The Pepsi-Cola Addict

by June Alison Gibbons

A self-published novel by June Alison Gibbons, one of the "Silent Twins". Preston Wildey-King, 14, lives in Malibu with his widowed mother and sister. He is literally addicted to Pepsi, to the point that all his thoughts and fantasies are focused on it. When he's not drinking it he's dreaming about it, even creating art and poetry based on it. It amounts to his religion (Preston could have written "Breathtaking Design Strategy", the 2009 corporate document elevating Pepsi and its logo to metaphysical glory). He is deeply in love with Peggy, but she dumps him after an argument over his Pepsi habit. His friend Ryan is bisexual and desires him. His math tutor seduces him, and when he's sent to juvie after robbing a convenience store (mesmerized by a crate of Pepsi, of course, he sits down and drinks some instead of running) he's molested by a guard. Preston's choices and misfortunes are chronicled with that distinctive Gibbons flair, full of elegant metaphors, quirky slang and over- and undercurrents of emotion that take on a life of their own. Good luck finding it. Only five libraries are known to have it, but apparently bootleg copies exist.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Novels, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Literature

128 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1982

About the author

June Alison Gibbons and her twin Jennifer Lorraine became notorious in the '80s when they carried out a two-woman crime spree at age 18 that resulted in both sisters being declared psychopaths and sent to England's most famous high-security hospital for the criminally insane. However, they already had plenty of experience being creepy before that: As kids they were known as "the silent twins" because they refused to speak to anyone but each other, and even then they used their own secret language that no one else could understand.

Born to Barbadian parents and raised in Wales, Jennifer and June refused to read or write in school, but at home it was the opposite: They read voraciously and filled dozens of diaries with writing, including full novels with names like The Pepsi-Cola Addict (by June) and Discomania (by Jennifer.) Like all children, they liked to play games, but rather than settling for Barbies or Monopoly, they had bizarre rituals where they decided which one would wake up in the morning first or which one would breathe first, and the other one wasn't allowed to do anything until the first one did so.

Their relationship was complicated. On one hand, they were best friends, and on the other, they occasionally tried to kill each other -- Jennifer tried to strangle June with the cord of a radio, and June responded by throwing Jennifer off a bridge. Their odd behavior escalated as they grew older and turned to petty theft and arson. It was at this point that their parents realized there might be something wrong with the girls and agreed to have them committed (and if they hadn't, the authorities probably would have insisted).

It was toward the end of their 14-year stay at Broadmoor Hospital that the twins would pull off their magnum opus. One day, they told their only friend, journalist Marjorie Wallace (author of their biography, published years earlier), that one of them wouldn't make it out of the hospital alive. Jennifer just looked at Wallace and said, "I'm going to die. We've decided."

The twins had realized that they could never be free or normal as long as they were both alive, and so, according to Wallace and later interviews by a reformed June, Jennifer agreed to be the one to die. On the day that they were being transferred to a lower security hospital, Jennifer suddenly passed away from a rare heart problem that was never fully explained. As predicted, June became better adjusted after she stopped being a twin, and today she lives a quiet life with her family.

Reviews

[n* Dalal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my god, I cannot believe I have a copy of this book. Sure, it's a photocopy. It's still worth its wait in gold.

Update: I've just finished this book! If the story behind it weren't so intriguing, I never would have read it, but I'm glad I did, because it is a fabulously bad book. It's so sincerely bad, reading it was hard. At a mere 130 pages, I should have finished it in a matter of days, but the prose is so indulgent and...let's face it, bizarre, it took me longer than it should have.

The Pepsi-Cola Addict was printed by a vanity press with no editing or even basic grammar checking whatsoever (at one point, my eye shocked over the word "penin," only to realise the sentence was about a pen in someone's pocket). It is about a white Malibu teenage boy named Preston who is, quite literally, addicted to Pepsi-Cola. He faces many trials due to his addiction; his girlfriend dumps him, ostensibly over the fact that he won't stop drinking Pepsi-Cola. He begs her to come back, claiming he's done with that stuff. He gets caught robbing a convenience store because long after the alarms have gone off and the police sirens rush toward the store, he waits around drinking several cans of Pepsi-cola. He doesn't get a trial or even a phone call before he's in the prison laundry, sucking on freshly laundered, still-wet sheets, trying to quench his thirst for Pepsi-Cola

Preston is an odd teenager, mostly because of how much he, his sister, and his friends "amble" around. He gets seduced by his teacher, gets sexually threatened by the "warder" at the juvenile detention centre. In fact, no one can leave Preston alone; even his best friend can't help himself around Preston. It's hard times, because all Preston wants is some damn Pepsi-cola and his ex-girlfriend back, but she's planning to move away. Life's full of bad luck, and it's enough to make a guy want to drink 3 Pepsi-Colas. Against the odds, but a touch too late, Preston manages to get the girl back. It's tragedy.

Better than the convoluted plot is the writing-- here are my favourite bits:

Gibbons grew up in cold grey Wales, but the book is all about Malibu. It's clear that June had an excellent grasp of Malibu's climate: the sun is several times described, aptly, as a "fireball in the sky." It's so literal!

"Preston thought; life is a confusement."

When he's at the juvenile detention centre, Preston's mother visits him. She asks him how he's doing, and he says, "It's pretty noisy.....the place is like a prison camp." Excellent observational skills.

It's not a great book, but it's not famous for being a great book either. It doesn't have the star appeal or even the "written from behind asylum walls" intrigue of Save Me the Waltz. But it's an extremely rare piece of cultural history, an important door to one of the strangest stories of sisterhood the world has ever known. I'm proud to have read it.

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been seeing this book everywhere and it definitely holds up to the hype.

I had no clue the author was a 16 year old black girl, and I’m even more intrigued now by her extraordinary life with her twin sister also apparently known as the “silent twins”.

[Astraea · Rating 5 out of 5]

June Alison Gibbons owns the rights to her book... I expect if she saw evidence of a lot of people asking for it she might be able to work out having it reprinted. Discomania and The Pugilist by Jennifer might be trickier.

Another idea might be to contact Marjorie Wallace, the twins' biographer. (The Silent Twins) She is in her 80s, so this should be done soon. She is probably the only one who has read all the twins' novels. She may still have them, unless she has given them back to June.

[Gavin Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a thrilling experience to read a mythical, pretty much non-existent rare book that lots of people are desperate to read. It took me six hours in one sitting to read due to my dyslexia and before you ask, I'm sorry to disappoint as I can't photocopy and post it online for all to see because I don't own it.

I was fascinated by the Gibbons sister's life and had to source this eye-catching titled book. When I was reading it, I pictured it as a quirky coming-of-age film that's set in Malibu (didn't know that until near the end) Preston is a weird teenager who drinks Pepsi Cola non-stop, downtrodden about losing his girlfriend Peggy, bickering with his Sister Erica, his best friend Ryan making a pass at him and his teacher giving him more than after school lessons (wink).

It's self-published so there were no grammar checks with no editor's input. There were words I thought, 'hmmm not sure that's spelt right' and a smattering of words running into each other, and the typo 'tje' supposed to be the word 'the' due to this all being typed out on a typewriter giving us a harsh font. It was a pity I didn’t see the iconic dust cover as it was just a plain leather hardback. Also curious that one of the page corners in the middle book was folded which annoyed me until I realised it was like that because it juts out and hangs out the book.

I would say this is not great literature and felt like a first draft but I think the story was fun and quirky. Preston goes quickly to jail for being tricked into looting a shop with ‘the wrong crowd’ without any legal steps before, with no option of community service. Preston is sent straight to Shawshank Redemption. If the book was written by a professional writer I would take this as a joke, a quirky narrative like Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon which was written to be mysterious and not make sense in a straightforward narrative but in this case, I take it that June Gibbons didn’t know much about laws and just skipped over it.

I think all the characters at some point say ‘Huh’ at the end of a sentence when they are talking to someone, used to get more information out of them such as 'what did you do that for, huh'?

I found the book so unusual because it wasn't as unusual as I thought it was going to be. The Sister spends much of their life living life famously unconventional. Living in their silent world, a Kaspar Hauser-esque existence. I thought it was going to be written from a weird interpretation of life. To me, it was like it was written by any teenager, I was surprised she knew 'the john' was slang for toilet. It's strangely competent about what emotions people have when they didn’t share their emotions with the outside world.

Another unusual thing I remember is that when characters referred to the time they would say ‘5 past of 10’ instead of 5 minutes past 10’. A few times in amongst normal language there would be an unusual obscure word that stood out, also there were too many things described as the same thing, such as Preston’s Sister and Mother are at different points of the book described as ‘comes flouncing into the room’. Preston doesn’t call his Mother 'Mum' she is referred to formally as Mrs Wylde. I originally thought she was a teacher or a neighbour, he also refers to his love rival by his full name. A classic line was Preston’s Mother referring to the noisy prison as 'it's noisy like a Prison camp’

I’ve thought about the book a lot since reading it as it packed in a lot of stuff, such as addiction, parental grief, sexual relationship with a teacher, duelling with ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend, spats with Sister, best friend Ryan coming out to him and making advances, hanging with the wrong crowd and prison.

I’ve found out that the book is being re-released by Strange Attractor Press with June’s approval and help. So it would be nice for it to be given a glossy look, given a pleasing font and layout. I’m intrigued about what they will fix and tidy and what will be kept to keep its roots as outsider art fiction. The quirkiness is the character of the book. It should always be ‘5 past of 10’ instead of 5 minutes past 10. How do I even rate this book and are there any copyright issues using Pepsi-Cola in the title for a wider release and is pushing my luck for an audiobook? I hope this release that's penned for this year (2022) to be a catalyst for the release of Jennifer's books 'Discomania' and 'The Puglist'

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is actually very good.. the weird grammar and spelling choices make the story very dreamy and uncanny, while also sometimes funny and randomly beautiful. it’s also quintessentially (almost satirically?) american, in a way that maybe only a non-american could write. Full of irony and contradictions, but i definitely expected a more surreal and bizarre book than this which is very readable, empathetic, and mature. Shout out to david tibet.. i get the vision

“He thought is this what love’s all about, is this the only way to love somebody, by making each other cry?”

“‘But i think that was one of the happiest days i ever had… those don’t come by too often.’ ‘It was always like July 4th in those days.’”

“The birds laughed, as they circled in the air. The waves whispered back angrily.”

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just really honored to have read this book. I feel like it found me at the right time at an amazing bookstore (Small World Books in Venice). As I investigate my own childhood, I frequently forget how conscious I was at that age to my external and internal environments. It is through works like this that remind us of the children we always are and the adults we were as children. Thank you June-Alison Gibbons for writing this one of a kind work at 16 and persevering to reprint it in its original form.

[nemo ☠️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a few books that I've found difficult to rate, but this is probably the hardest. I'm still rating it, because I'm obsessive about that sort of thing, but... boy.

You don't read The Pepsi-Cola Addict because you think it's going to be good. You know it won't be. You read it out of pure curiosity that it was written by one of the so-called "Silent Twins" when she was 16.

Was this bad? Was it? The writing and word choices were pretty bizarre, the punctuation was odd, the characters don't act anywhere near realistically and I'm not entirely sure any of it made sense. But honestly, it was absolutely fascinating and pretty fun, and that ending was... Very good, actually.

If this had been edited professionally and/or if June had revisited this novel when she was a bit older, I actually think it could be a banger. I also feel like if all the genders were switched then it would make an excellent art film directed by Sofia Coppola. Put some Lana del Rey in the background, y'know? Just has vibes.

[Olivia Stepper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had really low expectations and it was actually pretty good all things considered. The context of the book is arguably more interesting than the book itself. Super quick read and very interesting language, relatively real characters, very holden caulfield type plot. very cute cover

[Ulrike · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh my god... sooo many thoughts but first of all what an ending!!! im so glad i managed to get my hands on the pdf of this!!!

god, obviously this was bad. bad grammar, strange word choices, nonsensical characters and plots. but it was so fucking fun to read. i adored the word choices, they were fascinating and endlessly fun, and honestly i think theres a writing style here that could be cultivated into something really interesting. i also loved recognising some kind of bad ao3/wattpad strains in the writing.

yeah i dont know, my thoughts around this book really just boil down to the fact that im really, really glad i could read it. some of it also was sad and interesting when looking at june and jennifer themselves, how parts of the book might mirror their experiences. i desperately want to read their unpublished works, they had some really great ideas.

i also really want the pepsi-cola addict to get a movie deal.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bizarre.

The thing about this book is that it’s not great, and you know that going into it, as it was written by a 16 year old who was dealing with a LOT in her personal life.

I picked this up in the library after reading it praised as a defining piece of outsider literature which sold me. Had I paid closer attention I would have realised how special it was to actually have a copy of this previously all but lost short book in my hands, written by June-Alison Gibbons, one of the “Silent Twins” who refused to communicate with anyone but each other.

You can’t help but think of their story and the wider context of June-Alison and her sister Jennifer when reading this truly odd story of Preston, the Pepsi-cola addict. This is also a really heavy book, despite the humour and apparent lightness that runs through it - it’s a strange story of grief, abuse, sexual confusion, loneliness and feeling stuck with where you are. Im really glad I had the chance to read this!

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could only find the first half. THE HYPE IS REAL.

[Yahaira]

Gave Tommy VWiseau vibes, but intentionally funny at times.

[Sara Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is great and not just great for a 16-year-old writer! i now find it even more captivating reading about the author’s real life incarceration with her twin sister, and now i’m dying to see the bbc documentary about them, they are referred to as “the silent twins”

[Internet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkable book, not just for the young age of its author (16) and the unusual circumstances of her early life, documented in the book The Silent Twins. This is not overtly unusual for the most part. It is a melancholy drama about a young man, Preston, who is obsessed with Pepsi. His obsession isn't really the focus of the story, though. Instead, the focus is on his search for love and connection. I was struck by how erotic large portions of the book were. In particular, there is a really compelling depiction of the protagonist's conflicted experience with same-sex attraction, and both the confusion and elation wrought by his relationships with adults.

This is probably a good example of outsider art, as it was produced independently by someone with no formal education or training in the field, who was not a part of the writing/literary community at large. Like a lot of outsider art, it is powerfully authentic. Here we see a young, remarkably talented woman sharing her rich, complex fantasy life. It is subtly and unintentionally weird, including, for example, many varied descriptions of the sun. For whatever reason, North American youth culture captured Gibbons's imagination. The result is a slightly phantasmagorical Malibu, informed more by adolescent fantasy than familiarity with the place that inspired it. I'm really glad Gibbons was able to make her book available to a wider audience.

[Buddy Engelhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I don't usually write reviews, but I can't believe that I got this book. I had to jump through a bunch of hoops, but I got it at my library. It was a very interesting book, and I would definitely recommend it.

[Joseph Reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Pepsi-Cola Addict is perfect in its imperfection, much like a Kurt Cobain guitar solo that is out of tune and technically flawed.

The grammatical errors and awkward dialogue give this work a raw quality. It is a literary experience like no other. It feels like literary punk rock.

[Abreham · Rating 5 out of 5]

One thing I love about the universe is that there are always exceptions, even to reading lists. You see a title, you drop everything. Then you love it. Really love to the point where you don't even try to explain why. I guess that's also how one becomes a Pepsi-Cola Addict.

[Frank Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird, yet uncannily entertaining

[sabrina]

I read this with a local bookstore's monthly fiction book club. It was fun to talk to a group of strangers about this book. It drew a crowd and, as is unavoidable, a lot of the meeting was about swapping lore and filling each other in the details of June's life we'd all searched up the day before. The general consensus in the digital and physical square seems to be that the first part of this book is objectively badly written. I was in the minority for genuinely enjoying the freedom of expression in the somewhat stilted adverb-heavy prose of the first 30-odd pages. I found the book as a whole absorbing on its own merit. You really only need to know a sixteen year old wrote it.

[Danielle Paquette-Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book out of curiosity to see what would June write, after I heard about her and her twin's story. I'm glad I got to see what type of story she could come up with. otherwise, I found the book rather depressing and boring. the character doesn't really have growth to him. it all spirals until he commits suicide. For me this will remain more of a curiosity than anything. I didn't really enjoy the story.

[Halina Jereczek · Rating 4 out of 5]

confusing but fun

[Geenah · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

When I first started reading this, I expected to dislike it. I went into this fairly blind, but I did know that the author wrote this when she was 16. And it shows. The writing is riddled with an overuse of adverbs and thesaurus words. For instance, these are all sentences that appear on page 9 of my copy:

"An abrupt clamour at the front door reached his ears, and Preston impetuously sat up."
....
"Erica flounced out of the rom, her reminiscent perfume lingering superfluously."
....
"He wistfully wanted to be beside him, so he got up and prepared for school."
....
"They looked at each other seriously for a while, then Ryan's dolorous face broke into a smile."

So reading this so early on, I didn't exactly have high hopes for the next 100+ pages. I forced myself to read and to my surprise, underneath the amateurish prose and clunky character interactions, there's a beating heart to the story. Slowly, in a way most mainstream published authors wouldn't dare to do nowadays, we're shown how the main character, Preston, is a teenager silently struggling with grief, his sexuality and abandonment issues. He latches on to people, fearful of losing them, but then sabotages his relationships. It seems like his mother tries the bare minimum to be a parent, but doesn't really meaningfully intervene or follow up with him. Maybe she's an overwhelmed single parent or maybe by doing the surface-level bare minimum she assuages her own parental guilt. Whatever the case, she leaves her son's eating disorder mostly unchecked and when he skips school, she encourages him to go to his teacher's home, by himself, to study. I know this was before the Mary Kay Letourneau case, but the literal legal child - the author - was clocking it herself. This abuse happens because adults who should clock it and should be protecting kids turn a blind eye.

Maybe I'm being too harsh on the mom character, sure, but what my reaction shows is that this is one impressive book, especially given that it was penned by a young woman. And especially once you learn the context the author grew up in. And that doesn't even scratch the surface. This book started piquing my attention after Preston's best friend, Ryan, declared his romantic love. Preston, being a true 80's kid, went on a homophobic rampage against Ryan while at the same time feeling confused about the feelings it stirs within.

Hey, so that's interesting.

The novel takes some very dramatic turns and ends in tragedy. And it is very much worth the read, even if you strip away the author's backstory. If you're into literary fiction and have a tolerance for strange or avante garde prose, you might enjoy this strange yet surprisingly complex coming-of-age novel.

[Verna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did the guy drink a lot of Pepsi in this one? Yes. Did I drink a lot of Pepsi while reading this? Yes.

This story should be made into a movie!

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Note: I’m reviewing the 2022 Cashen’s Gap printing of this in hardcover, but the original entry is still the only one up on Goodreads.)

What an utterly intriguing book. It certainly helps to know the back story of The Pepsi-Cola Addict before giving it a read, lest one run the risk of dismissing it solely on the quality of the writing, which is about exactly what I’d expect of a 16 year old in all of its awkward glory. What truly sets this book apart is its utterly bizarre, off-kilter vision of reality; sometimes it’s so completely innocent and disconnected that it’s almost hallucinatory. The story itself at times takes a back seat to the truly disparate vibe.

If you like strange literature with an equally strange backstory, this is most definitely a book you should seek out and read.

[Stephen Chase · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too much sugar could end your life!!!

[Elias Wickline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based off a lot of the reviews on here, a lot of people read this like you watch a B movie; you enjoy it because it’s done so poorly or misses the mark so much as to be entertaining. I personally found this book very charming, unaware of the fascinating lore behind the author and her sister. I did know that the book was written by a 16 year old girl in 1981, and found myself left with a feeling like a teacher very impressed with the daring and creativity of his student; so that felt a little patronizing I won’t lie. I won’t be able to say what I would have felt like had I assumed the book written by an adult, maybe I would have felt like it was asinine. As it stands, however, I very much enjoyed the trip that is this book. What a dejected, aimless, and displaced protagonist. The angst present within and the apparent turmoil of this tween are really tangible idk. I just got a kick out of the whole thing and found some truth to hold up to life out of it and was surprised that a lot of the draw for the book was purely out of its novelty (although I can’t say that I was not completely un attracted by the whole ”lost novel” angle). Probably wouldn’t recommend to everyone and there are certainly better books to read if you only have a handful to check out before you die (I myself am guilty of reading many an obscure text before a quantifiable superior classic), but not a bad choice for a rainy afternoon considering its brevity.

[Renato · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love when his date give him a Coke instead of Pepsi and he instantly passes out. Crazy she wrote this at 16– it does feel like it was written by a kid, but it makes for an earnest and nostalgic, dream-like portrayal of teenage emotions and adventure. I wish I was writing like this as a kid and not Skyrim fantasy slop.

[Tari · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Noura Navali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somehow, I knew how things would end.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Y’all, I just love this book SO much, okay? It is to commercial fiction what zero budget DIY films are to the Marvel summer blockbuster. Written and self published in 1982 by a maladjusted English teenager obsessed with the concept of The United States, The Pepsi Cola Addict is a greaser-influenced melodrama about alienation and a curious amalgamation of things Americana. Sincere, a little wonky, and virtually impossible to track down until this Strange Attractor reprint, The Pepsi Cola Addict is a cult classic in the very truest sense of the term. If your tastes bend towards outsider art you’re gonna want this on your shelves.