Dope sick

English language

Published Jan. 1, 2009 by HarperTeen/Amistad.

ISBN:
978-0-06-121477-6
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3 stars (1 review)

Seeing no way out of his difficult life in Harlem, seventeen-year-old Jeremy "Lil J" Dance flees into a house after a drug deal goes awry and meets a weird man who shows different turning points in Lil J's life when he could have made better choices.

2 editions

Review of 'Dope sick' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

[guessing at the star rating / mining my old FB notes now that they are almost impossible to find]

this YA novel is way too dark and ghetto for me to pass on to my 12 yo daughter. it's left me with a few thoughts:

is the kelly character supposed to be jesus? if so, is this a religious book? do folks on drugs need another drug (deep religion) to turn their back on heroin? because, doesn't it seem like a lot of addicted personalities end up as born again christians... as opposed to born into a family of believers?

the ending was so fanastical - weird in a book that was utterly grounded in the reality of poverty, depression, drugs and crime. as a YA novel, i assumed a happy ending, but i was still thrown by its resolution.

in the end, i come away with one strong conviction. …

Subjects

  • Conduct of life -- Fiction
  • Drug abuse -- Fiction
  • African Americans -- Fiction
  • Supernatural -- Fiction
  • Harlem (New York, N.Y.) -- Fiction