Clean by Juno Dawson: Review

Seventeen-year-old Lexi Volkov is the daughter of an absurdly wealthy hotel-owning Russian family; a club and party-hopping socialite, frequently appearing on the gossip pages; and a heroin addict. When she collapses one night her brother Nikolai, much against her will, checks her into an exclusive rehab clinic - the Clarity Centre - on an island off the South Coast of England. The book follows Lexi’s subsequent journey towards becoming “clean”.

The Lexi we meet at the beginning is not likeable - her voice is that of an entitled, spoilt princess, name-dropping with abandon and utterly in denial that she has any kind of a problem. She anti-Semitically abuses her doctor (to be fair, she’s mortified and does apologise.) She wants only to get back to her party-hopping life and boyfriend Kurt - who it’s obvious from the start is not a good influence in her life. (I know that makes me sound like a mum. But I am!)

But as the layers are gradually peeled away it becomes clearer who the real Lexi is and just how she ended up where she did at seventeen years old.

Can Lexi really get... and stay... clean?

I’d vaguely heard of Juno Dawson (though for some reason I thought she was American, which she isn’t) but had never read any of her books. I’m not exactly the target audience, having not been a young adult for quite a few years *cough* and many of the celeb-culture references were lost on me. Juno does a great job though of portraying Lexi’s world - both the privileged bubble of her London life (where all the girls are called things like Florentine and Antonella) and her in some ways equally privileged but far more challenging experience at the clinic. All the characters are convincingly drawn, especially Lexi herself and her fellow residents at the clinic, with their various addictions and issues.

Although I wasn’t sure about it at the start - due to the initial unlikeability of the main character and the whole “celeb” thing which does nothing for me - ultimately this was an excellent, thought-provoking read. It doesn’t gloss over some very difficult and challenging issues but is also never less than highly readable and enjoyable.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.