By Melvin Burgess (author)
"25 years on, and this seminal story of heroin addiction remains a YA masterwork"
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Bold and brutally, brilliantly honest, Melvin Burgess’s multi-award-winning (and multi-layered) Junk presents the definitively frank account of why young people might head down a drug-taking path - and remain there. A love triangle, of sorts, between its two main characters and their addiction to heroin, once read Junk is never forgotten. It strikes deep with unflinching power, never shirking from truths that need to be told, which it does from multiple compelling viewpoints, and with incredible empathy.
Smart and thoughtful Tar has been blighted by abuse at the hands of his parents. In contrast, middle class Gemma has attentive parents, which has driven them to strictness, and drives her to leave home. Both on the streets of Bristol, Tar and Gemma fall in together, and fall in love, though it’s not long before they tumble into a spiral of drug-related devastation.
In a novel packed with agonising episodes, perhaps most poignant of all is witnessing Tar and Lily convince themselves they’re in control of their heroin addiction, but since it’s exactly that - an addiction - they are not, and their story will cut to your soul.
This is the love story of two runaway teenagers, Gemma and Tar, and their struggles with heroin addiction. Melvin Burgess' most ambitious and complex novel is a multi-faceted and vivid depiction of a group of young people in the grip of addiction. It is told in many different voices, from the addicts themselves to the friends watching from the outside who try to prevent tragedy.
Everyone should read Junk. - The Times
Melvin Burgess's ground-breaking Junk remains the best book about teenagers and drugs to this day - Julia Eccleshare, Guardian Online
Junk has a perfect sense of time and place, characters who feel real and it may just be the best YA book ever. -- Robert Muchamore - Big Issue, Top 5 Young Adult Books
Occasionally a 'teenage novel' comes along which makes one reconsider the whole genre and its potential. Such a book is Melvin Burgess's Junk. -- Robert Dunbar - Children's Books in Ireland
Personally I prefer the love triangle in Melvin Burgess's Junk, in which Tar's devotion to heroin split he and Gemma apart. -- Juno Dawson - Guardian
This book is beguiling, layered and filled with a boldness that comes with youth. - Gemma Cairney
Brilliantly and sensitively written, it encompasses the raw, savage and ecstatic world of the adolescent mind... a superbly crafted and important book - TES
Beautifully written - The Times
Believable and rivetingly readable. I couldn't put it down. - Evening Standard
Moving and provocative - Observer
Melvin Burgess was brought up in Sussex and Berkshire. As a child, his reading included The Wind in the Willows and Gerald Durrell's animal stories. He went on to enjoy The Hobbit and Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books. A generally unconfident student, he became interested in writing when he was twelve and an English teacher praised one of his stories - "it was about the first time I'd ever done anything that got an A. I was so pleased I never stopped." After leaving school, Melvin moved to Bristol where he worked on occasional jobs, mainly in the building industry, and was often unemployed. He started writing in his twenties and wrote on and off for the next fifteen years before The Cry of the Wolf was published in 1990. He moved to London in 1983 and began a small business marbling fabrics for the fashion industry. In 1997 his controversial bestseller Junk won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the Carnegie Medal. It was also shortlisted for the 1998 Whitbread Children's Book of the Year. Four of his novels have been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.
Melvin Burgess is regarded as one of the best writers in contemporary children's literature. In 1997, his controversial bestseller Junk won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the Carnegie Medal. It was also shortlisted for the 1998 Whitbread Children's Book of the Year. Four of his novels have been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Melvin lives in Hebden Bridge with his partner.
Carnegie Medal | Kate Greenaway Medal 2021
Yoto Carnegie Medal | Kate Greenaway Medal 2022
Read Between the Lies
When I Was the Greatest
The Boy in the Black Suit
This is the love story of two runaway teenagers, Gemma and Tar, and their struggles with heroin addiction. Melvin Burgess' most ambitious and complex novel is a multi-faceted and vivid depiction of a group of young people in the grip of addiction.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed Junk 25th Anniversary Edition and determined it is suitable for children aged 15-18 years old
Junk 25th Anniversary Edition features in the following genres: Books to Motivate Teenage Reluctant Readers, Recommendations, Gritty Reads, Personal Social Health Economic (PSHE), Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Featured Books for Young Adults
Paperback. £8.09, down from the £8.99 cover price. In Stock.
Junk 25th Anniversary Edition was written by Melvin Burgess and published by Andersen Press Ltd
Junk 25th Anniversary Edition has 341 pages
£8.09, reduced from £8.99. In Stock.
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