Smack

Rating:
Summary: A disapointed person!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: This book takes place in England. Gemma, and Tar run away together. They find a place to live, food to eat, and they make friends. Out in the open streets, they get into a lot of trouble with the law. Tar and Gemma met new people, and they get into drugs, like heroin. Then there life goes down the drain. I wanted to know why it took the author so long to get into the parts where Tar, Gemma, Lily, and everybody starts to do heroin. I didn't like this book at all. It made me want to throw it in the trash.

Rating:
Summary: smack
Review: Smack, not just herion, its what this book does as you read it. It forces you to open your eyes to the world, and see it for what it really is. This is the story of Tar and Gemma, and their decent into the underworld of drugs. then the struggle to get clean and break the hold of herion.

As the book goes on, the viewpoint changes between the characters, often seeing the same event from many different eyes. This is interesting becuse it gives the reader a chance to be in the mind of an addict. Although i liked the book it did have a drawback. As the viewpoint chages allot of confusion is created on whats happeneing and if its past or present.

This book shows how quickly drugs can ruin your life. If you have any intrest in drugs or recovery, this book is for you. But otherwise the odd viewpoint makes this great story end up being just an average book

Rating:
Summary: Smack
Review: Taken place in London, two young pre-teens are planning to run away. Away from their hurt and neglect.

Tar and Gemma run away together, Tar being the one with the real problems to run from. Throughout their journey together they learn more about each other and themselves. on therir advanture they meet some people, and start doing heroine(smack).

I honistly didn't like this book. It just dragged on and on and on, i was about to hit my breaking point. I never thought i could be so sick of one book in my life. And, don't get me wrong i love to read, but this book almost made me want to stop reading for the rest of my life. So, if you're an insomniac i highly suggest this book for you.

Rating:
Summary: Shock therapy for "heroin chic"
Review: Burgess's novel is an alarming wakeup call about heroin use. Tar and Gemma beign their lives away from their families on a downward tragectory of petty theft and panhandling, which give way to prostitution to fund the drug use of not only themselves, but their friends Lily and Rob. Nothing can stop these kids from shooting up, including Lily's pregnancy. Their inevitable come-downs form the drug are matched only by the complete collapse of their lives by the end of the book.

As a budding librarian, I would recommend this book to teen readers who glamorize heroin use and need to hear the voices of young addicts to rethink the love affair with street life and drug use.

Rating:
Summary: You'll Enjoy This Maddening Trip!
Review: SMACK is a novel about two teenagers, David (Tar) and Gemma, who run away from home, squat with an eccentric, peaceful, pot smoking guy, and gradually become addicted to drugs -- eventually, heroin. Tar has been abused by his father, and Gemma is just a normal girl from a fairly normal family, just fed up with her parents' imposing control over her. Tar, so nicknamed because he would always tell Gemma that cigarettes would make her lungs black, eventually started having a lot of fun smoking pot. It's interesting to see how slowly and subliminally abuse sneaks up on them. Gemma starts spending all the money she went away with on whims -- like crazy clothes and boots, going to punk shows, having parties -- but eventually they're stuck with prostitution and stealing as their only means of getting by. They witness deaths. Lily, the beautiful girl Gemma first admired (and whom Tar and Gemma moved in with), has become pale and sickly. And she becomes pregnant. They all want to get off junk, although sometimes it's only in the back of their minds -- but can they?
The criticism I've heard most frequently when it comes to Melvin Borges' SMACK is that it glamourizes drug addiction. My take: yes, but no. I would have to admit that, if you read only the first half of the novel, this is the impression you would typically get. Melvin does glamourize drugs. I even envied Tar and Gemma, and all their freedom, early in the book. But Borges only glamourizes drugs through the eyes of the characters he creates.

The style of this book is very original. It's written in first-person (except the first chapter) and the speaker changes from chapter to chapter, so you get to see everything from everyone's point of view -- and more interestingly, just when you start to hate a character or question his or her intentions, you really get behind their thoughts and understand why they act the way they do. It's not a question that Gemma is a selfish brat, but you begin to understand her, and why she's like that. It would be unrealistic to expect Borges to write a book like "Smack" in which the characters were always completely against drug use from the beginning; if the characters always considered the risks involved, nobody would ever take drugs in the first place. So of course, from the eyes of the characters, heroin is a really cool thing to do -- at least until later in the book, when they begin to fall apart because of it, and realize they have to find another way to live -- and this struggle is very emotional. After I'd read about 3 or 4 chapters, I couldn't even put SMACK down at night to go to sleep -- it's that good. Another Amazon pick I greatly enjoyed and recommend is THE LOSERS CLUB by Richard Perez

Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: This book was great. It started out alright, but as you get farther, the book really progresses and kind of takes on a mind of its own. It really dragged me into its world. I couldn't put the book down. I finished it in a couple of days over all. A week and a half at most. I got real into all of the characters and by the end, my opinion on most of them had taken a complete 360. It's great and so realistic. There are no heros in this book, just reality. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it. The only thing I didn't like was the times it seemed a bit racist. But it was very rare, and again, just keeping it realistic.
I liked it. I guess you can say I really got hooked on Smack.

Rating:
Summary: flawless
Review: this is without a doubt the best book i ever read. i couldn't put it down. i started it just yesterday and i just finished. it is an amazing book and im writing this review while looking for other amazing books by this auther

Rating:
Summary: Independent Reading Homework
Review: This novel really captivated my attention because from the beginning, I always felt like I was part of the story. As if I were right there experiencing everything being described by the author. For example, the first scene of the novel is set in a car; and throughout the entire scene, I felt as if I were in the back seat of the car, listening in on the conversation. I never got bored of this novel, and I was always reluctant to put it down. In fact, what¡¦s ironic is, the book itself is as addictive as the drug it depicts! It's fascinating plot about 2 teenagers who have run away from home and are ¡§squatting¡¨ (to take up residence in a vacant building; also the building itself) in an old apartment flat with 2 other homeless young adults, tells of their experiences with the hunger and crave of their drug addiction. At every point in the story, I always was waiting and hoping for a new discovery, a new surprise, or twist, that would keep me reading; and I was never let down. This novel will have the reader at the edge of their seats, anticipating Tar¡¦s (the main character of the novel, and viewpoint it is being told from) next move. This novel isn¡¦t one of those teaching tools that anti-drug companies want you to read to get you out of drugs, because seriously, what a snore those can be; ¡§Kids, drugs are bad,¡¨ I mean, how many times have we heard that before? This novel, on the other hand, is the truth; and it really allowed me to relate to the characters, not that I¡¦m on drugs, but because they were my age, rebellious, and wanting to do something about it. It allowed me to make up my own mind on whether drugs were good or bad omens; after all, in the end it is our own decision. This novel taught me about independence and a little about making it on my own. It make me think about what the characters were going through, and kept my mind constantly on the move with every twist and turn. Being a person who finds it amazingly difficult to find a good book and stick with it, I was surprised when my first reaction after finishing the book was to look up the author¡¦s name and see what other books he had written that could strike my interest. So, if you¡¦re the type of person who enjoys a book that will keep you begging for a sequel, than I definitely recommend Smack.

Rating:
Summary: Reverse psychology isn't happening with me
Review: Okay, the plot line was pretty good and the characters were totally believable. When I was a little bit younger, I was totally scared stiff of being what happened to Tar and Gemma. But as I grew and looked behind me at the book, I kind of rolled my eyes at it. By that time, I had friends who had been in worse situations (I'm talking, my mother's on drugs, my father left me when I was two and now I have to drop out in senior year of high school because we're going to get evicted if I don't work) and I started to not believe very much in two young people who could just pick up and leave like that just because one of them had restricting parents and the other had home problems. Let's all get up, do drugs and leave home so that we can be in love except we're too young to make those decisions so we end up almost dead and very, very confused. What a cop out- if someone came to me in real life with that kind of attitude, I think I'd just walk away from them. I'm sure people do such things, but they wouldn't if they'd grow up a little and deal with life. If there was a message, it's totally lost on me.

Rating:
Summary: A great book....
Review: I througholy enjoyed reading this book. It gave you a look into the life of a drug addict... but let you decide what you thought. No sappy conclusions or anything. Excellent!