Clean [Hardcover]

Amy Reed (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 19, 2011

You’re probably wondering how I ended up here. I’m still wondering the same thing.

Olivia, Kelly, Christopher, Jason, and Eva have one thing in common: They're addicts. Addicts who have hit rock bottom and been stuck together in rehab to face their problems, face sobriety, and face themselves. None of them wants to be there. None of them wants to confront the truths about their pasts. And they certainly don’t want to share their darkest secrets and most desperate fears with a room of strangers. But they'll all have to deal with themselves and one another if they want to learn how to live. Because when you get that high, there's nowhere to go but down, down, down.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"With deep, sympathetic characters and beautiful prose, CLEAN cuts to the heart. It's poignant and real. I can't stop thinking about it." --Lisa McMann, bestselling author of WAKE and CRYER'S CROSS

“An affecting dramaabout five teenagers in an upscale rehab facility for drug addiction. Theauthor handles complex issues deftly and honestly, from family dysfunction to attemptedrape….The hard-hitting scenarios and abundance of white space make this aperfect suggestion for Ellen Hopkins fans.”

–Kirkus

“Delivers someemotional and smart insights….The use of multiple narrators results in abriskly paced, vignette-driven story that suits the frenetic lives of theteens.”

– Publishers Weekly

"While not all young addicts are fortunateenough to receive and succeed at rehab, this is a thoughtful portrait of thosewho do, and it offers hope for what often seems a hopeless situation." - The Bulletin

"A quick, frank read, with humor, information, and action that will keep teens interested. Those who read Reed’s Beautiful (S & S,2009)–and even those who haven’t–will be drawn to the great cover, and fans of Ellen Hopkins will love this novel." - School Library Journal

About the Author

Amy Reed was born and raised in and around Seattle, where she attended a total of eight schools by the time she was eighteen. Constant moving taught her to be restless and being an only child made her imagination do funny things. After a brief stint at Reed College (no relation), she moved to San Francisco and spent the next several years serving coffee and getting into trouble. She eventually graduated from film school, promptly decided she wanted nothing to do with filmmaking, returned to her original and impractical love of writing, and earned her MFA from New College of California. Amy currently lives in Oakland with her husband and two cats, and has accepted that Northern California has replaced the Pacific Northwest as her home. She is no longer restless. Find out more at amyreedfiction.com or follow her on Twitter at @amyreedfiction.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Simon Pulse (July 19, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1442413441
• ISBN-13: 978-1442413443
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #223,411 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Amy Reed was born and raised in and around Seattle, where she attended a total of eight schools by the time she was eighteen. Constant moving taught her to be restless, and being an only child made her imagination do funny things. After a brief stint at Reed College (no relation), she moved to San Francisco and spent the next several years serving coffee and getting into trouble. She eventually graduated from film school, promptly decided she wanted nothing to do with filmmaking, returned to her original and impractical love of writing, and earned her MFA from New College of California.

Her short work has been published in journals such as Kitchen Sink, Contrary, and Fiction. Her first Young Adult novel BEAUTIFUL will be released October 6, 2009 (Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster).

Amy currently lives in Oakland, California with her husband, two cats, and one dog, and has accepted that northern California has replaced the Pacific Northwest as her home. She is no longer restless.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wish it went a little deeper, November 20, 2011

By 

Karen A. Oconnor "bookluver" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Clean (Hardcover)

Not a bad story, but wish it was a little deeper, more raw. This story is about a group of teens that are rehab and it tells their stories. They are in rehab for a month and they have group meetings, answer a few questions and then you read a chapter or so in each characters voice.

This was a good book but not as raw or gritty as the blurbs make it sound. I finished this in one evening. There are just under 300 pages, the words are pretty large and the spacing is pretty big.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for young readers!, September 8, 2011

By 

Fivezenses of Reading "Rhiannon" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clean (Kindle Edition)

"Clean" is about a story of a group of teens in rehab, with all sorts of different backgrounds in how they even got there in the first place. The newest kid is Olivia and out of all the kids she meets, she is the only one with a food problem from dieting too much.

Throughout the story, you get to have shifting perspectives from all five main characters. There is Kelly, the girl that would get drunk and snort coke. Eva who would get high off of pot and prescription pain killers. Jason who was always getting drunk to the point of blacking out. Christopher was a church going boy, that was homed schooled and started using coke, then meth from his neighbor. And then Olivia, upper class society girl who abused weight loss pills to the point of being anorexic. Then there is the therapist for group called Shirley. She sees through their bull and pushes them to be honest with themselves. The story spans over a period of three and half weeks.

My one favorite part was the kids learning about themselves and seeing on Family Day the dynamics of some of the kids with their parents; especially Jason's father who is an ex Marine and treats his mother like dirt.

But my most favorite part of all was the questionnaire history. Amy Reed broke down that into sections in the book, so that you wouldn't get it all in one sitting. It helped because as each question was answered by all five teens, you saw the progression in back story line up with the recovery of each one. You really got a taste of what it felt to be in their shoes, how they even ended up in the position they got them to rehabbed at 16 or 17.

I would recommend this book to any teen wanting to know what it was like to have gone too far in the world of abusing drugs and alcohol; to get an understanding of how hard it can be. But this is a good book I think for anyone who wants to go into drugs and alcohol consoling, because it can help them maybe understand what kind of problems they may come up against. But overall it's a great book to read.

My last thought for this review is that I wasn't sure what to expect out of this book. I knew there was going to be a theme of drug and alcohol use from teenagers, but to the extend that I was reading. it was very touching at some points and a lot of the characters were made more human by the end of the story.

[...]

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh look at how addictions affect people, July 19, 2011

By 

Amanda Miller "Book Blogger" (Kentucky, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Clean (Hardcover)

I love "issues" books. When I read about Clean awhile back, I knew I had to get my hands on it. I've never read Amy Reed's previous book, Beautiful, but now I definitely know I need to check it out.

Clean follows several teens through rehab. As referenced early on in the book by one of the characters they are sort of the "Breakfast Club" of rehab. Each teen is so different! You have the perfect little rich girl, the promiscious pretty girl, a Christian boy who just might be gay, a jock with an attitude problem, and an angry emo chick. At first I got a bit overwhelmed, because you are thrown into a chapter with a mini-intro to each character. It took me awhile to sort out who was who. Once I knew the basics of each character I was drawn to the story.

My favorite chapters were the ones in which the five were filling out a form that asked them questions about how they got where they were. The characters' attitudes shined through, yet you were able to see the vulnerability of each character while getting to know why they had a touch exterior.

I won't get into specifics as to what happened to each character to make them addicts, but the two most upsetting stories were Olivia's and Jason's to me. Each one endured so much to make them the way they were and each was very sympathetic and tugged at my heartstrings.

I received my copy from Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.