Smack

Amazon.com

Like so many teenagers, Tar and Gemma are fed up with their parents. Tar's family is alcoholic and abusive, and Gemma feels her home life is cramped by too many restrictions. The young, British couple runs away to Bristol in search of freedom, and finds it in the form of a "squat." This vacant building is also occupied by two slightly older teens who share everything with Tar and Gemma (including their heroin habits). For a while, everything is parties and adventures, but slowly Tar and Gemma find themselves growing more and more dependent on the drug--whose strict mandates are even less forgiving than those of the parents they fled. As Gemma says, "You take more and more, and more often. Then you get sick of it and give up for a few days. And that's the really nasty thing because then, when you're clean, that's when it works so well."

With Smack, winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Prize for Fiction, Melvin Burgess brilliantly sketches a gradual descent into drug addiction. There is no preaching here, just the artful revelation of cold, hard facts. Burgess's use of the first-person voice--for not only the main characters but those in the background as well--brings you into the mind of every character in this homeless, hooked culture, offering a (sometimes terrible) glimpse of the motivations and transitions of each person. (Tar's personality changes dramatically over the course of the book, from sweet-natured, lonely boy to hard-edged, hit-seeking addict.) More subtle and less graphic than Beauty Queen, Linda Glovach's tale of a girl's downward spiral into heroin addiction, Smack will linger in the your mind long after its haunting conclusion has been reached. (Ages 13 and older) --Brangien Davis

Book Description

Gemma:"My parents are incompetent. They haven't got a clue..."

Tar: "I know it sounds stupid, but it was like the flowers had come out for Gemma..."

Lily: "They did everything they could to pin me down...my mum, my dad, school..."

Rob:"We stood for a while breathing big long breaths of air. It was cold and pure...You could feel it inside you, doing you good."

How do these teens come to run away from home? To be users? Addicts? As their stories intertwine and build, SMACK never lets up the pace. It is a book about people, families--real and those constructed by young people with no one to turn to but each other. SMACK is a book about a drug and the hold it can have. Written directly for its audience of young people and unflinching in its honesty, SMACK is the teen book of the year.

Customer Reviews:

SMACK.......2007-03-27

This book, is great. i would give it a 10 out of 5. i read this and couldnt out it down. first, two teenage runaways try to find shelter. they face many obsticles and make it all the way but get addicited to herion.

Dangers of Drug Addiction.......2007-02-03

Tar is fourteen years old when he decides he's had enough of his parents' alcoholism and his father's abuse. He needs to get away from home, and he wants his girlfriend Gemma, also fourteen, to go with him. Gemma is excruciatingly bored with her life, and she feels her parents are far too strict. Even though she doesn't love Tar, she really likes him and so she decides to run away with him.

Things go well for awhile. Tar, especially, seems to have found his niche, meeting up with an older couple who allow him to squat with them in an abandoned house. They provide food for him, not minding that he is too young to bring in money of his own. When Gemma joins them, though, they worry. She has parents who don't abuse her like Tar's, and they are concerned about her wild streak.

Gemma soon decides she doesn't need anyone else acting like her parents, so she convinces Tar to move in with another couple, Rob and Lily, who are bigger partiers and much more fun. It is not long after they move in that Gemma and Tar get their first taste of heroin.

At first heroin doesn't seem like a big deal. It's nice to use it, but everyone can stop whenever they want. But as the days and years go by, it becomes harder and harder to quit, and everyone is much more willing to do whatever it takes to get more.

I liked the concept of this book, showing how people fall into drug habits without realizing what is happening. However, I didn't like any of the characters, which made it hard for me to feel sympathetic toward them or to root for them to turn their lives around.

Boring!.......2006-12-27

I skipped a lot of pages in this book looking for something interesting.
After this, I'm not even going to read Junk.

an amazing book! i even cried!.......2006-12-18

Melvin Burgess wrote this in a way I've never seen before. He would show the story in a character's point of view and then continue the story through another character's eyes. It was a great piece of work. It showed you little by little how heroin changed their sweet teenage personalities to a full blow junkie. You get attached to the characters because you know so much of who they are and how they act, or at least I did. The ending really hit me... I got attached to the book and when I finished it and it was such a sad ending that I cried. I applaud Melvin Burgess for this beautifully written story.

Boring, boring , boring.......2006-10-08

Blech. I hated this book. I read a lot of "high drama" books about teen issues as I work with teens who find themselves in this genre. Unlike Speak, or Crank, or even Cut, Smack is a book that doesn't connect with anyone. Oh, and did I mention that it is boring? Don't be misled by the other reviews, this insipid ride to unbelievable town doesn't belong on your bookshelf.

Average customer rating:

Smack Goddess: A Novel
Richard Stratton
Manufacturer: Carol Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

a very very very very very good read
Will touch your soul
Best of the best
One of the best little known teen books in the world
Social Aquarium

Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!
M. E. Kerr
Manufacturer: HarperTeen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0064470067

Book Description

When Tucker Woolf needs to find a new home for his cat he only gets one call.

It's from Dinky Hacker, the strongest girl he has ever met. She doesn't shoot smack, but she sure could tell you a lot about kids who do. And once the cat moves in with Dinky, visiting it means visiting the Hocker home, which turns out to be more than Tucker ever bargained for...

Best of the Best Books (YA) 1970 - 1983 (ALA)
Notable Children's Books of 1972 (ALA)
Best Books of 1972 (SLJ)
Children's Books of 1972 (Library of Congress)

Customer Reviews:

a very very very very very good read.......2006-09-23

this is a very charming tale of this mean girl who adopts this boys cat when his dad develops an allergy.he misses the cat so much he goes over to thier house all the time.one day dinky hockers[WHAT A NAME!]cousin same over and the boy and her fall in love.her name is natalia line.shes a schizophrennic who rhymes all her sentences and words when under stress.its a wonderful story that has a "to kill a mockingbird" like charm to it.not the bad stuff but the parts where the kids are just bein g kids.i fell in love with this story right away.it will always have a place in my heart.

Will touch your soul.......2006-05-26

I read this book when I was in junior high school. That was over 30 years ago and I still remember it and how well I could relate to the struggles of teen life. If you are a teenager considering this book or a parent considering buying it for your child, do not hesitate. After all, though I am a pretty smart and well educated person, this is the only book (I'm serious here) that left a lasting impression on me from the K-12 years. It's gotta be special.

Best of the best.......2005-03-01

It has been seven years since I was assigned to read this book for my eighth grade class and I stll think about it to this day. The book has a way of drawing you in to their everyday routine. I am sure I still have the book somewhere in my room, but I just can't find it.

One of the best little known teen books in the world.......2004-01-10

Books written by adults for adults that talk about politics usually want you to pigeonhole them. Once you understand the gist of the bookýs take on life and liberty you can decide whether or not its politics are the same as yours, thereby allowing you to instantly love it or hate it without even reading it. Books written by adults for children or teens that talk about politics also usually want you to pigeonhole them. So went my thinking until I read "Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!". Ladies and gentlemen, I have just changed my worldview on politics in childrenýs books. And itýs all thanks to this little number.

A plot synopsis. This is a story about Tucker Woolf, his family, his friends, and his friendsý families. In New York city, Tucker is fifteen years old and for the first time in his life heýs seriously interested in a girl. This interest isnýt without its complications. The girl, Natalia, attends a school for the mentally imbalanced. And her cousin, Dinky Hocker, has issues of her own. Dinky is overweight, an unsurprising fact when you consider her negligent, often cruel, parents. From this unlikely set of characters comes a story about dealing with the problems of others, as well as yourself. Kerr could have easily taken the easy route with this book. How simple it would be to turn this plot into an After School Special, complete with everyone a little older and wiser at the end. Instead, the author meets such ooey-gooey sentiments head on, challenging the hypocrisy people exhibit every day. Along the way, other issues are brought up as well. Originally conceived and published in 1972, the book deals with politics. Everyoneýs parent is a liberal of the 60s, though how they display this political leaning differs per person. When we meet the radical P. John, Dinkyýs brief beau, the reader is suddenly shown a human being that doesnýt fit neatly into any real category. P. John is conservative, racist, intolerant, and honest. To read his character is to question everything the book is saying about the political climate of this country. But if you really read this book, really examine whatýs itýs saying, itýs clear as crystal that there is no single political stance taken in this story. People are not all one thing or another. Not all liberals are whining wimps waiting for a handout. Not all conservatives remain unchanging and unsympathetic. I can see how people would love this book and how people would hate this book. All I ask of you is that you find yourself intrigued by this review and decide to actually read this book. Draw your own conclusions. Decide Iým insanely wrong or absolutely correct. The point is, this book should never be forgotten. It is so well written, so interesting and full of great points that I canýt even give you a glimpse of what it really means. Youýll just have to find out for yourself.

Social Aquarium.......2003-08-24

This book starts out as being the story of Tucker Woolf, self-apointed expert on libraries, and cronicler of strange existences. But it soon turns out that it is actually the story of four young teenagers, and, on a broader scale, their parents and their entire society.
Tucker has to deal with having a faher who cares too much about apearances, and drills Tucker into only revealing parts of the truth when dealing with strangers. Tucker is feels somewhat out of place wherever he is, and when he finds a stray cat he imediately bonds with it. When his dad turns out to be allergic, he has to give the cat away. It is this cat who, directly and inderectly, brings him into contact with the other characters. It is adopted by Dinky Hocker, a tragically overweight girl, whose parents completely ignore their daughters problems, in favour of helping drug-addicts and othe worthy causes. Her cousin Natalie, and a boy who shares Dinkys rather enormous problem, together form the core of the story.

The book is funny, the characters quirky and the situations somwhat absurd, but the real fascination of this book comes from seeing how the parents of these children forget them in favour of either their own problems or the problems of strangers. The thing that struck me most is that Dinkys charity-mom is actually one of the most selfish people in the world. I would recomend this book to anyone, even though it is technically a YA-novel. Its a good read, all the same.

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Pimps, prostitutes, and smack

The SMACK MAN
Cannon
Manufacturer: Pocket
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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The SNIPER

Cannibal

ASIN: 0671632124

Customer Reviews:

Pimps, prostitutes, and smack.......1998-06-16

If you like seventies pimps, low riders, and a whole lotta smack, this book is for you.

A Smack in the Pus: A Scots Slang Phrasebook (Mercat)

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A Smack in the Pus: A Scots Slang Phrasebook (Mercat)
Scott Simpson
Manufacturer: Black & White Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1845020669

Book Description

This follow-up to the hugely successful Shut Yer Pus shows that there's nothing more pithy than Scots slang. The handy Scots-English/English-Scots format will help you unnerstaun as well as be understood. If you can't tell your erse from your elbae, there's nothing better than A Smack in the Pus for a pithy insult or a well-turned phrase.

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Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!
M. E. Kerr
Manufacturer: Dell Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000L1ZJ8G

When Good Intentions Run Smack Into Reality: Twelve Lessons to Coach Yourself and OThers to Peek Performance

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Ordinary to Extraordinary

When Good Intentions Run Smack Into Reality: Twelve Lessons to Coach Yourself and OThers to Peek Performance
Brian Klemmer
Manufacturer: Insight Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1932503285

Book Description

Answers the tough questions that come when you are not creating the results you desire.

Customer Reviews:

Ordinary to Extraordinary.......2006-04-14

CEO of Klemmer & Assoc., Brian Klemmer gives useful advice on how to increase intimacy, sales, and production. He uses life-altering ideas to help people become more bold, sustain change, stop feeling trapped, and how to stop being a victim to your feelings. Without cliches or false views of reality, this book will not leave you the way it found you. The book gives you "ten lessons to coach yourself and others to peak performance." The first chapter, "What The Facts Really Mean", alone changed the way I approach situations. It gave me the tools to place correct meanings to past and current experiences.

Boadicea CK 213;: The story of an East Coast fishing smack;

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Boadicea CK 213;: The story of an East Coast fishing smack;
Michael Frost
Manufacturer: Angus & Robertson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 0207955328

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Cant Smack? Wonts Smack?
Noel JanisNorton
Manufacturer: BARRINGTON STOKE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WS4MXQ

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Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack
M. E. Kerr
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000V966SU

Amazon.com

Christina Dodd brings fresh ideas to the often-used Regency world in which she sets this sprightly, sexy story of a statuesque spinster who returns to London, the site of her disastrous Season years ago, to chaperone the "coming out" of her dangerously beautiful niece. Jane Higgenbothem was ruined when the nude statue she made of Ransom Quincy, Marquess of Blackburn, was exposed to public view. Now Ransom, working undercover to expose a traitor to the Crown, decides he'll deliberately renew the old scandal by courting Jane, as a diversionary tactic for his investigation. But the truth is, his desire for Jane is raging out of control and he means to have her--even though she herself may be the spy he's seeking. Subplots involving Jane's niece and Blackburn's best friend offer surprising delights, while the inventive and humorously timed lovemaking between Jane and Blackburn ratchet up the heat index. Dodd's witty, affectionate depiction of human foibles makes this battle of the sexes highly entertaining. --Ellen Edwards

Book Description

A Disastrous Season

A simple statue began the scandal.

A Lady Concealed

An innocent English miss conceived of it, her hands gliding across the clay, delineating each smoothly defined muscle and sinew, creating a sculpture of the man she worshipped. When the likeness was exposed, along with Miss Jane Higgenbothem's secret tendre for Lord Blackburn, the ton's gleeful contempt sent the lady back to the country in disgrace.

A Gentleman Revealed

Now, a decade later, she's back in London, as a chaperone to her beautiful niece. But to Blackburn, Jane's unwitting model, the cool, reticent spinster is still a challenge. She once made the arrogant rake a laughingstock: so why is he tempted to revive an affair that almost began so long ago, on one scandalous evening?

Download Description

Miss Jane Higgenbothem couldn't help sculpting the object of her obsession -- but the statue began a scandal that sent her back to the country in disgrace. Now, a decade later, she's back in town, and Lord Blackburn, her unwitting model, is tempted to revive an affair that almost began so long ago...

A Disastrous Season

A simple statue began the scandal.

A Lady Concealed

A Gentleman Revealed

Customer Reviews:

a tale of forgiveness.......2007-10-03

This novel was very powerful for me, Christina Dodd never disappoints with her masterful handling of the plot. This book was about forgiving your enemy, and the premise of the novel was something very believable, especially for the time period. It is the wisest course to forgive others, as it is the only path toward healing. But it was so much that heroine had to forgive, and yet she really triumphed in the end! I really enjoyed That Scandalous Evening!!!!

Not that great........2007-05-10

I have to quote a previous reviewer who said the following, " It was difficult to fathom Jane's love for Ransom, a man who simply ignored her and found her quite pathetic during her debut year and after 11 years it was hard to believe that she was the 'one' for him all along. There was just no development of Ransom's love for Jane, and it seemed more one sided on Jane's part, which made her appear pathetic. Jane's constant pining for Ransom was just irritating until she finally developed some semblance of a backbone at the very end." Nothing more to say.

Great Book!!!.......2006-11-12

I really enjoyed this book. It had passion, humor, and characters that I could really enjoy reading about. I love that the heroine is unconventional, and that instead of being a wishy-washy independant woman wannabe, she actually starts to leave and pursue her own dreams.

That Scandalous Evening.......2006-08-20

It is the beginning of the series. I found it to be delightful. The characters were interesting & fun. It provided a pleasant escape from the pressures of everyday life.

Not one of her finest.......2006-06-08

I have read many CD novels but this is not one of her finest. This was probably the first of her books that I have had difficulty finishing. I like my heroines strong and insensible about the right man, a man who earns her love, not one who is irritatingly senseless about a misogynistic cad. It was difficult to fathom Jane's love for Ransom, a man who simply ignored her and found her quite pathetic during her debut year and after 11 years it was hard to believe that she was the 'one' for him all along. There was just no development of Ransom's love for Jane, and it seemed more one sided on Jane's part, which made her appear pathetic. Jane's constant pining for Ransom was just irritating until she finally developed some semblance of a backbone at the very end.

The only redeeming part about this book, which earned it one extra star, was the relationship between Lady Goodridge, Ransom's sister, and Fitz. At least one person had a spine, if not the heroine.

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THAT SCANDALOUS EVENING
CHRISTINA DODD
Manufacturer: Avon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J1H1CA

Christina Dodd Collection II (Greatest Lover in All England; That Scandalous Evening)

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Christina Dodd Collection II (Greatest Lover in All England; That Scandalous Evening)
Christina Dodd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Historical | Romance | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000RLKLLU

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