Breaking Bailey

April 15, 2019
Patterned after Go Ask Alice, this faux diary chronicles a teen's descent into drug addiction and becoming a victim of abuse. Still grieving her mother's sudden death, shipped off to a prestigious boarding school by her new stepmother, and finding herself completely alone, Bailey is vulnerable. She's also a chemistry whiz, and when the most popular students ask her to participate in the school's exclusive Science Club, why would she refuse? The title of this book plays on the title of the popular TV show Breaking Bad, as Science Club is not an innocuous extracurricular but a front for a secret meth lab. Of course, Bailey knows meth is harmful, but classmate Warren convinces her that they'll make it safe for addicts who are going to use anyway. She soon writes of the pressures to balance schoolwork with her meth production quota. Not wanting to fail Warren, who becomes her first love, she accepts his Adderall and Percocets to get through long days. And she can stop them anytime, unlike meth addicts--or can she? While this series can veer toward the sensational, the message of this "diary" is less about anti-drug propaganda and more about how young women can be victimized. Warren's manipulation of Bailey, such as gaslighting her when she questions the meth operation, is spot-on. The book assumes a white default. Readable--and relatable for many. (Fiction. 14-18)

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May 6, 2019
The latest novel in the Anonymous Diaries series, all written and produced in the style of Go Ask Alice, is a stark reminder that even when things are bad, they can always get worse. Bailey, 17, lost her mother two years earlier in a horrific car accident that Bailey survived. Her father quickly remarries, and he and her new stepmother send a still-grieving Bailey to boarding school, where she demonstrates her exceptional skills in chemistry, scoring an invite to an elite group on campus: the Science Club, which makes and sells crystal meth. Brooding genius Warren, who becomes Bailey’s love interest, convinces her that helping the club will make drugs safer for addicts. The group’s camaraderie draws Bailey into a simmering vortex of addiction mixed with a desire not to disappoint her friends or fail in her schoolwork. The subject of addiction, the first-person voice, and the theme of how good intentions can go horribly awry may initially hook teen readers, but the range of implausible circumstances (paying off a security guard to look the other way, being able to use one of the school’s abandoned buildings) and the narrator’s limited emotional range quickly become distracting. Ages 14–up.