Rx by Tracy Lynn

Rx By Tracy Lynn

Date Started: July 17, 2009 Date Finished:July 18, 2009

Summary: Thyme Gilcrest is barely in the top twenty of the schools best students. To keep up, she steals a bottle of Ritalin from one of her friends and uses it to keep her focused on school work. She starts dealing to classmates in exchange for Ritalin to keep her from going through a withdraw. Senior year, she becomes the talk of the school, being invited to the coolest parties and ditching all her old friends

Likes: The characters are pretty interesting. The tone of the story is entertaining and the character's voice is interesting. I liked the concept of the story it was a fun read but it was a little bit on the strange side. It makes you think about what drugs could probably do in your life if you had access to them. And what the consequences are if you take them. It also makes you wonder how many people are hooked on prescription drugs. This story doesn't have a moral to it, even though the events to tell the story are a little heavy handed and over blown, the character doesn't learn her lesson, which is frustrating and a bit refreshing in a way. As a reader, I wasn't pounded over the head with the lesson "Hugs not Drugs" type of thing which was nice given the subject matter. It didn't read like a public service announcement.

Dislikes: This was a stagnant story. Nothing really changes from beginning to the end. The character never changes and never has a shocking revelation, despite all the situations that are thrown in for shock value. The bare bones of the story are non existent despite everything else that is wonderful about it, such as the tone and the characters. While I was reading I was wondering how I was supposed to be feel. I didn't feel sorry for Thyme because everything she did worry about (and subsequently the other Twenty students) was all superficial. I didn't feel saddened when Sonia committed suicide because she wasn't that important in the story. Suze's pregnancy and vague miscarriage wasn't striking because it wasn't specifically clear what happened and the way she got pregnant was stupid and irresponsible. All the things that were supposed to have an impact didn't impact the Thyme, the other characters (except for Meera), and didn't impact me either. I didn't know what to feel. I didn't feel sympathy, or empathy, or even understanding because a lot of the reasoning behind the situation didn't seem logical. I know teens aren't the most logical, but there were no consequences. Thyme never gets caught by the way, she almost does, but even then you know she won't. Everything ends so perfectly, it's annoying. 

 

Overall: All in all, I will say that I liked the book. It was entertaining, but it didn't have any depth. Nothing ever gets solved and the main character always manages to have the best luck. I wanted to see Thyme get in trouble for something, any little thing, but she doesn't and that doesn't make for an enjoyable read. The concept was interesting, but the execution needs(ed) a lot of work.