Lush [Paperback]

Natasha Friend (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2007

Natasha Friend is a Judy Blume for today -- clearly evident in this remarkable new novel about a girl whose father is an alcoholic and how she and her family learn to deal with his condition.

It's hard to be a 13-year-old girl. But it's even harder when your father's a drunk. It adds an extra layer to everything -- your family's reactions to things, the people you're willing to bring home, the way you see yourself and the world. For Samantha, it's something that's been going on for so long that she's almost used to it. Only, you never get used to it. Especially when it starts to get worse...

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up–To the outside world, 13-year-old Samantha's family seems perfectly happy. However, they are struggling to keep her architect father's alcoholism a secret, and the balancing act of enabling his addiction and protecting their image is becoming more and more difficult. Sam longs to be able to share her burden with a friend and reaches out by leaving an anonymous autobiographical letter in a library book. Her anger and frustration are palpable as she struggles with her love for her dad despite the fact that his promises to clean up never materialize. When Sam is chastised by her mother and grandmother for not believing in his ability to change, readers will sympathize with the injustice of her difficult situation. Yet, the author avoids a maudlin tone by infusing the plot with details of typical teen life, such as Sam's crush on an older boy and embarrassment at her developing body. Witty dialogue and smooth writing move the novel along at a clipped pace, and tension is successfully built and maintained as the teen's father's illness takes a dangerous turn, her budding relationship comes to a head, and her anonymous library pen pal is revealed. Despite the minor appearance of a stereotypical librarian, this is a perceptive novel featuring a likable protagonist to whom readers will easily relate. As in Perfect (Milkweed, 2004), Friend adroitly portrays a weighty topic with touches of humor and grace.–Rebecca M. Jones, Fort Myers-Lee County Library, FL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Thirteen-year-old Samantha's father is an alcoholic. When he is sober, he is a great guy, but when he is drunk, he is scary and abusive. With her mother in denial and a four-year-old brother to protect, Sam writes a note asking for advice and leaves it in the library, hoping an older girl she admires will write back to her. So begins a correspondence in which Sam opens up about her father's alcoholism as well as her crush on an older boy. In return, the letter writer, who goes only by initials, reveals some hard truths. As she did in Perfect (2005), Friend adeptly takes a teen problem and turns it into a believable, sensitive, character-driven story, with realistic dialogue. The cautiously optimistic ending works because Friend has convinced readers that Sam can handle whatever happens. Friend, who clearly understands and empathizes with young teens, is a writer to watch. Debbie Carton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks; Reprint edition (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780439853477
• ISBN-13: 978-0439853477
• ASIN: 0439853478
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #290,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-Opening AND Entertaining October 30, 2006

By Michelaneous by Michele

Format:Hardcover

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Mallory's Magnificent Review January 23, 2007

A Kid's Review

Format:Hardcover

The squeal to Perfect, Lush by Natasha Friend could be read from anyone 5th grade to 8th grade. This teaches teens or going on teens a very important lesson.

Lush is about a headstrong girl named Sam who has a huge problem on her hands. Her dad is an alcoholic. So when she doesn't know what to do or who to ask she goes to a random girl in the library that she barley knows, and tells her everything About her dad her little brother and the cute boy in the green hat named Drew. But when her little brother gets sent to the hospital and Sam gets invited to a cool senior party by Drew everything goes down hill. So now her only person she can really trust is the random girl at the library. So when Sam goes to this cool senior party Sam gets drunk and for Drew, well he forces Sam to do stuff that she doesn't really want to do. So them she turns to her best friends when they won't even talk to her because she has been keeping all these secrets from them. Could Sam's life get any worse?

Readers will be hooked by its creative wording and amazing characters. This is Natasha Friends best work yet.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a positive book in any way October 1, 2011

By susannah

Format:Hardcover

I am really surprised that no other reviewer seems to feel that the father's bashing his four year old son's head in with a whiskey bottle is a CRIME. No one even thought of calling the police. There was not one moment of consequence for the father.

No other reviewer seems to have any problem with a 17 year old boy getting 13 year old Sam drunk and then trying to have sex with her in her compromised/half conscious state, or that he was coming on to her at all, or that other boys were getting her further drunk and assaulting her. Date rape and statutory rape are CRIMES. No one even thought of calling the police. It might be argued that he didn't know she was only 13 but he also never even asked her age, and had to know she wasn't close to his age. Sam didn't have the experience to know what she was getting into, and AJK should have told her. He knew she was not in high school. I also cringed to read that Sam, still too young, didn't realize the depth of what Drew had done, and was talking about still being attracted to him.

I also felt that it was unfortunate that AJK turned out not to be an older girl. There was not one positive female depiction in the book, except for Charlie's mother, possibly. Sam's friends were typical junior high girls, supportive of her when they felt like it, and turning on her when they felt like it. There was no female depiction of anyone Sam could really turn to, and feel listened to and guided by, and this is also not a positive message for girls.

Sam's dad is sent off to rehab for 28 whole days, and at the end, just like on every page of the book, Sam and Luke are just supposed to be there and be supportive of their father, whether he has stopped drinking or not. Their mother is far more concerned about the father than about being a proper parent to her children, or demanding that her husband be a proper parent, or leave. He bashed her baby's head in, and she is welcoming him home with open arms?

I was appalled at the messages this book sends to the young teens who will read it. It says that if you are assaulted or raped, even if you tell your parents, they will do nothing, and that is okay. It says that even if you are abused and neglected by your drunken parent, it's your problem and you just need to be there for the parent. Your needs don't matter. If you have an enabling mother and grandmother, your needs don't matter. I wish the book had indicated in any way how a child reading it could feel a ray of hope, ways to find resources, ways to find people that they can talk to.

The thing this book has in common with "Speak" by Laurie Halse Andersen, is that it is NEVER appropriate for a girl in junior high to attend parties with or hang out with older teenagers.

I gave this book two stars for the love and care that Sam gives to Luke. I liked their relationship.That is the only thing I liked.