Junk
  • Published: 3 April 2014
  • ISBN: 9781448187454
  • Imprint: Andersen Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

Junk

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The Carnegie and Guardian Fiction award-winning classic teen novel reissued for a new generation. With an introduction by Malorie Blackman and all-new material from Melvin Burgess and the publisher's archives on the book's controversial history.
Melvin Burgess is recipient of the YA Book Prize special achievement award for Junk.

This 20th Anniversary edition of the classic novel comes with an introduction from former children’s laureate Malorie Blackman and bonus content following its controversial history, from its writing to when it won both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize.

It was a love story. Me, Gemma and junk. I thought it was going to last forever.

Tar loves Gemma, but Gemma doesn't want to be tied down. She wants to fly. But no one can fly forever. One day, finally, you have to come down. Melvin Burgess’ most ambitious and complex novel is a vivid depiction of a group of teenagers in the grip of addiction. Told from multiple viewpoints, Junk is a powerful, unflinching novel about heroin. Once you take a hit, you will never be the same again.
  • Published: 3 April 2014
  • ISBN: 9781448187454
  • Imprint: Andersen Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352
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About the author

Melvin Burgess

Melvin Burgess was born in London and brought up in Surrey and Sussex. He has had a variety of jobs before becoming a full-time writer. Before his first novel, he had short stories published and a play broadcast on Radio 4. He is now regarded as one of the best writers in contemporary children's literature, having won the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for his acclaimed novel Junk.

portrait photo of Melvin Burgess

Also by Melvin Burgess

The Secret Lives of Numbers
Bloodtide
Hunger
Kill All Enemies
See all

Praise for Junk

Everyone should read Junk.

The Times

Melvin Burgess's ground-breaking Junk remains the best book about teenagers and drugs to this day

Julia Eccleshare, Guardian Online

Junk has a perfect sense of time and place, characters who feel real and it may just be the best YA book ever.

Robert Muchamore, Big Issue, Top 5 Young Adult Books

Occasionally a 'teenage novel' comes along which makes one reconsider the whole genre and its potential. Such a book is Melvin Burgess's Junk.

Robert Dunbar, Children's Books in Ireland

Personally I prefer the love triangle in Melvin Burgess’s Junk, in which Tar’s devotion to heroin split he and Gemma apart.

Juno Dawson, Guardian

This book is beguiling, layered and filled with a boldness that comes with youth.

Gemma Cairney

Brilliantly and sensitively written, it encompasses the raw, savage and ecstatic world of the adolescent mind... a superbly crafted and important book

TES

Beautifully written

The Times

Believable and rivetingly readable. I couldn’t put it down.

Evening Standard

Moving and provocative

Observer

One novel that will leave an indelible impression on all who read it

Publishers Weekly

It is the real thing - a teenage novel for teenage readers

The Scotsman

An honest, authentic look at drug culture

Time Out

. . . a story that provoked some scandal when it won the coveted Carnegie Medal for children's books.

Independent

Before YA was a thing, there was Junk by Melvin Burgess... an unflinching look at addiction, and holds strong more than 20 years after its first release.

Stylist

One of the defining books of YA fiction

Fiona Noble, The Bookseller

An absolute must-read for any teenager and an essential eye-opener to any parent of a teenager… utterly compelling and terrifying by turns.

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