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Come Clean
 
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Come Clean (Paperback)

by Terri Paddock (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books (2 Aug 2004)
  • 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 (24 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 368,541 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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

24 Reviews
5 star:
 (20)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Shockingly beautiful, 26 Aug 2004
By A Customer
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.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Grueling but wonderful!, 26 Aug 2004
By A Customer
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!

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Coming Clean about "experts", 12 Jan 2005
By A Customer
Just finished it, brilliant!

So close to the truth, it was uncanny. Through my own work, I've come across so many young people whose simple difficulties - like Justine's bereavement - are scarily twisted and manipulated in the cause and course of "professional help." "Come Clean" may be a fiction, but the abuse so many similar programmes meter out and the damage they do is terrible.

I also loved the wonderful interludes describing childhood. Beautifully captured and so genuine that I think everyone recognises something of thier own in it...and the "twins" angle gave it even more depth.

Worth reading

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars 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 4 months ago by Dana Beaton

5.0 out of 5 stars 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 23 months ago by Lori Marshmallow

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting
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". Read more
Published on 11 April 2007 by Sarah Marlowe

5.0 out of 5 stars 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

5.0 out of 5 stars 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

5.0 out of 5 stars 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

4.0 out of 5 stars 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 Jul 2006 by HS Mcsweeney

5.0 out of 5 stars 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 Marshall

5.0 out of 5 stars 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... Read more
Published on 27 May 2006 by cait

5.0 out of 5 stars A very gripping story.
Justine Z is a compelling character in this shocking story of a 'Rehab' centre for teenagers. Read more
Published on 10 Feb 2006 by sooz :)

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