White Lines [Hardcover]

Jennifer Banash (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 4, 2013

A gritty, atmospheric coming of age tale set in 1980s New York City

 

Seventeen-year-old Cat is living every teenager’s dream—she has her own apartment on the Lower East Side and at night she’s club kid royalty, guarding the velvet rope at some of the hottest clubs in the city. The night with its crazy, frenetic, high-inducing energy—the pulsing beat of the music, the radiant, joyful people and those seductive white lines that can ease all pain—is when Cat truly lives. But her daytime, when real life occurs, is more nightmare than dream.

 

Having spent years suffering her mother’s emotional and physical abuse, and abandoned by her father, Cat is terrified and alone—unable to connect to anyone or anything. But when someone comes along who makes her want to truly live, she’ll need to summon the courage to confront her demons and take control of a life already spinning dangerously out of control.

 

Both poignant and raw, White Lines is a gripping tale and the reader won’t want to look away.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Daily transformations from punk to avant-garde highlight Cat's complex personality and style; her New York world is so tangible from Banash's text...[her] unhealthy relationship with her mother is highlighted in startling flashbacks of control and cruelty. A bevy of bizarrely realistic characters round out the story; Sara, Alexa, Julian and more all strive for lives that balance their own wishes with those of their parents."--VOYA

(VOYA)

"Subtle, sad and, eventually hopeful."--Kirkus

(Kirkus Reviews)

 "The gritty and emotionally charged story pulses like the rapid heartbeat of a girl in distress."--Booklist

(Booklist)

"A wild and startling ride."--Rachel Cohn, co-author of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Dash and Lily's Book of Dares

(Rachel Cohn)

"White Lines is sometimes heartbreaking, occasionally hilarious, and always impossible to set aside."--Nick Burd, author of The Vast Field of Ordinary

(Nick Burd)

"The gritty and emotionally charged story pulses like the rapid heartbeat of a girl in distress."--Booklist

(Booklist)

"Banash captures the pulsing atmospherics of the '80s club scene in minute and perfect detail, juxtaposing her descriptions of the outlandish fashions and stylized personalities against evocative, lyrical metaphors of Cat's brittle inner life. The effect is emotionally lashing; readers can't miss the note of desperation, sadness, and insecurity that threads through and in fact drives the relentless party scene for all the players, or that Cat's only moments of happiness come when she's high. The steadying presences of Sara and a new boy bring Cat back from the edge to end her story with a note of hope; give this to fans of Francesca Lia Block to see what Weetzie might have looked like on the East Coast."--BCCB

(BCCB)

About the Author

Jennifer Banash lives and writes in Los Angeles, California, far from the madness of her youth in Manhattan, with two slightly psychotic beagles, her partner, Willy, daughter, Story, and way too many shoes.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (April 4, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399257888
• ISBN-13: 978-0399257889
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #676,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A raw, captivating tale of a girl in the 1980s New York club scene April 4, 2013

By Liviania VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I haven't read a novel this fierce since Stephanie Kuehnert burst onto the scene with I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE. WHITE LINES will be a revelation to anyone familiar with Jennifer Banash from The Elite series. The rich kids remain, but all soap opera antics are banished. WHITE LINES is raw, a real bleeding wound of a story.

Cat lives by herself on the Lower East Side even though she's only seventeen years old. She could no longer live with her abusive mother - the State agrees - but her father lives with a younger woman who doesn't like her. So he pays for her to have an apartment. Few teenagers, given free reign of their lives, would make the best decisions. Especially not in 1980s New York. Especially not when working the door to a club to make a little extra money. Especially not when the drug dealers are willing to offer a rock of cocaine to get in. Especially not when the music and the dancing and the personalities and the drugs are so much better than being alone in an apartment, remembering.

There are people who care about Cat. There's her friend Sara, who first convinced her to get a fake ID and go to a club and didn't follow her deeper. There's Giovanni, fabulous and Puerto Rican, who dresses Cat like a doll and forgets his own problems with her. There's Julian, the new kid in school, someone she could see herself with if she can stop herself from giving him the cold shoulder. There's Alexa, the coolest girl in school, who sees something in Cat - although it might just be a way to get herself closer to the top. But they're all flawed people and some of them are druggies too. Her interactions with them show what a beautiful person Cat is. She has trouble reaching out, real panic, but she doesn't give into that internal voice every time. She struggles against it and makes connections, risking the pain.

Drug addiction isn't pretty. Some people are functional addicts. Cat manages to hold down a job and manages to go to school enough not to get kicked out (even if it is a school for "special" kids). She's sort of in the best case scenario, but there are dangers lurking around the edges of her life. I was so afraid of the turns WHITE LINES could take, of the awful things that could happen to Cat. WHITE LINES is gritty in the best way. It doesn't heap humiliation or degradation upon its heroine to show the evils of her way of life. Her life is risky, and sometimes unpleasant, but not gratuitously so.

And, well, drug addiction tends to bring out the worst in people and it would be a shame to lose the best parts of Cat. There's so much potential in Cat. She's got a big voice, one that absorbs you in her life. She can be witty and clever when she's functional.

"Oh my God," I drawl, staring at Giovanni's face in the mirror. I begin to smile in spite of my annoyance. "I'm only seventeen! How old could I possibly look?" - ARC, 36

WHITE LINES was an intense read. It'll suck you into the 1980's New York club scene and make you feel like you're living it even if, like me, you weren't born until it was over. I kept my fingers crossed that somehow, someway there would be a happy ending. Somehow, someway. And the ending of WHITE LINES was a relief, a release of all the tension of the novel, healing. Cat had a tough past, lives a rough present, but she's still got a future. And a future is the essence of Young Adult.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly gripping, realistic novel! April 10, 2013

By Holly

Format:Hardcover

White lines is a story about a girl named Cat who is a 17 year old club kid in 1980's New York. This book engrossed me from the very beginning, and I could not put it down. We find out at the beginning that due to different circumstances in her past she finds herself living alone at her young age, and she is trying to manage going to school and also being a club promoter.

The way Jennifer was able to detail everything down to the last detail was tremendous, especially when it came to the "white lines", I have never done that myself, but I feel like I don't need (or want) to now after reading this. She was able to describe the sensation of the high and the side effects from it in such a way that I felt like I was there with her, and I think that is something that is not easy to do.

I felt connected to Cat on some levels and I could understand why she was doing what she was doing even if I didn't agree with her, or would not make the same choices in her situation. Her Mother is probably one of my most hated characters in a fictional novel, and once you read this book, I would guarantee that you will agree with me, I cannot understand her at all, and there were many times during the book that I wanted to choke her for her actions, and I love when I get emotional like that while reading.

As far as the club kid scene goes, I loved the different kids for all different reasons, but one of my favourite parts was the outfits! Did that ever take me back to the 80's, oh how I do not miss the neon (even though apparently it is coming back?), and she got them bang on too, who remembers wearing a lot of tulle and lace, oh and the spandex with the elastic at the bottom to go under your feet? I do!

This is not a book that I will forget any time soon, there are so many different and serious topics covered that I think it should be a mandatory read for teenagers (starting in grade 9). The first one that comes to mind is the fact that I think way too many kids are having to grow up way to soon and have their teenage years and what should be "normal" teenage experiences taken away from them, and the serious consequences that it can have. The next is drug abuse and how a lot of people think that the "have it under control", and it is not by any means, the drugs are the ones in control.

I liked this book from front to back, and even the ending is not the "hollywood happy ever after" that can sometimes happen, I think it is a very realistic ending and I am so grateful that Jennifer wrote it that way. If you are looking for a more serious novel about what some kids are going through around the world on a daily basis, this is it! Fantastic 5/5 from me!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Clubs, Drugs, 80s Music, Oh My! April 5, 2013

By Amanda Welling

Format:Hardcover

First Impressions: White Lines isn't the kind of book I would normally pick up at a bookstore and purchase, but something about the synopsis made me want to dig into the story immediately. I spent quite a few years living in N.Y.C. in my early twenties and was into the whole club scene (a million years ago, it seems like) and I think that is what attracted me to this book. The cover is simple but it works for the story.

First 50 Pages: It's obvious that the author has spent some time in Manhattan, especially the area known as the Village in Lower Manhattan. The first couple of chapters I thought for sure that the author pulled her imagery of NYC right out of my head. I love that area and she really captured the essence of it so well. I was immediately pulled into the story and I connected to the main character very well. I was a club kid and promoter there, so for me, it was very realistic. The problems Cat faces are very real and these types of issues she faces are true to life.

Characters & Plot: Cat is a club kid with a bad background. You get clippings of her life with her mother and father throughout the story. You know that her past is bad, but you don't really know just how bad. Her present isn't great either. She grew up in Upper Manhattan in a wealthy neighborhood with well-off parents. Her mother is a psycho b**** and her father turns his cheek to the problems in their household.

At some point in the past, her parents split up and her father remarries a girl half his age named Jasmine. Her mother is left on her own. Cat goes to live by her self in a dingy apartment in Lower Manhattan, which in the 80s, wasn't the greatest or most clean place to live. Her father pays the rent (when he remembers) and gives her some money to survive.

Cat has a good friend, Sara, who drags Cat to a club one night. Sara ends up hating it and would rather be home sleeping, while Cat gets completely addicted. She ends up working at the club at the door, spending most of her nights there doing an absurd amount of Cocaine, alcohol, and sometimes, Ecstasy, with her new friends Sebastian and Giovanni, who have their own issues.

Besides the amazing descriptions of the nightlife in NYC and the 80s music scene, most of the characters were well thought out, too. Cat is pretty screwed up for most of the whole novel. She's doing drugs and partying hard to escape her harsh reality. Some of the things she went through with her mother were terrible. She makes a lot of bad decisions that could kill her and some almost do. Halfway through the story I thought she was going to keel over and die. She does make a slow progression towards some sort of normalcy late in the book.

Sara was a great character and the complete opposite of Cat. I thought of Sara as Cat's conscience. She's a loyal friend who obviously cares deeply about Cat and sticks by her side no matter what.

There are lesser supporting characters that make this story interesting and most were well characterized. I liked Giovanni, the drag queen club friend and Sebastian, an up and coming club promoter. Giovanni attempts to be a good friend in his own twisted way, but he isn't really stable either and none of these people make good decisions. I did think both of these characters were stereotypical, but I did find them to be entertaining.

There is also Alexa and Julian. Alexa is from the Upper Side of Manhattan and is everything Cat doesn't want to be. She's an uber-b**** with an eating disorder and her own set of issues. Somehow Cat and Alexa wind up having an awkward semi-friendly relationship that I couldn't quite understand. Julian is the loner sort of guy that Cat begins to fall for. He makes a few appearances throughout the story, but the book doesn't focus on their growing relationship and romance. He has a history as well (they all do) but you don't find out exactly what it is until the book is almost over. I really liked Julian. He was good for Cat and I think he is part of the reason Cat grows and opens up in the end. I actually wish the author would have featured him more.

Final Thoughts: Overall, I really enjoyed this story. While I don't think it's overly original and it was a bit stereotypical, I had a difficult time putting it down. For me, it was so easy to connect to the setting and the characters because in a way it was a life that I lived, minus all of the drug use. Trust me when I say that the temptation to fall down the wrong path is definitely there and I know some friends who were/are caught up in the whole crazy club/drug scene. It's still alive and kicking right now, albeit not as noticeable. I would recommend giving this book a chance if you are into gritty contemporary novels. It's worthy of being read and loved! It sort of reminded me of Girl, Interrupted mixed with the movie Kids (minus all the sex), with some great 80s music. If that sounds like your sort of thing, go for it!