Placebo Junkies

Well written, has adult situations though YA characters so not really for younger YA readers. Without creating spoilers I will just say this is the kind of book you need to read twice to pick up on what might have been missed initially. Things may not be what you think: take nothing for granted. It also makes me realized how lucky and privileged and sheltered I am. I am an adult who sometimes reads YA. Excellent writing.

Definitely worth the read, just could've been handled better. Not the best critic here but I would've liked something....more in depth?

Ever find yourself wanting to rip a book out of someone's hands and scream that this book just isn't for them? With all due respect to some of my fellow readers, that's a little bit how I feel right now.This is Trainspotting. It's updated, modern, and kind of heart rending. But it's definitely Trainspotting. And, while the clinical trial stuff is fascinating and the pharma stuff is interesting, they aren't what the book is about.It's about lost boys and girls - kids who are dying to feel something - anything at all. It's about what's real and what's not. It's how you escape reality and how your heart just wants to feel something, even if all you can feel is pain.Is Audie unreliable? Sure. But everything she tells you is true to her.This book is most definitely not for everyone. It's edgy, painful, and hardcore. It's not pretty, but it feels real, even in its unreality.Recommended for an audience who can deal with a little edge.

I really loved this book. I can't say I liked it all the time. Some parts of it were really painful and hard to read, much less think about later, after I had finished reading. While it seems like the main topic of the book is big pharma and clinical testing; it's really more about the pain these young people are in. The entire group is not entirely likable, but that's ok. Their stories, sadly, are true to life and realistic. Sometimes people are in so much pain (mental and emotional, not physical) or just so broken and numb that feeling anything good, bad or indifferent, because of the pills and tests, is better than the emptiness of feeling nothing. The author's wry style and somewhat caustic wit fit in with the story well, and also ring true to the lives that the characters are living. These are well dimensioned and real seeming characters, and they remain with the reader long after the book is completely finished. In some ways, I found it almost haunting.

I was highly skeptical upon picking up Placebo Junkies. Despite how fascinating the premise was said to be, this book was compared to Going Bovine...And to this day, I don't think I've read a book that bored me as much as Going Bovine did. Plus, this book seemed bizarre. And I'm at the point in my life where I'm no longer that into bizarre books. But I have to say, Placebo Junkies is the kind of bizarre that works.The Good: I'm that kind of person who tends to watch videos of research experiments on Youtube, so the premise of Placebo Junkies was right up my alley. It also helped that you could tell that the author did tons of research when it came to guinea pigs, so there was this huge blast of reality throughout this whole book. Another thing that I loved was how...different Placebo Junkies was. Basically, take every YA trope you know (insta-love, love triangles, etc, etc.) and throw it all out the window. This book has none of those "been there, done that" tropes. And if there's something I like more than creeping on research experiments is a unique book.However, one thing that trumps my love of research experiments and unique books is flawed, yet strong female characters. Audie was all this and more. Now, I didn't LOVE Audie (it's kind of hard to), but I appreciated the hell out of her. For the most part, she seemed true to herself (whatever that self may be) and didn't really take crap from anybody. That's my kind of heroine. Yes, she was flawed as hell, but she was entertaining (a big plus) and a character filled to the brim with depth.One thing that I was kind of 'eh' about was the supporting characters. I just expected...more from them. I would've liked to know their background a bit more as well as had some more questions answered. The one thing that bothered me the most was how anti-climactic I found Placebo Junkies to be. However, the fault of that does not lie in the book. What I consider to be a mild spoiler below:It's really hard to be shocked by a twist when everyone and their freaking mother is going on and on about how unreliable the narrator is. That right there tells me that I shouldn't believe a word that narrator is telling me. I consider that to be a huge spoiler. And had that been tagged appropriately under a spoiler alert on both Goodreads and Amazon, I would have enjoyed Placebo Junkies more. I wouldn't have been able to see the twist coming. But again, since every review blatantly referenced the unreliable narrator, I guessed the twist and went into this book expecting it. Not cool.End of minor spoiler.Anyway, for the most part, I enjoyed Placebo Junkies. It was different. And after reading tons and tons of YA books with the same kind of plot, filled with the same kind of tropes, this book was extremely refreshing. Highly recommended.