still is, (probably) an organisation that actually sunk so low as to submit youths to the psychological and physical tortures described in the book. READ IT.
(And Google "Straight Incorporated")
But, when I came to re-read it, I took the time to read the author's statement at the front- "For my sister, and other Straight inc. Survivors"
Horrified at what this could mean, I instantly went onto Google and was disgusted at how sickeningly accurate and completely TRUE "Come Clean" is.
There was, and still is, (probably) an organisation that actually sunk so low as to submit youths to the psychological and physical tortures described in the book. READ IT.
(And Google "Straight Incorporated")
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Better with time
I bought this book on the reviews I read on here and decided to give it a go even though it isn't something I would usually pick. Read more
Published 18 months ago by rebecca magowan
Absolute Mindblower
I saw this book in my local library and decided to borrow it.
I'll admit that I thought it was just another one of those teenage, whiny novels, the ones where the main... Read more
I'll admit that I thought it was just another one of those teenage, whiny novels, the ones where the main... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Jin
They were so cruel...yet I couldn't bring myself to stop reading.
This book was a little hard to get into, perhaps by the style it's written in. It's unique, but not in a bad way. Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2009 by D. Beaton
Excellent read!
I have just finished this book at 4 o'clock this morning, initially thinking that at 1am i would just read a few paragraphs before dropping off! Read more
Published on 28 July 2007 by Lori Marshmallow
One of the best books I've read in ages!
This book is brilliant and is definitely one of my top ten!!! Purely emotive and has the amazing descriptions of a mixed up teenagers feelings i've read in a long time. Read more
Published on 8 April 2007 by Sally Adrianna Phillips
2 thumbs up
This is an absolutely brilliant book. It managed to bring tears to my eyes on more than one occasion as it is so horrifying and emotive. Read more
Published on 31 Mar 2007 by RD
A visit from my past
My brother was in Staight in Northern Virginia in the mid-late eighties (if the time line of the book is accurate, probably at the same time the authors sister was). Read more
Published on 15 Aug 2006 by cah925
Impossible to put down
I found this book almost impossible to put down from the very minute I started reading it, the twists and turns and gradual almost sinister revelation of each horrible fact... Read more
Published on 13 July 2006 by HS Mcsweeney
Gripping and very moving
Do not miss this book! I have never been so gripped by a book in a long time, but this had me staying up untill the early hours reading it! Read more
Published on 16 Jun 2006 by Anderson
amazing
i read a lot and its not often i come across a book that i am really gripped and astonished by. this book made me cry, with indignity for the injustice in which justine is treated. Read more
Published on 27 May 2006 by cait
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