This is a fascinating book. Isaac and Ivy and siblings who both find themselves reliant on drugs. For Isaac, it is pain medication and for Ivy it starts with Adderall to help control her ADHD and get her life back on track. Both quickly realize that they might not be able to control their desire for more and more.

These aren't the only two characters in the book. Both authors have crafted these drugs, illegal and prescription alike, into characters as well (think emotions in the movie Inside Out). You have Addy, Roxy, Al, and more. The drugs are portrayed as living things with feelings, hopes, and fears of their own. They pretend to be your friend, but in the end, are they really? Isaac and Ivy will find this out!

The content in this book is super mature. Being a 7th grade teacher, I don't think this book is for my students, even though I loved it. The book does not glorify drugs; quite the contrary. It shows the dangers of them and how hard addiction can be on the individual, family, and friends. That said, I think that message might get lost on younger or less mature readers.

It's a sobering look at the world of addictions, with the addictions being represented as people not unlike Greek gods. And like the Greeks, the story is played out time and again with the same themes, and the same addictions winning. A beautiful poetic ending puts a final "chorus" to a life hardly lived.

This ambitious undertaking attempts to portray various drugs as powerful gods, complete with distinct personalities, who are attempting to gain influence over the human young adults. Readers will have no doubt from the beginning who will win this conflict, and the ensuing downward spiral for the humans is a blatant cautionary tale.

This concept tho. Completely new and dark but really interesting. Also I must admit I don’t know anything about pills or their effects or what it feels like so I was pretty removed from all the common knowledge of the drugs in general. I felt like this book expected me to already know so I felt a little dumb when I couldn’t connect what drug was suppose to be represented by which person nickname unless it was explicitly stated. All the stars for the concept but keeping it PG-13 with highschoolers kept it from getting too ugly in their downward spirals. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Last thing, the bolded chapter titles hidden in the regular chapter titles became cumbersome to decipher after a while.

I want to start by saying #NealShusterman is one of my favorite modern authors. That being said, I have to say that #Roxy is a fascinating dud. The story follows Roxy (Oxycontin) and Addison (Adderall) as human (?) characters who enter into a challenge on who can bring their person to "The Party" as their "+1"--all codes for which drug can cause the person to overdose. These two people are siblings, Isaac and Ivy, and they are battling addictions as high school students. I understand what the Shustermans are doing in this book, telling a cautionary tale about the dangerous drug epidemics in our country and especially how young people are succumbing. These are very serious and important topics, .and the attempt to do so through this way of having various drugs act as human at a party is a novel twist. But I believe most of the drug references will be lost on younger audience members and the overall message of the book could get lost in this "cast of characters." Perhaps this is a better choice for an older crowd of late teens/college age people who may be able to understand the different drugs and their effects as human characters? Or maybe high school teens don't need the nicknames and drug references to get the message, in which case it may be fine for some students. Thank you to the publishers and #NetGalley for this ARC.

A great work from a great set of authors, the Shusterman clan does it again with ROXY. The premise of this sounds... odd. Personified medicine? What the heck? But it works, it works so, so well. I adored this, and it is full of everything you'd want from a Shusterman work and THEN some. Thank you for the e-arc!