Junk (Puffin Teenage Fiction) [Paperback]

Melvin Burgess (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 1997 | Series: Puffin Teenage Fiction

Junk = Heroin = Bliss = Despair = A Love Affair You'll Never Forget. Tar loves Gemma, but Gemma doesn't want to be tied down - not to anyone or anything. Gemma wants to fly. But no one can fly forever. One day, somehow, finally, you have to come down.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Occasionally a 'teenage novel' comes along which makes one reconsider the whole genre and its potential. Such a book is Melvin Burgess's Junk -- Robert Dunbar Children's Books in Ireland The most talked-about children's book for years Mail on Sunday Brilliantly and sensitively written, it encompasses the raw, savage and ecstatic world of the adolescent mind... a superbly crafted and important book TES Beautifully written The Times

About the Author

Melvin Burgess is regarded as one of the best writers in contemporary children's literature. In 1997 his controversial bestseller Junk won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the Carnegie Medal. It was also shortlisted for the 1998 Whitbread Children's Book of the Year. Four of his novels have been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal: The Cry of the Wolf, An Angel for May, The Baby and Fly Pie and The Ghost Behind the Wall. Melvin lives in Manchester with his two children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; 1St Edition edition (April 24, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140380191
• ISBN-13: 978-0140380194
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,519,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Junk is smack, April 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Junk (Hardcover)

When i bought smack i could not put it down. then i was told that junk was the sequel to smack. so i bought that and it is the same book. i was mad. so don't be folled because the athour re-named the book.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Negative Metamorphosis, March 8, 2006

By 

L. Linkes "avid reader" (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Junk (Paperback)

Burgess's "Smack," written a year before his short novel "Junk," is a terrific novel that captivies and evokes emotion. "Junk," however, is a poorly written screen-play version of that novel. The point of creating such a thing is beyond me. He should have stopped while he was ahead with "Smack."

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book., April 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Junk (Hardcover)

A slow start to what then became one of the most fantastic books I have ever read. The characters become your friends and you emphasise with their choices and actions. This is the first book I have ever read that has enabled me to see a reason why people use herion. The book takes you through the good and the bad times.

I for one after reading the book would never try heroin. I was shown how this drug could take away dignity, dreams and even lifes.

A brilliant book!!!