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Love Is the Drug
From the author of The Summer Prince , a novel that's John Grisham's The Pelican Brief meets Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain set at an elite Washington D.C. prep school. Emily Bird was raised not to ask questions. She has perfect hair, the perfect boyfriend, and a perfect Ivy-League future. But a chance meeting with Roosevelt David, a homeland security agent, at a party for Washington DC's elite leads to Bird waking up in a hospital, days later, with no memory of the end of the night.Meanwhile, the world has fallen A deadly flu virus is sweeping the nation, forcing quarantines, curfews, even martial law. And Roosevelt is certain that Bird knows something. Something about the virus--something about her parents' top secret scientific work--something she shouldn't know.The only one Bird can trust is Coffee, a quiet, outsider genius who deals drugs to their classmates and is a firm believer in conspiracy theories. And he believes in Bird. But as Bird and Coffee dig deeper into what really happened that night, Bird finds that she might know more than she remembers. And what she knows could unleash the biggest government scandal in US history.
344 pages, Hardcover
First published September 30, 2014
54 people are currently reading
3851 people want to read
About the author
Alaya Dawn Johnson
95 books678 followersAlaya Johnson graduated from Columbia University in 2004 with a BA in East Asian Languages and Cultures. She lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 308 reviews
dnf
December 5, 2014I really wanted to like it, but my feelings towards Love Is the Drug are similar to the ones I had about The Doubt Factory - I like the premise and some elements of the plot, but overall it's a pretty boring, unsurprising, slow-moving thriller too overwhelmed by trivial and formulaic romance and family drama.
March 11, 2015
This is a stunning book about identity and discovery against the backdrop of a global pandemic and a bourgeoning dystopia. It's the most literary conspiracy thriller I've ever read, with gorgeous language, increasingly high (and very personal) stakes, and gut-wrenching twists. The threats to Bird and the people she loves feel real and frightening, all while balancing world-shattering danger and the mundane — but equally weighty — horrors of navigating high school and finding your own path in life. A beautiful, suspenseful, and moving novel.
September 28, 2015
This review will be a short one because even after reading the entire book, and certain sections several times, I couldn't give you a precise answer about what this book was about. It has a lot going on. It's one big hot mess. This book has a lot to do with drugs and pharmaceuticals and it had me wondering if I needed to be high for all of the details to make sense. I had to be convinced more than once to push through and read this book, but it definitely wasn't worth it. There were moments of brilliance, but they are few and buried underneath a copious amount of baffling details.
Check out my full review here.
Check out my full review here.
February 13, 2015
She understands with sudden clarity that bravery has nothing to do with the absence of fear, but the response to it.
Dear Fellow Sci-fi Fans,
One of my favorite things about flu-virus apocalypse themes, is that it could so easily be reality. Human beings aren’t really all that hard to kill, we just camouflage how easily we die with how well we kill. Humans are great at killing what we perceive as threats. This is proven quite well in Love is the Drug.
“Morality is something that falls from your pockets when you climb a ladder.”
When I first started the book I was worried that I wouldn’t make it to the end of the book. The ratings for this novel were so up in down, it was as if everyone who read Love is the Drug never read the same book, and perhaps this is true. We all take away something different from a book. I, personally, learned a lot of valuable life lessons from the world that Alaya Dawn Johnson created. Maybe a few of you are scoffing that I sometimes take life lessons from fiction, but it’s true that the author packed Love is the Drug with a few philosophies that we could all benefit and learn from.
We all know the saying, “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This book proves that it doesn’t matter what sort of government leads a county, people in powerful positions always have something to gain or something to hide. To put one’s absolute faith in – and to never question – any government made up of humans is naïve. We all make mistakes, don’t we? It serves that those whom are higher up on the political ladder make the nosiest mistakes of us all and have more to gain by keeping those mistakes quite.
“You’re an iconoclast whose highest aspiration is K Street. You’re a Black DC girl determined to run away to a California suburb with barely any black people. You have a heart, Bird, but you only use your head. You try as hard as you can to be conventional and unoriginal and unthreatening, but somehow you always fail. Just a little bit. Because you know better.”
Not only did I learn that it’s healthy to question authority, but it’s also unhealthy to be someone you’re not, even when it is to please someone else. This is something that really struck close to home. I come from a religious family in The Deep South. My father is so fanatical about religion that nothing and nobody is more important. He’s also great at burning bridges with people who want a life that isn’t dictated by religion, because then he wouldn’t be in control. Suffice to say, I know how it feels to do anything to get a parents approval and still fall short every day.
I imagine the reason I could relate to Emily’s aka “Bird’s” need to please is because of my own relationship with my father. Nothing is more important that success to Carol Bird, something that she has hammered into Bird since she lectured her on the importance of picking appropriate friends in kindergarten. It’s no wonder Bird winds up with friends she can barely tolerate and a boyfriend she mostly keep around because he’s the only thing her mother ever really approved of about her. It’s crazy how easily it is to see something like an unhealthy need to please in one person (fictional or otherwise), but so difficult to admit to having the same problem in my own life.
At the beginning of Love is the Drug, it is clear Emily never questioned authority and she never tip-toed the line. She was a sheep following the masses, a drone following instructions to keep the peace until she could escape to college. Slowly, Emily begins to evolve as she pieces the puzzles together of her missing memory with the sometimes prep school drug dealer and conspiracy theorist, Coffee. She grows to love her real self and finds it easier to have meaningful relationships when she is true to herself.
Watching Emily grow into someone whom is confident and happy with herself really hit me – it can be worse for not only my family, but for me to keep the peace and live a lie than to be honest and proud about who I am. It is easy to see that while Emily is battling to survive in a world where the US government would rather kill her than let her expose their secrets and a flu virus is quickly decimating the population, her biggest battle is with her own self-preservation.
I easily gave this book a five star rating and I hope Johnson plans to continue to write more epidemic themed novels. Love is the Drug was riveting and surprisingly sexy. I recommend it to all readers, even if it is outside of your comfort zone. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
xoxo,
❤One Curvy Blogger
This review was originally posted on One Curvy Blogger
February 5, 2023
Gripping conspiracy / mystery / high school coming of age novel with an opposites-attract romance subplot, about a young African-America woman from an elite Washington D.C. family. It was written by a woman of color, and it's narrated brilliantly for audio by Simone Missick who plays Misty Knight on Netflix's Luke Cage (and is also a WOC, if you don't know her). It's so good that I actually stopped listening to it at about 85% for weeks because I couldn't bear for it to end.
I adore the main character, Emily Bird, and I adore her drug-dealing crush, who goes by the nickname Coffee, and I want to run over the main antagonist with a truck except that I'm so scared of him I would run away. Johnson blends so many strands so beautifully: a mysterious viral outbreak; Emily's relationships with her family, friends, and frenemies; the developing, sometimes contentious relationship she has with Coffee; and Emily's own journey of self-discovery, reinvention, and resistance. Looking back, I can't believe how much stuff is in this book and how neatly it all fits. Gorgeous book, should be far better known.
I adore the main character, Emily Bird, and I adore her drug-dealing crush, who goes by the nickname Coffee, and I want to run over the main antagonist with a truck except that I'm so scared of him I would run away. Johnson blends so many strands so beautifully: a mysterious viral outbreak; Emily's relationships with her family, friends, and frenemies; the developing, sometimes contentious relationship she has with Coffee; and Emily's own journey of self-discovery, reinvention, and resistance. Looking back, I can't believe how much stuff is in this book and how neatly it all fits. Gorgeous book, should be far better known.
February 4, 2018
UGH. CHEMISTRY.
Other than that, I really enjoyed this book. Emily Bird was sort of likable and I'm glad certain things didn't happen to her, .
Love Is the Drug is basically about Bird going to a party and meeting a stranger. Now we all know not to talk to strangers but hey, it was a party. However, the guy starts straight up stalking her and shit. To top it all off, there's a god damn plague happening too. I was not a fan of the v-flu and if it ever became a real thing.. well.. then asta pasta guys. I'm going to peace the eff out.
Overall, this book was okay. It definitely had flaws and I did find it boring in a ton of parts. I did like a ton of other parts - okay, I definitely have a love/hate relationship with this book. I liked the relationships formed throughout the book. I loved how it tackled social issues. I just wish that all of the characters were stronger and more likable. I also wish it wasn't such a boring read sometimes.
Other than that, I really enjoyed this book. Emily Bird was sort of likable and I'm glad certain things didn't happen to her, .
Love Is the Drug is basically about Bird going to a party and meeting a stranger. Now we all know not to talk to strangers but hey, it was a party. However, the guy starts straight up stalking her and shit. To top it all off, there's a god damn plague happening too. I was not a fan of the v-flu and if it ever became a real thing.. well.. then asta pasta guys. I'm going to peace the eff out.
Overall, this book was okay. It definitely had flaws and I did find it boring in a ton of parts. I did like a ton of other parts - okay, I definitely have a love/hate relationship with this book. I liked the relationships formed throughout the book. I loved how it tackled social issues. I just wish that all of the characters were stronger and more likable. I also wish it wasn't such a boring read sometimes.
September 8, 2014
Stuff I Read - Love is the Drug by Alaya Dawn Johnson Review
Sometimes it's strange how one gets a book. I've been meaning to read Johnson since I learned that she was one of the guests of honor at WisCon 2015, and bought the Summer Prince for just that reason, but haven't got around to reading that yet, and instead lucked my way into this book instead, which is a solid near-future science fiction with some old fashioned government conspiracy sprinkled over a high school drama filled with relationships, friends, family, and some delicious-sounding food. And while it didn't have as many spec elements as I normally want in my reads, Love is the Drug definitely delivered an entertaining and thoughtful story about expectations.
Because really, most of the elements of the story circle back around to expectations, to Bird trying to find herself amidst the bogs of expectations from her mother, her school, her friends, and the world at large. It's complicated by the fact that she is black, that her mother is a very successful, career-driven person and Bird is not. But she doesn't want to fall to the stereotypes, doesn't want to let her mother or anyone else down. It's an interesting journey from where her entire life is about living up to or escaping people's expectations to where she is finally comfortable with living her own life, making her own decisions and perhaps not being unmindful of what it looks like to everyone else, but still willing to act for herself.
It was very nice to find the book treat the relationship between Bird and Coffee as something that wasn't exactly toxic. It could easily have been something where they weren't good for each other, where he was just this different thing that she wanted because it would mean rebellion. It's what many people think, and yet it's something where Bird is the one with the greater power. As is pointed out in the story, everyone assumes that she is the passive party, that she's important only in relation to other people, mostly to men. And yet, as it turns out, it's them who are only important because of her. And as she discovers that and starts to use her power for something, that lifetime of having to bend to expectations turns out to have made her strong enough to push back.
That said, I wanted a little bit more from the conspiracy plot. It was layered and effective, where she is trying desperately to find out what happened to her, what she heard, but doesn't manage to until the end. It's also great to see just how much her parents end up disappointing her, how that relationship turns as she finds out what they've been involved in. But most of the twists were fairly standard for the genre, and while not less enjoyable for it, I had been hoping for a little more. I liked the chemistry angle, the chapter titles, the diversity of characters, but things were just a little too neat, pretty much everything wrapped up in a nice bow. And that's not a terrible thing. It's satisfying to find out who wins and who doesn't, basically, but I didn't really want to get the happily ever after, because I feel that things should have been left a little more open.
Still and all, it was a fun read with some great characters. The relationships really stole the show, because all of them are relatable and intense. Bird has all these people acting on her, and she fails sometimes, and has to recenter and try again, and all the while she's in the middle of this plot moving around her. I kind of wish a few characters had shown up again, more notably Cindy and Travis, because I was curious as to how their story would end, but perhaps just letting them drop away was enough. Not every question needs answering. It was a good read, though, and I can't wait to check out more from the author. So it gets an 8.25/10 from me.
Sometimes it's strange how one gets a book. I've been meaning to read Johnson since I learned that she was one of the guests of honor at WisCon 2015, and bought the Summer Prince for just that reason, but haven't got around to reading that yet, and instead lucked my way into this book instead, which is a solid near-future science fiction with some old fashioned government conspiracy sprinkled over a high school drama filled with relationships, friends, family, and some delicious-sounding food. And while it didn't have as many spec elements as I normally want in my reads, Love is the Drug definitely delivered an entertaining and thoughtful story about expectations.
Because really, most of the elements of the story circle back around to expectations, to Bird trying to find herself amidst the bogs of expectations from her mother, her school, her friends, and the world at large. It's complicated by the fact that she is black, that her mother is a very successful, career-driven person and Bird is not. But she doesn't want to fall to the stereotypes, doesn't want to let her mother or anyone else down. It's an interesting journey from where her entire life is about living up to or escaping people's expectations to where she is finally comfortable with living her own life, making her own decisions and perhaps not being unmindful of what it looks like to everyone else, but still willing to act for herself.
It was very nice to find the book treat the relationship between Bird and Coffee as something that wasn't exactly toxic. It could easily have been something where they weren't good for each other, where he was just this different thing that she wanted because it would mean rebellion. It's what many people think, and yet it's something where Bird is the one with the greater power. As is pointed out in the story, everyone assumes that she is the passive party, that she's important only in relation to other people, mostly to men. And yet, as it turns out, it's them who are only important because of her. And as she discovers that and starts to use her power for something, that lifetime of having to bend to expectations turns out to have made her strong enough to push back.
That said, I wanted a little bit more from the conspiracy plot. It was layered and effective, where she is trying desperately to find out what happened to her, what she heard, but doesn't manage to until the end. It's also great to see just how much her parents end up disappointing her, how that relationship turns as she finds out what they've been involved in. But most of the twists were fairly standard for the genre, and while not less enjoyable for it, I had been hoping for a little more. I liked the chemistry angle, the chapter titles, the diversity of characters, but things were just a little too neat, pretty much everything wrapped up in a nice bow. And that's not a terrible thing. It's satisfying to find out who wins and who doesn't, basically, but I didn't really want to get the happily ever after, because I feel that things should have been left a little more open.
Still and all, it was a fun read with some great characters. The relationships really stole the show, because all of them are relatable and intense. Bird has all these people acting on her, and she fails sometimes, and has to recenter and try again, and all the while she's in the middle of this plot moving around her. I kind of wish a few characters had shown up again, more notably Cindy and Travis, because I was curious as to how their story would end, but perhaps just letting them drop away was enough. Not every question needs answering. It was a good read, though, and I can't wait to check out more from the author. So it gets an 8.25/10 from me.
May 28, 2020
this was just ok for me. I'm under a lot of stress so this may be a reflection on me rather than book. I will try to reread at a different time
November 18, 2014
Emily Bird - Emily to most, Bird to the best - is a senior at one of the most prestigious high schools in the country. She doesn't entirely fit in, being one of the few black kids. She also doesn't fit in because she might be going along with her mother's plan to go to college (and thinking of Stanford for herself), but her real goal is to run a small shop. (Not that having a business degree wouldn't help with that, but it never comes up.)
When LOVE IS THE DRUG opens, Bird is at a party with her boyfriend. She meets a man who works with her parents and drops the name of a lab she once saw in the trash. What follows is a nightmare as the man stalks her, threatens her friends and family, and messes with her life in an attempt to get her to confess what she knows. It just makes Bird determined to find the truth, and to discover whether she really did find out a national secret that night.
This thriller plays out against a widespread plague, the worst since the Spanish flu. The v-flu, as it is known, is being held back by a quarantine. Bird is as safe as can be in her high-class school full of politician's kids. But how is the country ensuring that those kids stay so safe? And, of course, does the flu have anything to do with what Bird might know? Unrealistic diseases are a pet peeve of mine, so I like that this flu plays out like a real disease. There's no killing everyone over 25 or anything silly like that.
I loved the paranoid atmosphere of LOVE IS THE DRUG, although I felt the plot faltered at the end. There were a lot of ideas but nowhere for them to go. And the romance dragged the whole thing down. Bird falls for Coffee, the one guy who really gets her. He's also a drug dealer, and the story never really convinced me to get over it. He's just the cliche soulful, smart bad boy. Now, Marella, Blue's lesbian friend, is where it's at. Their friendship blooms throughout the pages, starting warily and growing as they're stuck in quarantine together. I think they spend more time together than Blue and Coffee, and honestly have better chemistry. I wished I were reading a more inventive lesbian romance instead of what the book actually was.
LOVE IS THE DRUG has its high points. I loved Bird's relationship with her uncle, the disappointment of her family. I loved the way LOVE IS THE DRUG tackled social issues, from being black to being foreign to being LGBTQ. Alaya Dawn Johnson really brought the diversity of DC to life. There are strong characters, a compelling atmosphere, and beautiful writing, but a boring romance and a plot that never has any steam. Johnson has written better.
When LOVE IS THE DRUG opens, Bird is at a party with her boyfriend. She meets a man who works with her parents and drops the name of a lab she once saw in the trash. What follows is a nightmare as the man stalks her, threatens her friends and family, and messes with her life in an attempt to get her to confess what she knows. It just makes Bird determined to find the truth, and to discover whether she really did find out a national secret that night.
This thriller plays out against a widespread plague, the worst since the Spanish flu. The v-flu, as it is known, is being held back by a quarantine. Bird is as safe as can be in her high-class school full of politician's kids. But how is the country ensuring that those kids stay so safe? And, of course, does the flu have anything to do with what Bird might know? Unrealistic diseases are a pet peeve of mine, so I like that this flu plays out like a real disease. There's no killing everyone over 25 or anything silly like that.
I loved the paranoid atmosphere of LOVE IS THE DRUG, although I felt the plot faltered at the end. There were a lot of ideas but nowhere for them to go. And the romance dragged the whole thing down. Bird falls for Coffee, the one guy who really gets her. He's also a drug dealer, and the story never really convinced me to get over it. He's just the cliche soulful, smart bad boy. Now, Marella, Blue's lesbian friend, is where it's at. Their friendship blooms throughout the pages, starting warily and growing as they're stuck in quarantine together. I think they spend more time together than Blue and Coffee, and honestly have better chemistry. I wished I were reading a more inventive lesbian romance instead of what the book actually was.
LOVE IS THE DRUG has its high points. I loved Bird's relationship with her uncle, the disappointment of her family. I loved the way LOVE IS THE DRUG tackled social issues, from being black to being foreign to being LGBTQ. Alaya Dawn Johnson really brought the diversity of DC to life. There are strong characters, a compelling atmosphere, and beautiful writing, but a boring romance and a plot that never has any steam. Johnson has written better.
March 7, 2015
So, I wrote a formal review of this book for the YA review group I am in, and I'm going to post it here, but first I want to clarify why I gave this book 2 stars and yet wrote a seemingly super positive review.
This book was good. Objectively good. It was literary and complex and had an interesting character who evolved throughout the story...but I was just...so...bored while I was reading it. It took me LITERALLY two months to read this book because I couldn't motivate myself to pick it up. It's pretty deathly in its pacing, which for me is a problem. I don't generally consider myself a story doorway person primarily, but there needs to be SOME forward momentum, or I just lose all interest. So this was a good book, it just was NOT the book for me. That being said -- here's my pretty positive review for WASHYARG (Washington Young Adult Review Group:
Emily Bird (known preferably as just “Bird”) is an affluent African-American teenager attending a prestigious private school in Washington, D.C. She has the perfect boyfriend, is planning on attending a prestigious college, and everything seems to be going pretty ideally in her life – except for the fact that the world is in a state of crisis due to the rapid spread of a terrifying and deadly strain of the flu, known as the v-flu. When Bird attends a party and ends up in the hospital after blacking out, she starts to question everything she knew. Is her boyfriend really a good guy? Maybe Coffee, the mysterious and attractive Brazilian drug-dealer is better for her? Are her parents involved in a vast international conspiracy somehow having to do with the v-flu? This book addresses weighty issues such as international politics, bioterrorism, loyalty, and friendship using a refreshingly diverse cast of characters that truly reflects the diversity of the world we live in. Well-written and heady, Johnson’s book will probably be most enjoyed by upper high-schoolers who like complex, slow-moving stories with plenty of political intrigue and no easy answers. This is not a book for people who need the plot to move forward swiftly – it is a much more meditative, internal narrative. Readers with patience will be rewarded by a richly detailed, thoughtful story.
This book was good. Objectively good. It was literary and complex and had an interesting character who evolved throughout the story...but I was just...so...bored while I was reading it. It took me LITERALLY two months to read this book because I couldn't motivate myself to pick it up. It's pretty deathly in its pacing, which for me is a problem. I don't generally consider myself a story doorway person primarily, but there needs to be SOME forward momentum, or I just lose all interest. So this was a good book, it just was NOT the book for me. That being said -- here's my pretty positive review for WASHYARG (Washington Young Adult Review Group:
Emily Bird (known preferably as just “Bird”) is an affluent African-American teenager attending a prestigious private school in Washington, D.C. She has the perfect boyfriend, is planning on attending a prestigious college, and everything seems to be going pretty ideally in her life – except for the fact that the world is in a state of crisis due to the rapid spread of a terrifying and deadly strain of the flu, known as the v-flu. When Bird attends a party and ends up in the hospital after blacking out, she starts to question everything she knew. Is her boyfriend really a good guy? Maybe Coffee, the mysterious and attractive Brazilian drug-dealer is better for her? Are her parents involved in a vast international conspiracy somehow having to do with the v-flu? This book addresses weighty issues such as international politics, bioterrorism, loyalty, and friendship using a refreshingly diverse cast of characters that truly reflects the diversity of the world we live in. Well-written and heady, Johnson’s book will probably be most enjoyed by upper high-schoolers who like complex, slow-moving stories with plenty of political intrigue and no easy answers. This is not a book for people who need the plot to move forward swiftly – it is a much more meditative, internal narrative. Readers with patience will be rewarded by a richly detailed, thoughtful story.
November 12, 2020
My thanks to NetGalley and Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.
DNF at about 6%. What turned me off, the casual drug use and what seemed to be the H being the high school drug dealer. I'm not into glamorizing drug use. Yes, I know it happens with the high school age range, younger even. It doesn't need to be romanticized in YA reading material.
Which is sad, as the pandemic with a possible Government conspiracy plot line could be a good hook, though possibly a little too "now" right now. I admit, the conspiracy theory plot line made me roll my eyes a bit. If I wanted that, I would just turn on the TV or pay attention to what is on the internet.
This book was published in 2014, so it isn't trying to ride the wave of what is happening now, it was just a little future looking and I happened to pick it up now. If I had picked it up when it first came out, my reaction to that plot line would have been different I think.
So, not a book I would really recommend, due to the drug use and selling. In the first 6%, we see the dealer snorting something and then selling a bag of pills and weed to two fellow high schoolers. The first page, we see the h wake up and say something along the line of she needed uppers. Not cool. Maybe it's real and I'm just an old fart, but it isn't something I would recommend to the YA demographic or want to continue reading myself. Might be a good fit for an adult reader.
1, due to the glamorized drug usage, stars.
DNF at about 6%. What turned me off, the casual drug use and what seemed to be the H being the high school drug dealer. I'm not into glamorizing drug use. Yes, I know it happens with the high school age range, younger even. It doesn't need to be romanticized in YA reading material.
Which is sad, as the pandemic with a possible Government conspiracy plot line could be a good hook, though possibly a little too "now" right now. I admit, the conspiracy theory plot line made me roll my eyes a bit. If I wanted that, I would just turn on the TV or pay attention to what is on the internet.
This book was published in 2014, so it isn't trying to ride the wave of what is happening now, it was just a little future looking and I happened to pick it up now. If I had picked it up when it first came out, my reaction to that plot line would have been different I think.
So, not a book I would really recommend, due to the drug use and selling. In the first 6%, we see the dealer snorting something and then selling a bag of pills and weed to two fellow high schoolers. The first page, we see the h wake up and say something along the line of she needed uppers. Not cool. Maybe it's real and I'm just an old fart, but it isn't something I would recommend to the YA demographic or want to continue reading myself. Might be a good fit for an adult reader.
1, due to the glamorized drug usage, stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 2, 2018
Emily Bird is a scholarship student in a prestigious DC school, but her future is uncertain when she awakes in the hospital unable to remember why she's there. But there's more trouble to come: a deadly virus is spreading, putting the school in lockdown, and a Homeland Security agent is far too close for comfort. Bird's only solace is the school's conspiracy theorist and resident drug-dealer as they investigate what's happening around them. But there are those who'd rather Bird NOT remember what she knows...
Love Is the Drug is like Jennifer Lynn Barnes's The Fixer meets Malinda Lo's Adaptation. I so hope Alaya Dawn Johnson writes more young adult novels, because this one and The Summer Prince are great reads. I particularly like her use of settings, which are thoroughly explored.
Love Is the Drug is like Jennifer Lynn Barnes's The Fixer meets Malinda Lo's Adaptation. I so hope Alaya Dawn Johnson writes more young adult novels, because this one and The Summer Prince are great reads. I particularly like her use of settings, which are thoroughly explored.
June 28, 2015
Emily Bird—Bird to her friends—is the viewpoint character of Alaya Dawn Johnson’s amazing young adult novel LOVE IS THE DRUG (Scholastic, 2014). Bird is an African-American teenaged-girl in her senior year at a prestigious Washington, DC, prep school. Bird has selected Stanford as her college of choice, much to her mother’s dismay. Emily’s parents are wealthy and prominent enough, and Bird’s grades and SAT scores good enough, to get her into any college she desires. Bird is borderline upper-crust, and she has ambivalent feelings about her pretentious mother and social-climbing classmates. He isn’t even sure she wants to go to college. But if she does continue her education, someplace far from her parents is preferable.
I love reading well-written YA fiction. I prefer to think of Love is the Drug as more a coming-of-age novel where characters are forced to make real choices for the first times in their lives, and they finally have to grow up or die. Characters in YA novels refreshingly question everything and everyone. They’re raw material being molded by events and the environment and whatever nurture they may have experienced in the past. Their hormones often get the better of their judgment. And they’re in a constant state of becoming, just like people in real life.
What Bird is becoming is scared to death. A new strain of flu, more virulent than the 1918 swine flu epidemic, is killing people world-wide. The American government claims the flu was engineered by terrorists, most likely from Venezuela or Iran, and directed at Americans. The President has declared martial law. Washington, DC, where Bird lives and is nearly half-way through her senior year at an elite DC prep school where the daughter of the Vice President of the United States is also a student, has quarantined sections of the city and instituted a nightly curfew. Students become virtual prisoners at the school. Bird’s parents are biochemists who work for the US government, and they are out of town on a secret mission. Their jobs are so top-secret Bird knows nothing about what they do nor where they work. When Bird innocently lets slip, during a party she attends with her boyfriend Paul, that she knows the actual name of the company her parents allegedly work for, government contractor and secret agent Roosevelt David takes a special interest in Bird and Bird’s friend Coffee. Coffee is the son of a Brazilian diplomat stationed in Washington, and he is a whiz at chemistry and notorious for dealing drugs to other students at school.
Bird wakes from a coma eight days after the party. She finds herself in the hospital with stitches in her head and an IV in her arm. She remembers little of what happened the night of the party. Was she drugged? Did Coffee drug her? Did Paul? Did Roosevelt David? Why?
The mystery deepens. Is Bird paranoid or is there a real conspiracy going on?
Love is the Drug is filled with great imagery and decent dialogue. The character insights are interesting. Sometimes even adults act like children, and sometimes children are more adult than they get credit for.
Identity is a recurring theme in this novel. Is one defined by family? By friends? By color? By education? By age? By sexual orientation?
What’s in a name? Would a bird, by any other name, be able to fly?
If you love science fiction or a good mystery or a well-wrought apocalyptic tale full of secrets and delusions and paranoid speculations, then Love is the Drug is a book you want to read. It’s not perfect, but the story is superbly crafted. The human conflicts—both internal and external—seem real. The conspiracies seem plausible. The book may be a tad too long and might benefit from some selective editing near the end. But by then you’re so hooked you don’t want the novel to end and the final twists and turns of the plot keep the pages turning. Although this novel is suitable for young adults, it’s not a juvenile book by any means. It’s adult fiction at its finest.
I love reading well-written YA fiction. I prefer to think of Love is the Drug as more a coming-of-age novel where characters are forced to make real choices for the first times in their lives, and they finally have to grow up or die. Characters in YA novels refreshingly question everything and everyone. They’re raw material being molded by events and the environment and whatever nurture they may have experienced in the past. Their hormones often get the better of their judgment. And they’re in a constant state of becoming, just like people in real life.
What Bird is becoming is scared to death. A new strain of flu, more virulent than the 1918 swine flu epidemic, is killing people world-wide. The American government claims the flu was engineered by terrorists, most likely from Venezuela or Iran, and directed at Americans. The President has declared martial law. Washington, DC, where Bird lives and is nearly half-way through her senior year at an elite DC prep school where the daughter of the Vice President of the United States is also a student, has quarantined sections of the city and instituted a nightly curfew. Students become virtual prisoners at the school. Bird’s parents are biochemists who work for the US government, and they are out of town on a secret mission. Their jobs are so top-secret Bird knows nothing about what they do nor where they work. When Bird innocently lets slip, during a party she attends with her boyfriend Paul, that she knows the actual name of the company her parents allegedly work for, government contractor and secret agent Roosevelt David takes a special interest in Bird and Bird’s friend Coffee. Coffee is the son of a Brazilian diplomat stationed in Washington, and he is a whiz at chemistry and notorious for dealing drugs to other students at school.
Bird wakes from a coma eight days after the party. She finds herself in the hospital with stitches in her head and an IV in her arm. She remembers little of what happened the night of the party. Was she drugged? Did Coffee drug her? Did Paul? Did Roosevelt David? Why?
The mystery deepens. Is Bird paranoid or is there a real conspiracy going on?
Love is the Drug is filled with great imagery and decent dialogue. The character insights are interesting. Sometimes even adults act like children, and sometimes children are more adult than they get credit for.
Identity is a recurring theme in this novel. Is one defined by family? By friends? By color? By education? By age? By sexual orientation?
What’s in a name? Would a bird, by any other name, be able to fly?
If you love science fiction or a good mystery or a well-wrought apocalyptic tale full of secrets and delusions and paranoid speculations, then Love is the Drug is a book you want to read. It’s not perfect, but the story is superbly crafted. The human conflicts—both internal and external—seem real. The conspiracies seem plausible. The book may be a tad too long and might benefit from some selective editing near the end. But by then you’re so hooked you don’t want the novel to end and the final twists and turns of the plot keep the pages turning. Although this novel is suitable for young adults, it’s not a juvenile book by any means. It’s adult fiction at its finest.
March 17, 2017
I've had this in my TBR pile too long and as 2017 is my year of focused clearing of backlist books, I decided to give this one a go. Prep school senior, Emily Bird wakes up in a hospital after having been drugged to the point that her memory of the events of a night are gone and Washington DC is on the verge of full on outbreak crisis intervention and none of that is the worst news.
I expected more intrigue and urgency given the global outbreak of a virus that's decimating the population with some martial law tossed in but this book was surprisingly low-key. I stayed with the story because I was very interested in the characters, most specifically Bird (Emily), Coffee (Alonso), Aaron, Marella, Nicky and even the villainous Roosevelt. I was confused by Bird's parents, Carol and Greg. I suppose that was to be expected as Bird is afraid of her mother (with good reason and so was I) and distant from her father but as this story is told in shifting POVs and not told strictly in Bird's voice, I feel there could have been more provided for clarity with the family dynamic. Aaron was the best kid I've had the pleasure to read in a while and I even liked Nicky. While he may not be a paragon of success, he worked consistently to provide for his family, wasn't in any way a criminal and his children knew they were loved. He treated Bird like a second daughter and made her feel a part of a family. One more reason for me to put Carol Bird on ignore. Marella won all the true BFF points and I was pulling for her too. If there's ever a sequel to Love is the Drug or a Marella in Paris story, I'd read that.
By book's end, while the answer to how Bird was drugged and why is given, it was revealed in a way that didn't deliver a punch given all the build up. Again, the urgency was just about non-existent. I thought the relationship between Bird and Coffee was well done and I really liked that this story allowed her to grow on her own so she could save herself and the boy she loved. Bird also didn't display any characteristics or abilities out of the blue to solve her problems and I was glad of that. No insta-solutions or insta-love here and if I could find more YA like this, I'd read them. Another thing that was refreshing was to have Bird be told by Marella and those who were supposed to be her friends before, that she (Bird) either wasn't holding up her end of the friend ship or she wasn't trustworthy. It's not often you have a main character girl in YA who isn't universally & inexplicably loved by all when she does nothing to draw those feelings. Bird had to earn them and improve herself. Well done, ADJ. Points also to the author for the Jack and Jill mentions. I can't recall the last time I came across that in a novel. I also liked the conflict in Bird, a privileged girl of color, on how to be Black in a world where her parents want her to be a proud and accomplished African American but "not too black" so as to single her out in the profoundly white world they've raised her in. This extends to something as simple as how she wears her hair. The socially acceptable pod of other African American teens she's around also exercise a certain amount of pressure to conform and it was interesting how they felt mostly sequestered off from white students (Charlotte notwithstanding). Making the chemist/drug dealer, conspiracy theorist, the root worthy character, is a hell of a feat to pull off but the author does so here and it's believable. He and Marella (who was Black & openly gay, so had her own outcast issues from the "socially acceptable" groups) were the only people who seemed able to accept Bird for who she was & wanted to be.
The way this ends, I could envision a sequel because the danger is still out there. Bird, Coffee & Marella globe trekking, just a step ahead of the enemy could be fun & hopefully have a high-octane feel now that they're out of high school. Recommended.
I expected more intrigue and urgency given the global outbreak of a virus that's decimating the population with some martial law tossed in but this book was surprisingly low-key. I stayed with the story because I was very interested in the characters, most specifically Bird (Emily), Coffee (Alonso), Aaron, Marella, Nicky and even the villainous Roosevelt. I was confused by Bird's parents, Carol and Greg. I suppose that was to be expected as Bird is afraid of her mother (with good reason and so was I) and distant from her father but as this story is told in shifting POVs and not told strictly in Bird's voice, I feel there could have been more provided for clarity with the family dynamic. Aaron was the best kid I've had the pleasure to read in a while and I even liked Nicky. While he may not be a paragon of success, he worked consistently to provide for his family, wasn't in any way a criminal and his children knew they were loved. He treated Bird like a second daughter and made her feel a part of a family. One more reason for me to put Carol Bird on ignore. Marella won all the true BFF points and I was pulling for her too. If there's ever a sequel to Love is the Drug or a Marella in Paris story, I'd read that.
By book's end, while the answer to how Bird was drugged and why is given, it was revealed in a way that didn't deliver a punch given all the build up. Again, the urgency was just about non-existent. I thought the relationship between Bird and Coffee was well done and I really liked that this story allowed her to grow on her own so she could save herself and the boy she loved. Bird also didn't display any characteristics or abilities out of the blue to solve her problems and I was glad of that. No insta-solutions or insta-love here and if I could find more YA like this, I'd read them. Another thing that was refreshing was to have Bird be told by Marella and those who were supposed to be her friends before, that she (Bird) either wasn't holding up her end of the friend ship or she wasn't trustworthy. It's not often you have a main character girl in YA who isn't universally & inexplicably loved by all when she does nothing to draw those feelings. Bird had to earn them and improve herself. Well done, ADJ. Points also to the author for the Jack and Jill mentions. I can't recall the last time I came across that in a novel. I also liked the conflict in Bird, a privileged girl of color, on how to be Black in a world where her parents want her to be a proud and accomplished African American but "not too black" so as to single her out in the profoundly white world they've raised her in. This extends to something as simple as how she wears her hair. The socially acceptable pod of other African American teens she's around also exercise a certain amount of pressure to conform and it was interesting how they felt mostly sequestered off from white students (Charlotte notwithstanding). Making the chemist/drug dealer, conspiracy theorist, the root worthy character, is a hell of a feat to pull off but the author does so here and it's believable. He and Marella (who was Black & openly gay, so had her own outcast issues from the "socially acceptable" groups) were the only people who seemed able to accept Bird for who she was & wanted to be.
The way this ends, I could envision a sequel because the danger is still out there. Bird, Coffee & Marella globe trekking, just a step ahead of the enemy could be fun & hopefully have a high-octane feel now that they're out of high school. Recommended.
March 4, 2015
Review Copy: Bought from my local Barnes & Noble
Having loved Johnson’s “The Summer Prince”, I was really looking forward to “Love is the Drug.” I can’t say that I didn’t like it because it was a compelling read, moved at a fast pace, and I enjoyed Johnson’s lush writing. I think what makes me pause, and this is strictly a personal thing, is that I figured out the twist way before (like early in the book), so I was constantly waiting for the reveal and for Bird to discover the truth. The fact that she doesn’t learn it until practically the very end bothered me. I wanted to spend more time with her after she learned the truth and how it effected her relationships with the important people in her life. Instead, we’re given a solution to one of the conflicts, which I will commend Johnson here for not making it an easy solution, and then the novel is over. There is a part of me that longs for a sequel to the book, though I’m pretty sure the story is finished.
One of Johnson’s greatest strengths is to create compelling characters that we all can relate to, and Emily Bird is no exception. Bird, as she comes to call herself, through her experience with a fateful night grows from a scared young girl under her mother’s thumb into a smart, vibrant, young woman holding her own. The novel is told in third person, but slips into first person occasionally, which I believe is to show how the woman within Bird emerges. I will admit, some of those parts threw me out of the story, but aside from those sparse moments, Bird’s voice is strong and she learns to stand up for herself, even fight for herself. She comes to an awareness of how empty and shallow her life was turning out to be, and realizes that she is much happier following her heart. A moment in particular that stands out to me is when Bird decides to cut off her hair, reveling in the afro she now has. She knows she’s going to receive criticism from her mother, lose her social status as school because of it, but she doesn’t care. She owns herself in that moment and stands up for her rights to anyone who tries to tell her otherwise. That wisdom that she has, many women are still searching for, and I commended her for it. It didn’t seem out of character or unrealistic at all for a teenager to feel that way because I know a number of African American young girls who have decided to own their beauty and wear their hair natural. Bird also doesn’t hold back on her comments regarding privilege and race, which I found refreshing in a Young Adult novel. Often times the concept of privilege and race, specifically from African Americans with money, is glossed over (or not even written about!), that I loved how Johnson, through Bird, hit the topics head on. Bird is a type of young girl I would like to know and is one of the reasons I enjoyed the novel.
Lastly, while “The Summer Prince” was otherworldly and fantastical, the tone of “Love is the Drug” is vastly different. While a time period is not explicitly stated, it feels like it could be our current day as the world wide tensions focus on Venezuela and Iran, two countries of concern to our government right now. The novel could take place in our very near future, and the aspect of such an event intrigued me. Like Octavia Butler’s “Parable of the Sower”, Johnson takes our current society and asks, what if this happened as a result of our actions? Asking these type of questions, looking into a potential future is was speculative fiction is all about and Johnson hits all the right notes in this novel.
Recommendation: Get it soon.
Originally posted at Rich in Color http://richincolor.com/2014/12/book-r...
Having loved Johnson’s “The Summer Prince”, I was really looking forward to “Love is the Drug.” I can’t say that I didn’t like it because it was a compelling read, moved at a fast pace, and I enjoyed Johnson’s lush writing. I think what makes me pause, and this is strictly a personal thing, is that I figured out the twist way before (like early in the book), so I was constantly waiting for the reveal and for Bird to discover the truth. The fact that she doesn’t learn it until practically the very end bothered me. I wanted to spend more time with her after she learned the truth and how it effected her relationships with the important people in her life. Instead, we’re given a solution to one of the conflicts, which I will commend Johnson here for not making it an easy solution, and then the novel is over. There is a part of me that longs for a sequel to the book, though I’m pretty sure the story is finished.
One of Johnson’s greatest strengths is to create compelling characters that we all can relate to, and Emily Bird is no exception. Bird, as she comes to call herself, through her experience with a fateful night grows from a scared young girl under her mother’s thumb into a smart, vibrant, young woman holding her own. The novel is told in third person, but slips into first person occasionally, which I believe is to show how the woman within Bird emerges. I will admit, some of those parts threw me out of the story, but aside from those sparse moments, Bird’s voice is strong and she learns to stand up for herself, even fight for herself. She comes to an awareness of how empty and shallow her life was turning out to be, and realizes that she is much happier following her heart. A moment in particular that stands out to me is when Bird decides to cut off her hair, reveling in the afro she now has. She knows she’s going to receive criticism from her mother, lose her social status as school because of it, but she doesn’t care. She owns herself in that moment and stands up for her rights to anyone who tries to tell her otherwise. That wisdom that she has, many women are still searching for, and I commended her for it. It didn’t seem out of character or unrealistic at all for a teenager to feel that way because I know a number of African American young girls who have decided to own their beauty and wear their hair natural. Bird also doesn’t hold back on her comments regarding privilege and race, which I found refreshing in a Young Adult novel. Often times the concept of privilege and race, specifically from African Americans with money, is glossed over (or not even written about!), that I loved how Johnson, through Bird, hit the topics head on. Bird is a type of young girl I would like to know and is one of the reasons I enjoyed the novel.
Lastly, while “The Summer Prince” was otherworldly and fantastical, the tone of “Love is the Drug” is vastly different. While a time period is not explicitly stated, it feels like it could be our current day as the world wide tensions focus on Venezuela and Iran, two countries of concern to our government right now. The novel could take place in our very near future, and the aspect of such an event intrigued me. Like Octavia Butler’s “Parable of the Sower”, Johnson takes our current society and asks, what if this happened as a result of our actions? Asking these type of questions, looking into a potential future is was speculative fiction is all about and Johnson hits all the right notes in this novel.
Recommendation: Get it soon.
Originally posted at Rich in Color http://richincolor.com/2014/12/book-r...
May 28, 2015
This book is a murky thriller uneasily perched on a much better black-girl-in-D.C.-coming-of-age story.
Emily Bird has lived in the shadow of her mother's expectations her whole life. Both of her parents are government scientists, they have a nice house in the nice part of town, she has perfect hair, she goes to an elite prep school in D.C., and the perfect (or is he?) boyfriend. She tries so hard to be perfect, to please her impossible to please mother, she's almost erased herself.
Her mother expects her to take full advantage of the privileges most young black women in America could never dream of, and to attend Georgetown or some other east coast Ivy League college, get a high-ranking job in government, and to make her mother proud. Emily is ready to rebel and find herself. The characters are rich, the details about home life, music, and Thanksgiving dinner, are warm and strong, and the conflict between daughter and mother moving.
Meanwhile, a mysterious flu epidemic is sweeping the globe, and it is rumored to be of Venezuelan origin. Bird goes to a party, drops the name of a company she once saw in her parents' papers, gets mysteriously drunk/drugged on something, has a memory loss, and then has a government CIA agent making threats unless she tells him what she knows. Of course, it must be something about her parents, and it is pretty easy to guess what. This part was clunky and unconvincing.
While Bird figures things out, she has the help/distraction of a guy named Coffee, a son of a Brazilian diplomat who has taught himself to be a chemistry whiz. He thinks Bird is something special, but we are only TOLD she is amazing, not shown it. Together they will investigate, putting themselves in danger from shadowy government forces.
It takes too long to get to the reveal. How many times can Bird feel sick about yet another government threat? After that, the story peters out to just an outline to get us to the finish line. I liked Bird okay, but the story suffers from more telling than showing about her extraordinariness, and it goes too slow for something called a thriller. I give it a B-
Emily Bird has lived in the shadow of her mother's expectations her whole life. Both of her parents are government scientists, they have a nice house in the nice part of town, she has perfect hair, she goes to an elite prep school in D.C., and the perfect (or is he?) boyfriend. She tries so hard to be perfect, to please her impossible to please mother, she's almost erased herself.
Her mother expects her to take full advantage of the privileges most young black women in America could never dream of, and to attend Georgetown or some other east coast Ivy League college, get a high-ranking job in government, and to make her mother proud. Emily is ready to rebel and find herself. The characters are rich, the details about home life, music, and Thanksgiving dinner, are warm and strong, and the conflict between daughter and mother moving.
Meanwhile, a mysterious flu epidemic is sweeping the globe, and it is rumored to be of Venezuelan origin. Bird goes to a party, drops the name of a company she once saw in her parents' papers, gets mysteriously drunk/drugged on something, has a memory loss, and then has a government CIA agent making threats unless she tells him what she knows. Of course, it must be something about her parents, and it is pretty easy to guess what. This part was clunky and unconvincing.
While Bird figures things out, she has the help/distraction of a guy named Coffee, a son of a Brazilian diplomat who has taught himself to be a chemistry whiz. He thinks Bird is something special, but we are only TOLD she is amazing, not shown it. Together they will investigate, putting themselves in danger from shadowy government forces.
It takes too long to get to the reveal. How many times can Bird feel sick about yet another government threat? After that, the story peters out to just an outline to get us to the finish line. I liked Bird okay, but the story suffers from more telling than showing about her extraordinariness, and it goes too slow for something called a thriller. I give it a B-
July 25, 2015
Full review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
Love is the Drug is a thrilling YA science fiction book with a great romance. The only reason I think it’s not, technically, a “Romance Novel” is that in a romance novel I care more about romance than anything else. In this book, I cared about the romance, but really I just wanted the main character, Emily Bird to be happy, because that girl is MADE OF WIN.
This book is set five minutes into the future. It’s just barely science fiction. Emily Bird is a Good Girl. She gets good grades at her prep school, and she has “good” (relaxed) hair, and she lives up to her mother’s high expectations, which include dating an ambitious boy named Paul despite having a huge attraction to Coffee. Coffee is the school drug dealer. He sells pot, Adderall, and some hallucinogens to other students, all of whom love his product but look down on him for his own lack of ambition. He’s also a chemistry genius.
I loved this book for the conspiracy thriller angle that kept me turning the pages and because Bird was such an engaging character. It was very easy to relate to her need for approval and to her desire to play it safe and make everyone around her happy, versus her need for truth. I also loved it that as Bird matures she begins to accept the adults in her life as flawed human beings. Her uncle, who Carol hates and who Bird adores, really is adorable, but Carol has a point in that her uncle is kind of lazy. Her mom is often cruel and abusive but she’s also desperate to see her daughter achieve the kind of safety that can only come from being socially and economically powerful. It’s a coming of age story in the best way – not a whiny, angsty way but one that involves a character growing to become someone more powerful and more compassionate.
- Carrie S.
Love is the Drug is a thrilling YA science fiction book with a great romance. The only reason I think it’s not, technically, a “Romance Novel” is that in a romance novel I care more about romance than anything else. In this book, I cared about the romance, but really I just wanted the main character, Emily Bird to be happy, because that girl is MADE OF WIN.
This book is set five minutes into the future. It’s just barely science fiction. Emily Bird is a Good Girl. She gets good grades at her prep school, and she has “good” (relaxed) hair, and she lives up to her mother’s high expectations, which include dating an ambitious boy named Paul despite having a huge attraction to Coffee. Coffee is the school drug dealer. He sells pot, Adderall, and some hallucinogens to other students, all of whom love his product but look down on him for his own lack of ambition. He’s also a chemistry genius.
I loved this book for the conspiracy thriller angle that kept me turning the pages and because Bird was such an engaging character. It was very easy to relate to her need for approval and to her desire to play it safe and make everyone around her happy, versus her need for truth. I also loved it that as Bird matures she begins to accept the adults in her life as flawed human beings. Her uncle, who Carol hates and who Bird adores, really is adorable, but Carol has a point in that her uncle is kind of lazy. Her mom is often cruel and abusive but she’s also desperate to see her daughter achieve the kind of safety that can only come from being socially and economically powerful. It’s a coming of age story in the best way – not a whiny, angsty way but one that involves a character growing to become someone more powerful and more compassionate.
- Carrie S.
May 12, 2021
This is an interesting YA novel to me because the synopsis set expectations that wasn’t really what the book was really about. It’s a lot of family drama and interpersonal/communication problems,,, but with the spectre of this really scary event where the protagonist can’t remember an evening. This event unfolding is paced alongside an outbreak and the relationship drama(s) unfolding, and so a lot of it feels like a bunch of B plots unfolding instead of an A plot with B plots.
Once I recalibrated that expectation I was drawn in again and ended up enjoying it. The author is great at characterization and inclusive elements, and those things are mostly subversive to the genre still, so I end up gaining a lot of satisfaction from that.
I do think this book lost a bunch of readers in the first third of the book though, simply because of marketing and setup. I grabbed this because I read The Summer Prince, a fantastic YA biopunk-romance intersectional and similarly inclusive book. I love that book. This book has some of those components I love but if the framing doesn’t work for you this, try out The Summer Prince - it is fantastic!
Reading this while a pandemic is going on is interesting. If you have the bandwidth I recommend reading fiction like this (I’ve read 4-5?) because the speculative components and how they interact with reality is pretty fascinating to me.
Pretty much everyone assumes that governments will use it as an opportunity and/or over correct for populations who don’t quarantine and what not. At least so far as in North America, we have seen citizens not being wrangled at all. Rough.
Once I recalibrated that expectation I was drawn in again and ended up enjoying it. The author is great at characterization and inclusive elements, and those things are mostly subversive to the genre still, so I end up gaining a lot of satisfaction from that.
I do think this book lost a bunch of readers in the first third of the book though, simply because of marketing and setup. I grabbed this because I read The Summer Prince, a fantastic YA biopunk-romance intersectional and similarly inclusive book. I love that book. This book has some of those components I love but if the framing doesn’t work for you this, try out The Summer Prince - it is fantastic!
Reading this while a pandemic is going on is interesting. If you have the bandwidth I recommend reading fiction like this (I’ve read 4-5?) because the speculative components and how they interact with reality is pretty fascinating to me.
Pretty much everyone assumes that governments will use it as an opportunity and/or over correct for populations who don’t quarantine and what not. At least so far as in North America, we have seen citizens not being wrangled at all. Rough.
January 13, 2017
The idea of the story interested me, but I thought the story lacked intensity. The supporting characters were cardboard cutouts, except that even cardboard has some depth. The main antagonist, a CIA contractor, was a caricature. I was mainly drawn to the story because it won a major award for fiction. I'm actually shocked it was nominated. I sensed in the writing an underlying contempt by the author of practically everything but the main character and a few people around her. Really, really nasty portrayal of life.
December 29, 2014
Though this comes dressed as a speculative conspiracy thriller, the real story is the main character's transformation from compliance to independence. However, the thriller element is too slow-paced and talky for me. There is an interestingly multiracial cast of characters, which the author introduces very skillfully. Read my full review here.
January 22, 2019
I really like the idea of the book but the way the author decided to go at it... not so much. The plot was slow, I got really bored of this book, I wanted to put it down but I kept going with it. I was hoping for a climax that threw me off my seat. I was super excited to read this book, I was probably expecting much more if it.
March 23, 2019
Good storyline, great concepts & good character appeal, so how does a book with those elements bore the life out of Mi😳🤷🏽♀️......Too long unnecessarily so, Too much usage of similies and metaphors for my liking, and I really did not care for the fact that these are high school students with such a heavy subject matter, I believe I would have preferred college students at the very least.
July 2, 2014
This book garnered a three as a result of Johnson's beautiful writing. Unfortunately I kept waiting for the story to become a little more cohesive. It never quite worked for me. THIS REVIEW IS A RESULT OF READING AN ADVANCED READER'S COPY
June 16, 2018
I struggled to get through the first half of this book even though there are some beautifully written sections. The pace picks up and the voice gets stronger and I loved the second half of the book.
Read
August 9, 2014Could not put it down.
February 17, 2022
Content Warning: GBH type drug slipped to a female, without consent; r*pe discussed many times, slut shaming, disassociation, memory loss, casual drug use of all kinds, talk of dependence on prescription meds, casual racism, drugging and interrogation by government agents, assault, violence, sex acts, hospitals stays, coma, covid-like sickness, pandemic, vom, reckless driving, subjugation, stampede, gun shooting by cop, public spanking of a tween, humiliation used as a teaching lesson.
Ugh, this novel has killed me. What a plot…! I loved it all - even the romance, which I usually don’t care for. Even the chemistry, which I couldn’t understand with a new, even smarter transplanted brain…!
Simone Missick Is the narrator for the audiobook version of this novel, and she was perfect for this job! I hadn’t come across Missick’s work in narration before, as my library only has TWO of her works available right now. And this sucks. I really loved her work!
Scholastic Audio Inc., and Dion Audio Servies, give Simone Missick more work, now…! It deserved the Nebula Award, and much more as well.
Note: there was not one single bit of insta-love in sight. Thank goodness!
My good friend E. C. Made this wonderful review that I think you should read too:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
4 stars, and recommended.
Ugh, this novel has killed me. What a plot…! I loved it all - even the romance, which I usually don’t care for. Even the chemistry, which I couldn’t understand with a new, even smarter transplanted brain…!
Simone Missick Is the narrator for the audiobook version of this novel, and she was perfect for this job! I hadn’t come across Missick’s work in narration before, as my library only has TWO of her works available right now. And this sucks. I really loved her work!
Scholastic Audio Inc., and Dion Audio Servies, give Simone Missick more work, now…! It deserved the Nebula Award, and much more as well.
Note: there was not one single bit of insta-love in sight. Thank goodness!
My good friend E. C. Made this wonderful review that I think you should read too:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
4 stars, and recommended.
October 10, 2014
The description of this book sounded fabulous to me - I'm a fan of early John Grisham and anything Michael Crichton, so I thought I'd be hooked immediately. But - not so much.
The plot and the mystery behind this story were great ideas, but I really struggled with a few things. In the first few pages, so many characters were introduced that by page ten, I was completely lost. Then, to make matters worse, some characters were occasionally referred to by their nicknames, then their real names in other sections which made it difficult to connect with them. The jumps between present day and flashbacks were a little confusing and I'm still unclear about what actually happened to Emily that night. My confusion made it hard to get into this book and I found myself skimming through several parts.
I think there was a good story in here, but this book just wasn't for me. This review is based on a digital copy from the publisher through NetGalley.
The plot and the mystery behind this story were great ideas, but I really struggled with a few things. In the first few pages, so many characters were introduced that by page ten, I was completely lost. Then, to make matters worse, some characters were occasionally referred to by their nicknames, then their real names in other sections which made it difficult to connect with them. The jumps between present day and flashbacks were a little confusing and I'm still unclear about what actually happened to Emily that night. My confusion made it hard to get into this book and I found myself skimming through several parts.
I think there was a good story in here, but this book just wasn't for me. This review is based on a digital copy from the publisher through NetGalley.
November 1, 2016
I didn't even make it to the 3rd chapter before I wholeheartedly gave up on this book. It's like the author had no idea how teens speak to each other (slang or formally), and her emphasis on the characters' race just wasn't something I could relate to at all.
October 31, 2014
I started reading it. About 50 pages in and I just could not get ahold of it. Sorry but this but just couldn't capture my attention. Maybe it just wasn't the book for me. Again im very sorry.
April 9, 2020
1 Sentence Summary: A deadly flu-like virus is taking over the world and Emily Bird wakes up in the hospital with no memory of the end of the party she had been at days before and a creepy government official now way too interested in her; the only person she can trust is Coffee, a chemistry genius and conspiracy theorist who goes to her school.
My Thoughts: Okay I saw this book at the library and had to check it out because the blurb looked eerily familiar (*cough cough* coronavirus), but I was pleasantly surprised by how actually amazing it was. The characters are so well developed and feel so real and the emotion was so intense I felt like I was actually there. There is some romance but that's not really the focus. I've read The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson and thought it was just okay, but THIS BOOK was just WOW. Her writing in this was gorgeous, the kind of prose where it melts in your brain like honey and you want to read it over and over just to savor the words. I absolutely loved it; reading this book wasn't just reading words, it was an EXPERIENCE. No joke, when I finished it I had to just sit there for a few minutes to soak it all in. Just wow. (Side note: I feel like this book should now be classified as realistic fiction instead of science fiction haha.)
Recommend to: Anyone who likes mystery, suspense, conspiracy theories, apocalyptic scenarios, self-discovery, romance, or family drama.
(Warnings: swearing)
My Thoughts: Okay I saw this book at the library and had to check it out because the blurb looked eerily familiar (*cough cough* coronavirus), but I was pleasantly surprised by how actually amazing it was. The characters are so well developed and feel so real and the emotion was so intense I felt like I was actually there. There is some romance but that's not really the focus. I've read The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson and thought it was just okay, but THIS BOOK was just WOW. Her writing in this was gorgeous, the kind of prose where it melts in your brain like honey and you want to read it over and over just to savor the words. I absolutely loved it; reading this book wasn't just reading words, it was an EXPERIENCE. No joke, when I finished it I had to just sit there for a few minutes to soak it all in. Just wow. (Side note: I feel like this book should now be classified as realistic fiction instead of science fiction haha.)
Recommend to: Anyone who likes mystery, suspense, conspiracy theories, apocalyptic scenarios, self-discovery, romance, or family drama.
(Warnings: swearing)
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