Rx by Tracy Lynn

Title: Rx
Author: Tracy Lynn
Year of Publication: 2006
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 262

First Line: "CHEESE!" A strobe of red followed by a flash of bright white, hopefully bouncing off my teeth and sparkling in my eyes.

Summary: Thyme Gilcrest is an honors student.  Thyme Gilcrest is popular.  Thyme Gilcrest is on student council.  Thyme Gilcrest is a drug dealer.  Like piecing together a logic puzzle, Thyme has organized a complex trading system that enables her to obtain the meds her friends need.  They all come to her to diagnose their problems and provide the "cure" -- be it Prozac, Ritalin, Vicodin...  She's therapist, doctor, and pharmacist all in one. She helpes the people.  And that makes her feel a little more in control -- a little more capable of dealing with her own frantic high school life.  Because Thyme Gilcrest is nothing if not good at dealing.

Source: Back of book.

Review:  I wasn't overly impressed by the writing in this novel.  Lynn writes as if she does not trust her readers to understand what she is saying, which suggests she either thinks very little of her readers or herself.  She repeated herself in different ways throughout and used modifiers that were unnecessary.  For example, when she mentioned a girl spiking some eggnog, she said something like, "the girl added some Captain (Morgan)" in the context of spiking the drink.  The added parentheses here felt annoying -- I felt if she was going to name the drink, she should name it whole, and not the way she did.  This is the kind of writing used throughout the novel which I found to be distracting and to take away from the book.  Some parts were difficult to follow, particularly near the end, and there was a sense of incompleteness by the time I finished.  Lynn's "thesis" that everyone is on something without needing to be felt unrealistic and I couldn't get behind the setting because of that.  It was interesting to see places I knew mentioned throughout the novel as it takes place in Connecticut, but I was not able to immerse myself in the setting because of other details.  Probably not worth a read, but if you're really looking for something, it might be all right.



Worst part: How unrealistic the setting felt

Best part:  Will was interesting. I would have liked more of his character. I also liked Dave.

Grade: C

Other Books by This Author: Snow, the Fallen, the Stolen, the Chosen, Paradise City, No Exit, the Bride, Jack Sparrow, Geektastic

Author's Website: Tracy Lynn