Series: Standalone

Genre: LGBT (m/m)

Rating: 4/5 stars

Cover: I’m not sure if it fits?

Buy: Amazon

Trigger Warnings: (child) rape, neglect, drugs

Description: High school senior Lanny Keating has it all. A three-sport athlete at Lauserville High School looking at a college football scholarship, with a supportive family, stellar grades, boy band good looks… until the fateful day when it all falls apart.
Seventeen-year-old Trevor Ladd has always been a publicly declared zero and the high school badboy. Abandoned by his mother and sexually abused by his legal guardian, Trevor sets his sights on mere survival.
Lanny seeks out Trevor’s companionship to avoid his shattered home life. Unwilling to share their personal experiences of pain, the boys explore ways to escape, leading them into sexual experimentation, and the abuse of illegal drugs and alcohol. Their mutual suffering creates a lasting bond of friendship and love.
When the time finally comes to get clean and sober, or flunk out of high school, only one of the boys will graduate, while the other spirals downward into addiction.
Will Lanny and Trevor find the strength to battle their demons of mind-altering substances as well as emotional vulnerability?
Clean takes the reader on a gritty trip into the real and raw world of teenage substance abuse.

Review: After reading this novel’s foreword I was expecting much from Clean. Mia Kerick didn’t disappoint my expectations.

Just after a few pages I was very close to tears. Both characters take a hold of your heart and then rip it out without mercy. I really liked how different Lanny and Trevor are. So different in fact, that you can tell apart both POVs without problems (although Trevor’s rambling without any comma was at times a bit exhausting to read).

The story feels very real and right up until the end, you don’t know whether they will make it or not. Will they overcome their addiction? Will they become a couple? Speaking of couples… The main characters have a very unhealthy relationship with each other – mostly thanks to the drugs – but that relationship still feels somehow innocent and makes total sense.

Disclaimer: The author provided me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.