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A review by audreychamaine
Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson
2.0
Teen Laurel lost her mother and grandmother in Hurricane Katrina. Struggling to get back on their feet, she moves north with her father and baby brother. There, things are going okay as she joins the cheerleading squad and meets the basketball star, T-Boom. However, T-Boom likes to party, aka do crystal meth, which he calls moon. Laurel gets hooked and winds up living in the streets, doing whatever she can for the next high.
For being a book about such a serious subject as meth addiction, I thought Beneath a Meth Moon was pretty darn weak. It seemed that Woodson was making an effort at writing an addiction book with flowing, poetic language, but that same writing style robbed the message of its punch. Meth addiction is ugly. Don't believe me? Look at these photos for proof. It's absolutely horrifying, and I'd hoped that this story would be as equally shocking as the photographic evidence. It wasn't.
One issue I had with the writing was the insistence on calling meth "moon." I'd never heard it called that before, and it gave it a dreamy, seductive quality, which maybe isn't what you want in a book that's trying to show you how bad drugs are. I guess this is how Woodson was trying to create atmosphere through names, just like the poorly named "T-Boom," Laurel's boyfriend. Every time I saw that name, I both wanted to laugh and cringe.
Woodson only scratched the surface on a lot of things in this book. Even though she's the first person narrator, I didn't feel like I got to really know Laurel, other than the fact that she's sad about losing her family and she loves meth. None of the characters are fleshed out enough. Also, the many aspects of meth are just touched upon. T-Boom makes meth--why didn't we get a feel for how dangerous that chemical process is, or how often meth labs blow up? I used to live in Southern California's High Desert, where there were regular meth lab explosions. Those areas can remain toxic for years. No mention of that in this book, though.
Sadly, I really didn't care for, or about, this book. If you want to read a teen book about drug addiction, stick with Ellen Hopkins.
For being a book about such a serious subject as meth addiction, I thought Beneath a Meth Moon was pretty darn weak. It seemed that Woodson was making an effort at writing an addiction book with flowing, poetic language, but that same writing style robbed the message of its punch. Meth addiction is ugly. Don't believe me? Look at these photos for proof. It's absolutely horrifying, and I'd hoped that this story would be as equally shocking as the photographic evidence. It wasn't.
One issue I had with the writing was the insistence on calling meth "moon." I'd never heard it called that before, and it gave it a dreamy, seductive quality, which maybe isn't what you want in a book that's trying to show you how bad drugs are. I guess this is how Woodson was trying to create atmosphere through names, just like the poorly named "T-Boom," Laurel's boyfriend. Every time I saw that name, I both wanted to laugh and cringe.
Woodson only scratched the surface on a lot of things in this book. Even though she's the first person narrator, I didn't feel like I got to really know Laurel, other than the fact that she's sad about losing her family and she loves meth. None of the characters are fleshed out enough. Also, the many aspects of meth are just touched upon. T-Boom makes meth--why didn't we get a feel for how dangerous that chemical process is, or how often meth labs blow up? I used to live in Southern California's High Desert, where there were regular meth lab explosions. Those areas can remain toxic for years. No mention of that in this book, though.
Sadly, I really didn't care for, or about, this book. If you want to read a teen book about drug addiction, stick with Ellen Hopkins.