LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
Carnegie winner in 1996.
When it was published in 1996 it created a Storm of Protest - especially from those who didn't bother to read it. The book, however, is credible, honest, realistic, moving and sympathetic - not to drug taking, but to some of the reasons for it and how the young fall into it and then, with luck and a bit of help, get themselves out of it. Junk not for the faint-hearted for it is utterly compelling and terrifying by turns – from bliss through to complete despair we see all manner of emotions that at times will make you feel utterly drained. It’s a real roller-coaster and yet it is completely honest and real to today’s world. Controversy has always gone where this book has gone for it’s hard-hitting approach to the subjects of drink, of drugs and of sex. Junk is an absolute must-read for any teenager and an essential eye-opener to any parent of a teenager. (14+)
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Junk Synopsis
It was a love story. Me, Gemma and junk. I thought it was going to last forever. Tar loves Gemma, but Gemma doesn't want to be tied down. She wants to fly. But no one can fly forever. One day, finally, you have to come down.
Melvin Burgess' most ambitious and complex novel is a vivid depiction of a group of teenagers in the grip of addiction. Told from multiple viewpoints, Junk is a powerful, unflinching novel about heroin. Once you take a hit, you will never be the same again.
A Note from the Author, Melvin Burgess This book is set roughly in the early and middle 1980s, when I myself was living in Bristol. All the major events have happened, are happening and will no doubt continue to happen. I saw many of them myself and heard about many more. As for the people here . . . some are pure invention, some are seeded from real people and then fictionalised, some are fictitious with bits of real people stirred in. The only proper portrait is Richard, one of the nicest and strangest people I’ve ever met, who is beyond praise or prosecution, bless him. He died on the motorway some years ago. The book isn’t fact; it isn’t even faction. But it’s all true, every word.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781783448456 |
| Publication date: |
1st July 2021 |
| Author: |
Melvin Burgess |
| Publisher: |
Andersen Press Ltd |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
341 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Young Adult Fiction
|
| Recommendations: |
|
Press Reviews
Melvin Burgess Press Reviews
"A Dickens of the future."
Michael Rosen
"A writer of the highest quality with exceptional powers of insight."
Sunday Times
"A very skilled storyteller... this writer involves the reader, plays havoc with the emotions and is certainly not about easy endings."
Wendy Cooling, Books For Keeps
Author
About Melvin Burgess
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.
Photo credit: John Coombes
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