Service95 Recommends is the home of the books we love and reviews from our contributors. Junk by Melvin Burgess follows a group of teenagers as they grapple with the jaws of addiction and pay tribute to the realities of drug use.
What Malorie Says: “Junk was one of the first books I ever read as an adult that was aimed specifically at young adults – and it was a real eye opener. In the UK, before Melvin’s book, there were books for children up to the ages of 11-12 and then there were adult books, with very little in between. Junk made me realise the true breadth and depth of the topics YA literature could tackle. It was thanks to Junk that Noughts & Crosses was born” — Malorie Blackman
What They Say: “Melvin Burgess’s ground-breaking Junk remains the best book about teenagers and drugs to this day” — Julia Eccleshare
Available on Bookshop.org and Waterstones
For more book recommendations, subscribe to our newsletter
Malorie Blackman is an award-winning writer of YA and Children’s Fiction and the author of Dua’s Monthly Read for July 2024, Noughts & Crosses
