An intense and moving story of grief, pain, and addiction.

Honestly, drug addiction books have been really addictive for me lately, so I was excited to pick this one up. This novel focuses on a drug called Fix, which these high school teens use for hallucinations and to change their visions. When one of the main character's friends starts acting sketchy, and people start to go missing, she can't help but be suspicious.

Torn between drug addiction, the loss of her sister, and a murder case, the book is definitely interesting and a fun read. However, in the end, things are summed up too easily, and the ending feels very rushed. I would've preferred some elaboration and clearer details.

This book kept my entire attention, from beginning to end. It was unlike anything I have ever read before, which is really hard to find. I love how descriptive the book is without being overly descriptive. I also loved that the chapters were concise, and there wasn’t much extra to the book.
From what I’ve always heard, people do drugs to escape from something, which Pen is definitely doing, but she is also running to something (Nate). I found that very interesting. Personally I love reading books where I feel like I am jumping into the character’s life. I love when there is a back story and let me tell you this back story really was awesome.
I thought the author dud a wonderful job of writing about the tough topic of addiction with knowledge and sensitivity. Overtime I felt like I was going to predict a twist or turn, I was very wrong! I was so caught of guard by the way the story ended (in the best possible way) it cemented the fact that this book was definitely my type.

I received an ARC of the book from Flux via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Fix Me by Lisa M. Cronkhite is a young adult novel that centers around the powerful drug called Fix. A young girl named Penelope Wryter AKA Pen finds herself becoming dependant on Fix after her sister commits suicide. Not only does the drug make her feel good, it also makes her have very life-like hallucinations that seem to control her. Pen constantly sees Nate, a boy who truly cares about her and even falls in love with her- of course, only until the drug wears off. Pen understands the consequences of Fix but also knows she can’t go off it. It makes her feel alive. However, when a girl from her class goes missing after a bad Fix trip, she realizes she must wake up. To truly feel alive, she must begin to solve not only the mysterious disappearance, but the problems in her own life as well.

Fix Me is exhilarating from start to finish. I really like that this novel is overall focused on addiction- rarely do I read a young adult novel that handles teen addiction in an honorable way. Pen is an unreliable narrator due to her fascination with Fix which again, I thought was really well done. I enjoyed reading what Pen had to say and then taking the time to think about if what she said was truly real or not. The plot overall is very interesting and original and I think this book has a lot of promise.

I do like this book but I think there is lots of room for improvement. Cronkhite writes well but there are a few errors that are hard to overlook, such as continuity issues. While reading, I found myself becoming confused very quickly because at certain points I felt like I was missing parts of the story. Maybe it is supposed to feel that way due to the drug addiction but I thought it just did not fit well with this story. Along with that, most of the time the pacing feels right but there are sports that it is just completely off. I think the mysterious tone shown throughout the novel does have something to do with this. It works most of the time, but sometimes there are “big reveals” that did not shock or surprise me at all. I also did not like most of the characters. I found it hard to relate to most of them, and although I like Pen the best, I do wish there was more depth to her. Before reading this book, I was hoping it would be less predictable and a little more focused on the depression leading up to the addiction. Although I did enjoy this book start to finish and I think most people will too. I suggest this book to any teens or adults who are struggling or know someone who is struggling with addiction. This book teaches you that it is okay to acknowledge your inner demons and ask for help when you need it.

If I had ever wanted to consider taking drugs this book would stop me from trying them. While the images of purple skies and the thought of being able to manipulate what you see and hear during hallucinations sounds intoxicating and inviting, I'd much rather use my imagination to do the same thing minus the side effects.

I found it so hard wanting to continue reading when there wasn't a single character I liked or cared about. Pen, our protagonist, is one of the most self centred characters I've ever come across. Her self esteem is in the toilet (unlike her vomit which invariably ends up wherever she is at the time) and while she gets used by almost every other person in the book it was hard to feel sorry for her as she was in turn using everyone else as well.

Overall I was disappointed by this book. What started out promising turned into a series of descriptions of people getting high and the last quarter of the book felt rushed. I rarely ever work out who the murderer is in books until the big reveal, yet I figured out not only who they were but their motive early on. Hint: it's the only person in the book with a motive.

The lack of attention to detail really annoyed me, with contradictions consistently made with what we'd already been told, sometimes even as recently as the page before. Also, why is Pen continually surprised that she is hallucinating the day after she takes Fix when it's already been established early in the book that Fix's side effects can last for a significant period of time after you stop taking it?

What I wanted to eat while reading this book:
* Absolutely nothing! Between the frequent descriptions of Pen wanting to vomit and what her vomit looked like there was no way I was going to eat while reading this book. I guess those descriptions do make a valid point about drug addiction though ... no matter how disgusting the side effects, if you're hooked on a drug they pale in comparison to the need to get high.

I was so excited about this book after reading the blurb and the first couple of chapters but if I'd borrowed it from the library I doubt I would have made it past chapter 4. However, as I'd received a free copy from NetGalley (thank you to NetGalley and Flux) in exchange for an honest review, I felt I needed to persevere.

Although it is being touted as a mystery/thriller, it's more like horror/ supernatural. Unfortunately, I had too many places where I couldn't suspend disbelief. I felt disconnected to the story in a number of places.

MANY SPOILER ALERTS:
If Pen hadn't called Jenelle, how would Jenelle have gotten into the story? Was that a supernatural occurrence or coincidence?

Even simple things interrupted my flow of the story, like some problems with the school the author created:
No punishment for cutting from school
Baloney that the librarian would let Pen off without a pass - twice

Factual applications of the use of drugs, even a made-up drug - don't match what would be expected… Drugs don't last as long as the author purports (up to 8 weeks in bloodstream). Even though this is fiction, I was distracted from the more realistic time frame of 3-6 weeks in urine and 3 days in blood.

Other drug side effects the author created weren't used consistently: for example, recurring visions of unknown people, even when a person is not currently high. But Pen has been on for a year, so wouldn't that mean that Pen would have had extra-Nate visions before now? What about the inconsistency of when Pen becomes nauseous and vomiting?

The police scenes are so unrealistic. Pen and her friends are minors taken to the police station without a guardian or a lawyer!

And why would the rehab let Pen out immediately after she just had what they think is a reaction to the meds they’ve put her on?

I don't think the story knows what it wants to be. Ghost story? Mystery? Realistic fiction with hallucinations? It wasn't the story that was a mystery; it was the editing. Ouch...sorry...

I'd probably give this book 1.5 stars.

Penelope is not an interesting character has no redeeming qualities. It's the same way with her friends. Most of this book revolves around the drug "Fix" which was supposed to be a mood-stabilizer, but causes hallucinations so it was taken off the market. Penelope and her friends take Fix to get high and have fun. Most of the book is actually just a bunch of teenagers getting high.

While Pen is high, she sees Nate. Nate is supposedly a figment of her imagination that she's also in love with. Really.

Along with the drug use, there are two other revolving storylines. One is that Penelope wants to know why her sister killed herself, and the other is that other teenage girls have gone missing.

So, the big ending comes and all the questions are answered in a weird way. There's a character that didn't show up until halfway through the book who is supposed to be the villain, the realization that Nate *was* real (he's a spirit now and that's how he communicates with Pen), and all of Pen's terrible friends aren't that terrible at all.

I'm sure, maybe, these plotlines mixed together will make sense to others. To me it lacked creativity and was too simple.