Placebo Junkies

August 24, 2015
Teenage Audie and her roommates make rent by serving as human test subjects. In their world, “your value lies in your blood, your waste, and your mitochondrial minutiae,” and Audie is trying “to squeeze every possible cent” out of the system in order to take her cancer-stricken boyfriend on a dream vacation for his birthday. When Audie starts several test drugs at the same time, life gets muddled, and it becomes increasingly hard for her to sort fantasy from reality. A somewhat jarring twist arrives two-thirds of the way into the story, but Audie—a chatty, clever narrator with a twisted sense of humor—grounds the story even as it changes gears. Carleson (The Tyrant’s Daughter) gives Audie believable motivation for undergoing tests that range from practice gynecological exams to taking psilocybin (“Once you get the chance to control your own fate, set your own schedule, it’s too hard to give it back), while raising challenging questions about medicine, ethics, and the true cost of big breakthroughs. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jessica Regel, Foundry Literary + Media.

July 15, 2015
Teens earn a living as test subjects in medical trials in a novel that may feel dystopian but is very much set in the present day. Technically these contemporary teens are "professional volunteers," but that's just doublespeak for the way Audie, her roommates, and a whole underclass of people support themselves. Audie narrates in sardonic first-person as she and other human guinea pigs spend their days applying to be paid test subjects and then being poked, prodded, medicated, and invasively evaluated by cold, dismissive medical staff. The myriad pills, injections, experimental procedures, and tissue samplings cause side effects, and does it really matter which overlapping treatments-or booze or recreational drugs-are causing what? Audie knows her boyfriend, Dylan, loves her (he stayed when she "sprayed, puked, shat, dribbled"), but when fellow guinea pig Charlotte dies, Audie's life unravels. Memory lapses past and present become more noticeable, and details don't line up. The picture that Audie's painted-her clean apartment, her relationship with Dylan, the nature of her past trauma, and even her level of consent in the medical treatment-dissolves on her and on readers. Audie's world and reality tip sideways, and there may be no way for her to be more than "me to the power of fucked." The overall message is murky and the narrative so unreliable and tricky that readers will be hard-pressed to make sense of everything even in hindsight, but there's no denying the story's power. Raw, funny, grotesque, unsettling, and very sad. (author's note) (Fiction. 15-18)

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October 1, 2015

Gr 10 Up-Audie and her friends are professional lab rats, guinea pigs who "volunteer" for numerous pharmaceutical drug trials as a way to get quick cash. They have the system down-Audie's roommate Charlotte even has a list of ways to fake drug trial results, if need be. Audie is willing to endure a plethora of treatments, because she wants to finance a trip for her cancer-ridden boyfriend Dylan-the only one who understands and loves her despite everything. However, as the pills wear away at her body and mind, Audie's sense of reality becomes totally distorted, until she can no longer distinguish truth from fiction. With its short, fast-paced chapters filled with raw language and graphic details, this title is a departure from Carlson's previous, CIA-themed The Tyrant's Daughter (Knopf, 2014), although, as with spy stories, her new novel has both suspense and a convoluted plot. Even at the novel's conclusion, readers cannot be totally sure that what appears to be is real, a challenge that is sure to appeal to high school readers. Audie's blog entries will keep teens' interest, and her first-person narrative reinforces the personal pull of the story. Audie's character is well-drawn and totally believable, immersing readers in her world and, hopefully, opening the door to an ethical discussion about current mental health issues. Strong language and graphic descriptions of medical procedures might be problematic for libraries with a restricted collection policy. VERDICT For fans of works with unreliable narrators.-Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, formerly at LaSalle Academy, Providence, RI

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2015
Grades 9-12 Ever wonder about those signs on the subway looking for human guinea pigs in exchange for a few hundred dollars? Carleson's sophomore effort explores the dark world of pharmaceutical drug trials. Teenage Audie is a girl living on the fringes, surviving off the money she makes by enrolling in countless drug trials while managing the endless side effects. Her perfect boyfriend, Dylan, a cancer patient on the upswing, is nearing his eighteenth birthday, and all Audie wants is to give him an amazing birthday gift: the trip of a lifetime. But that means she needs to sock away more money, meaning more drug trials and more painful, messed-up side effects. This smart, beguiling novel will usher readers into the bizarrebut reality-basedsubculture of drug-trial volunteers as they work to peel away the layers to uncover Audie's truth. Twists and turns in the novel's second half will put readers in the same foggy haze as Audie, who often struggles to separate truth from reality. A perplexing, thrilling whirlwind of a read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)