The First True Thing

February 1, 2019
Sixteen-year-old Marcelle is attending her support group, avoiding her user friends, and trying to find freedom from her addiction, but when her best friend disappears, everything starts falling apart.Marcelle's alcohol use disorder is a way for her to chase away the insecurity and loneliness she feels, but instead of leaving her happy, her binge drinking is slowly killing her. After a wild, drunken ride on her bicycle leaves her broken and bruised, she begins attending a local support group run by other teens looking to get clean. But as she tries to break free from the drinking, she watches her best friend, Hannah, descend into a life of pornographic modeling and dealing cocaine. Marcelle must decide whether or not to tell concerned adults in their lives everything she knows about what Hannah is doing. While the struggles with substance abuse are raw and complicated, the plot wanders aimlessly in places, causing the narrative to lose its energy and drive. Further Marcelle's continued self-absorption is at best claustrophobic and at worst reprehensible, as it puts her friend's life at risk. The large cast is often unwieldy, causing further confusion. The primary characters are predominantly white; Marcelle's boyfriend is Chinese, Indian, and white, and some of the support group members' names suggest diversity.An important issue that is unfortunately unartfully explored. (author's note, resources) (Fiction. 14-18)

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April 1, 2019

Gr 9 Up-Marcelle is on the road to recovery from substance abuse-she attends an after-school rehab called The Center, where she is in a peer-led group therapy. When her friend Hannah asks Marcelle to cover for her, it seems like a harmless white lie, until Hannah goes missing. Now Marcelle must decide whether to continue lying to protect her friends or to tell the police about the things she knows they are into, including meeting with a college-age adult who runs a pornography website and is their source for cocaine, and that when Hannah can't pay for drugs she agrees to perform for his cameras. There are a lot of rules and procedures at The Center, and the first-person narrative can get bogged down by Marcelle trying to navigate these complicated dynamics. The main character's inner struggle with sobriety and honesty rings true, but supporting characters other than Hannah are underdeveloped, and a few reveals at the end strain plausibility. Readers should not expect an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but this book is a strong exploration of recovery and the dangers of substance abuse. VERDICT A solid additional purchase for libraries where realistic and issue-driven novels are popular.-Allison McLean, Elkhart Public Library, IN

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2019
Grades 9-12 When Marcie wrecks her bicycle and lands in the hospital after yet another night of binge drinking, life as she knew it ends. Grounded except for school and daily outpatient rehab meetings, Marcie stops seeing the friends who enabled all her worst habits. When her best friend, Hannah, asks Marcie to cover for her one last time, Marcie reluctantly agrees. But that night, Hannah goes missing, and Marcie is forced to choose between protecting Hannah's secrets and owning up to painful truths. Marcie is an interestingly flawed character?not a die-hard partier, she drinks to feel confident and at ease instead of awkward and insecure. But when her alcohol abuse escalates, she must slowly earn back her self-respect and her parents' trust. While Marcie's journey is compelling, the larger narrative is plagued by hollow secondary characters and messy story lines. A hasty resolution and a lack of strong character convictions throughout further hamper the story's impact, but teens will still appreciate this serious look at a relatable and realistic heroine wrestling with a difficult dilemma.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)