Smack by Melvin Burgess

 
Smack by Melvin Burgess (Published as Junk in the UK)

1 star

Smack centers around the life of two runaway teens in the Britain area. The teens, Gemma and Tar, have runaway from home for very different reasons. Gemma has been dating for Tar for a while and when he runs away from his home, she decides to follow him.
Smack was one of the worst books I've ever read. Period end of story. If this book was a person I’d smack the crap out of it. Scratch that I wanna smack Melvin Burgess and his characters with Smack. The writing didn’t grab my attention and it just seemed to drag on and on. Seriously though I get it they ran away from home and start doing heroin and other drugs. If Melvin Burgess was hoping to get me to feel sympathetic for his characters he failed epically.

EPIC FAIL

The main female character, Gemma, was stupid. Here are some examples for why I think she is stupid:
1.She whines and complains. A LOT.
2.She made Tar get even more hooked on drugs with her idiocy and constant peer pressuring ways.
3.She ran away from home because her parents were “overbearing”. Please girl, please. I should slap you. Your parents were just trying to do the right thing and you are ungrateful. Granted I’m sure most teens feel this way and there are times when I feel this way, too. But I’m not going to runaway from home, get hooked to drugs, join an anarchist society, or get locked up.
4.Gemma is an idiot.
5.Gemma makes me wanna scream and smack her.
6.Gemma is an IDIOT.
7.Gemma ends up with an outcome that only makes her look like an idiot for running away from home.

Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 1
Tar was alright and he was a lot more likeable than Gemma. At least I thought he wasn’t that bad and I felt bad for him and his home life. I think he had a reasonable reason for running away from home. But at the same time I think he would’ve been better off staying at home and going to family counseling with his Mom and Dad.

Swoon Worthy Scale: 2.5
Character Scale: 3
Overall, I didn't feel as much emotion for these characters as I had for some of the drug addiction books I've read (Crank, Glass, Beauty Queen, Go Ask Alice). I had to force myself to finish the book, so I could make my final judgment and my judgment didn’t get any better. The message though is quite obvious Say No to Drugs because peer pressure only gets you buried into a whole that’s hard to climb out of. So, the message is good, but Smack didn’t deliver the message as much as I’m sure the writer hoped for.

 Cover Thoughts: The cover is really jumbled and looking at it makes my brain slightly dizzy, but I also think it goes very well with the book, which makes it tolerable.