Roxy

September 15, 2021
Personified as gods, drugs Roxicodone and Adderall are at the center of this novel inspired by the opioid epidemic. Human siblings Isaac and Ivy Ramey orbit different worlds. Isaac wants to study engineering. Ivy, who has ADD, feels like she's tried everything and still has trouble focusing. When an ankle injury jeopardizes Isaac's chance at a soccer scholarship, he turns to Roxy to alleviate the pain, while Ivy looks to Addi to find the focus to get her life on track. Their resulting struggles with addiction drive the once-close siblings apart as they find ways to feed their dependence--Isaac's on Roxy's comfort, Ivy's on the clarity of purpose Addi brings to her life. The siblings head down a path to destruction when seductive Roxy and pragmatic Addi make a bet to see who can get their "plus-one" to the Party (an unearthly rave serving as a metaphor for altered states) and all the way to the VIP lounge--"the end of the line." The novel feels like a stage drama from the tense first chapter to the tragic end. Interludes, in which other drugs tell their stories, punctuate the main narrative. The narration switches easily from Roxy's and Addi's first-person perspectives to Isaac's and Ivy's third-person limited viewpoints. Words hidden in chapter titles hint at themes or plot points. Isaac and Ivy are assumed White. Powerful and chilling. (Fiction. 14-18)

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September 15, 2021
Grades 11-12 Ivy and Isaac Ramey are a brother and sister following divergent paths. Isaac's athletic achievements and knack for machines give him a hopeful college outlook, while Ivy's party-girl lifestyle has her on the fast track to nowhere. Their fates, however, are not entirely in their hands. Presiding over the siblings' lives are the drugs, presented as anthropomorphized deities, that fuel the modern-day addiction epidemics. Two of them, Roxy (Oxycodone) and Addison (Adderall), have a grand wager over which can bring a Ramey sibling to a final end. This allegorical take on the opioid epidemic provides an utterly unique point of view on the lives of those struggling with drug dependencies. Surprisingly, this approach does not water down the stark realities besetting Ivy and Isaac as they sink into addiction. Rather, it captures the drugs' allure, from granting small benefits and initial highs, before taking the reader through the horrible spiral that addiction can entail. Gritty and unflinching, this book portrays the opioid crisis in a way older YA readers can feel and understand.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 11, 2021
Through a high-concept thriller that looks into the opioid crisis, the previous father-son collaborators (Dry) follow two siblings at the center of a deadly wager between two drugs characterized as gods. Confident and alluring Adderall (Addi) and pompous but utilitarian Roxicodone (Roxy) each make a bet that they can get their victim to overdose before the other: blue-haired artist Ivy Ramey, 18, who is nearly failing senior year due to her untreated ADHD, and her charismatic, high-achieving younger brother, Isaac Ramey, a 17-year-old soccer player who dreams of being a propulsion engineer until an off-field injury changes everything. Though the reader knows that one sibling will end up in a body bag tagged “I. Ramey,” the question of who will succumb pulls readers along. Throughout, perspectives shift between Addi, Roxy, and the siblings, giving insight into the motivations of two teens trying to do the best they can with what they have. The Shustermans’ depiction of each sibling’s spiral into dependence and misuse of prescribed medications sheds a critical light on the ongoing drug epidemic, subverting stereotypes about substance abuse while exploring each drug’s potential to help and to hinder. Ages 14–up.

Starred review from December 1, 2021

Gr 9 Up-Oxycontin and Adderall, personified as Roxy and Addison, take center stage in this chilling novel about the opioid epidemic. The scene is set not unlike a dramatic stage production, opening on a teenage drug overdose told cleverly from the perspective of the Naloxone being injected into the victim's veins. The ID reads Ramey, I. Rewind two months, and two Ramey, I's are introduced: athletic, college-bound Isaac, and his sister, willful and unpredictable Ivy. Both lead very different lives but are as close as any siblings, until their relationship is threatened by two powerful entities. A sports injury introduces Isaac to the devious Roxy, while Ivy, whose attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder inhibits her focus, reluctantly brings Addison into her life. As the Rameys start to spiral from their dependence on the substances, Roxy and Addison secretly compete to be the first to bring their plus-one to "the Party." The race is on. Seamlessly alternating between Roxy's and Addison's first-person points of view and Isaac's and Ivy's third-person points of view, this novel is a fresh take on an important and prevalent topic, albeit a disquieting one. The two young leads are strongly and realistically developed, and readers will hang on to and sympathize with their individual struggles. Meanwhile, the sly and cunning voices of Roxy and Addison are intriguing and at times believable. Just as Roxy pleads with Isaac, this novel begs to be devoured in one sitting, from the shocking beginning to the pulse-pounding end. The characters are cued white. VERDICT Highly recommended. Neal and Jarrod Shusterman have outdone themselves from their last thriller, Dry.-Amanda Harding, Elmwood Elementary School, Wauconda, IL

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2022
The events of this story are seen in part through the eyes of siblings Ivy and Isaac Ramey, in third-person limited narration, and in part through first-person narration by various drugs, who in this world are personified and have the quality of Greek gods. As the book opens, paramedics fail to revive someone after an opioid overdose; the corpse is tagged with a last name and, somewhat cryptically (and with foreshadowing), a first initial: Ramey, I. The novel then jumps back two months and follows Ivy and Isaac. Ivy, who has been a habitual partier, takes Adderall to help with her ADD, while studious Isaac gradually becomes addicted to OxyContin after his grandmother gives him one of her pills to cope with a sprained ankle. Sometime-narrators Addison (Adderall) and Roxy (OxyContin) openly court the siblings, make friendly wagers with each other, and engage in political gamesmanship with other drugs. If the premise remains nebulous and ambiguous at times, it imbues the plot with elements of mystery and intrigue, coupled with interesting characters and the timely issues of the opioid crisis and other addictions. Jonathan Hunt

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2022
The events of this story are seen in part through the eyes of siblings Ivy and Isaac Ramey, in third-person limited narration, and in part through first-person narration by various drugs, who in this world are personified and have the quality of Greek gods. As the book opens, paramedics fail to revive someone after an opioid overdose; the corpse is tagged with a last name and, somewhat cryptically (and with foreshadowing), a first initial: Ramey, I. The novel then jumps back two months and follows Ivy and Isaac. Ivy, who has been a habitual partier, takes Adderall to help with her ADD, while studious Isaac gradually becomes addicted to OxyContin after his grandmother gives him one of her pills to cope with a sprained ankle. Sometime-narrators Addison (Adderall) and Roxy (OxyContin) openly court the siblings, make friendly wagers with each other, and engage in political gamesmanship with other drugs. If the premise remains nebulous and ambiguous at times, it imbues the plot with elements of mystery and intrigue, coupled with interesting characters and the timely issues of the opioid crisis and other addictions.

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)