So this is a hard one for me to review. On the one hand, this is an amazing book. Like so good that I couldn't put it down. I had it on my phone and I was picking it up to read a few pages between classes, on my breaks, in the car (when someone else was driving). I was wholly invested in the characters and the mystery and their recovery that I needed to know what was coming next. On the other hand, the author made a choice that completely derailed my momentum and I found myself obsessively doing research to figure out if this choice was based on fact or if it was just some artistic license to push the story forward. This is a problem I have that other readers may not. I'm a researcher at heart. I tried to be a writer once, but what I discovered was that what I really loved was the research, discovering something new, following a trail to see where it led. To me that's fun. It's probably why I have degrees in History, Library Science and Cultural Heritage Preservation - all three are super research heavy. When I attempted to be a writer I had binders of cool tidbits or research, but no real desire to put it into a story. When I read (or watch TV and movies) sometimes a fact will jump out to me as not quite right and I'm off. I'll fall into the black hole of research for hours and if it bears fruit, if the author's claims check out I'm all in. Nothing is cooler then learning something new from a book, especially if that thing seems far fetched. However, if I can't fact check it. If there is no discernible facts to back up the claim, then I'm out. I'll finish the book, I might even enjoy the book (as I did here), but there will definitely be a little cloud above it that won't go away. When I talk about the book, there will always be an aside, or an *, "This was a great book, but..." So that's where I am with this book... It's great, really great, but... and in order to talk about that, be warned, there will be spoilers.

SPOILERS WILL FOLLOW- I couldn't figure out a good way to explain what bothered me about parts of this book without them.

Still with me? If you keep reading, there will definitely be spoilers.... consider yourself warned....


​So first, the good. Connis does a superb job dealing with addiction and trauma. The main characters in this book are all addicted to something and Connis makes it clear that while addicts have similarities, each is different, with different triggers and ways that they cope. When we first meet Adam we know he probably has an addiction to porn and has done something so egregious that he has been suspended for months, but we don't know yet what that incident was. As the book progresses, we see Adam come to grips with his addiction and his actions and Connis slowly reveals what Adam did to get expelled. As Adam accepts his actions and consequences and begins to share them with the people around him, we learn about them too. The players around Adam are also really well fleshed out, when he is expelled a teacher Mr. Cratcher advocates for him and Adam is placed into a few programs that will help him rehabilitate. Through the groups, one being The Knights of Vice, Adam meets several other addicts, including Dez who is addicted to addiction, who needs that new was to get an adrenaline rush. One of the things that felt huge to me was this idea that someone doesn't have a specific vice, they are just addicted to feeling something, anything and can bounce from addiction to addiction.

When Dez admits that to Adam, it felt like a revelation. Personally, I'm not addicted to any drugs, in fact I've never tried any drugs, or smoked even a cigarette, why? Because I have a hugely addictive personality. It comes out in my hobbies. I will latch onto something that is exciting and new and ride it out until I no longer get that rush from doing it, then I move on to the next thing. I'll circle back through after enough time, when that thing (be it white water rafting, rodeo, back country hiking, tattoos, whatever) can give me an adrenaline rush again. I"m not addicted to thing per say, I'm addicted to the way the thing makes me feel- which is where Dez is coming from. In short, I was instantly invested in Dez.

The teacher, Mr. Cratcher, was also a great character. As a teacher in a city school I can say that you want to save them all. You want to reach them all, but it doesn't always work that way. Cratcher uses his music to reach Adam. He gives Adam the task of helping him complete an album that has been his life's work. He also uses was of my personal favorite songs to reach the students in his charge, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. The lyrics of the song have a profound effect on several of them and, for me, it was really interesting to see how he used the words to connect to their addictions and choices. Through Adam's interactions with Cratcher, the Album and the Knights of Vice we see everyone involved begin to break down walls, come to grips with who they are and start to have hope for a future that doesn't include being beholden to their addictions. I can't say enough about this story and how well it's written.

Which brings me to the part where it went off the rails. Let me again reiterate that this is definitely something that doesn't bother every reader, sometimes I wish it didn't bother me. It has destroyed books (and some authors) for me that other people adore, Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak is probably the biggest casualty. At any rate- this issue was not enough to ruin the entire book for me, but it definitely stopped my obsessive reading of the book and put my mind elsewhere. It has to do with Cratcher and his history. Cratcher is not just a teacher, he's a brilliant musician and lyricist. In fact he could have been extremely famous, but tragedy struck and he made another choice. When Cratcher falls ill, Dez does some digging and comes up with some interesting facts about Cratcher's past.

Here is where I started to get skeptical...
- Cratcher apparently worked at Abbey Road Studios, the branch in the United States.
- While there he became friends with (and did a lot of drugs with) a co-worker who happened to be black.
- This guy was lynched in the studio, Cratcher was a prime suspect, but the sister (Gabby) of the guy vouched for Cratcher, Cratcher was released, Gabby and Cratcher moved across the country, he became a teacher, they lived a pretty normal life.
- Cratcher was a great lyricist who worked with some of the best artists of the time (sometimes under a pseudonym).
- Cratcher had letters and signed memorabilia from major artists of the time in his garage (including a kazoo I believe from Bob Dylan)
- Cratcher apparently wrote at least one line of Hallelujah, as evidenced by a thank you letter from Cohen.

And that's where the book lost me... literally. Was there an Abbey Road in the USA? (As far as I can tell... no) Did Cohen have a co-writer on Hallelujah? Nope. I scoured the internet, read articles about Cohen, read articles about the song... in fact... I actually just lost a solid 10 minutes of writing this post to go double check my research. I can't find anything that indicates that Cohen may have possibly had a co-writer on this song. That the line referenced in the book "A blaze of light in every word" came from anyone but Cohen (for an awesome deep dive into Hallelujah, check out this article from Rolling Stone) So why imply that it did? I can't even tell you how much this, part of the story line bothered me. It was a distraction to what is otherwise a really solid story. I get placing Cratcher into history, by making it clear that he was a brilliant writer and musician and that had things gone another way he would be someone that we talk about as one of the greats alongside Cohen and Dylan. I get placing him inside a studio that is familiar to the reader (although as far as I can tell, that particular studio didn't exist in the US), but why have him write part of a song that we all know? Having the song be important to him is good, even having him be a co-worker or friend to Cohen is fine, but to attribute the lyrics to him was frustrating to me because there was no basis in fact that I can find there. Like I said, it pulled me out of the book, made me skeptical of the whole thing, and distracted me from what is otherwise a phenomenal book.

So... where does this leave The Temptation of Adam? It's a phenomenal book. You should all go read it. Likely you won't be nearly as distracted as I was by some of the plot points. However, if you are, and you love to dig into research too, tell me what you find. I"m looked a lot of places, but there's always somewhere else to look!

Funny, emotional and profound- this story had it all, and I enjoyed every second of it.

This is one of those books that should be #AllTheFeels . Many will pick it up because of Adam's porn addiction and will keep reading to follow the antics of the Knights of Vice. Ultimately, every reader will be moved by this story of kids who, like the author, have struggled with trying to be good enough.

It was such a great book, I don't think a contemporary book has left me with this much emotion in a while. It's more than meets the eye, and worth picking up and binge reading.

I am unable to review this due to being mistaken on what the book was about and accidentally downloading it when I thought it was something else.

The Temptation of Adam by Dave Connis follows a boy named Adam who’s addicted to porn. He denies his addiction, but once it gets him into trouble at school, he’s forced to confront his actions by attending AA meetings.
When I read the synopsis of this book, I knew I wanted to read it. Imagine my excitement after finding it on NetGalley. Now, I did enjoy reading it, but it fell a little flat. I gave 3/5 stars.
The reason this book fell short had nothing to do with it being bad by any means. It just failed to grasp me the way it should have. I couldn’t connect with the characters or the story. I feel like this could’ve been improved if more was happening and more time was spent with the characters.
This book does contain swearing and brief discussions surrounding porn, sex, drugs, alcohol, and death, so keep that in mind before picking it up.
Despite the flaws I just mentioned, this book had its redeeming qualities. It was worth the read for me. I had a good time reading it. It was easy to read. I didn’t have to go back and reread any sections to understand it. And it discussed topics that aren’t normally seen in YA.
I would recommend this book to fans of JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and fans of John Green’s Looking for Alaska.

Special thanks to NetGalley for sending this book my way.

I really enjoyed this book. This is a serious issue today and I feel like the author handled everything extremely well!

3.5 stars

Adam Hawthorne has a porn addiction, and things aren't so hot for him right now. His dad is more absorbed in getting his mom back than he is taking care of his son and his sister abandoned him to live with his mom in LA.
Someone discovers his addiction, and he's forced to join the Knights of Vice support group, and the people there start to slip through his defenses, especially one girl who's beginning to unravel him. 

Now Adam has to face the causes and effects of his addiction, before he loses his new friends, his prodigal sister, and his almost semi-sort-of girlfriend.

Although this book is on the lower end of 200-something pages, it felt a lot longer. This wasn't necessarily a good or bad thing because there were parts I did and didn't like.

The Temptation of Adam is a novel about addiction and finding yourself--what are you? You read about the journey of the protagonist Adam.

I think there were a lot of valuable messages in this book and it made me think a lot about what defines me and who we are. I don't think I'll stop thinking about this for a few days, and I liked how this had a meaningful impact on me.

But the plot just felt kind of chaotic to me at times. In retrospect, it seemed structured very much like a contemporary, but as I read it, it kind of felt all over the place because sometimes he was happy and other times he itched to watch porn and other times he was something else. With this, the pacing jumped from slower at times to almost frantic at others.

It was kind of a maintained mess, and I can definitely see how it added to the narrative of Adam's struggles, but it made me stressed at times as I read it.

The characters were a diverse set of people with multiple types of struggles. The female main character is Dez, and she's addicted to addiction and cycles though different things every so often.

Both Adam and his love interest Dez were developed well into complex characters, but I did feel like some of the other Knights of Vice and characters could have been developed further. Most of them affected Adam's dynamic and his character growth greatly throughout the novel, but I felt like we could have learned more about their own struggles as they don't seem to struggle as much as some of the other people did.

I did enjoy reading this book in the times when I wasn't stressed--there were cute quirks to the narrative like how Adam made mental equations about life.

I definitely think some people will really love this book as it is a realistic display of addiction. Although I had a hard time relating to it, I think it could have a very profound effect on other people.

The links will go live on the 19th of November!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.
This review is going to be a personal one so just a little forewarning.

That homeless feeling that’s been plaguing me starts bubbling in my stomach, and it’s stronger than ever. It’s so strong and overwhelming that I finally think I know what it is. It’s the feeling something’s innately wrong with me. That the deep parts of me aren’t okay. It’s like a tornado of blood, hurt, and nerve is raging in my body, and if I keep it inside, it will tear me apart.


The Temptation of Adam tells the story of a teenager, Adam, who is addicted to porn. Adam is suspended from school and in order to come back, he must spend his morning with Mr. Cratcher, joining the Knights of Vice, and attending AA meetings. But not everyone knows the whole story, hell, even Adam seems to have a few pieces of the puzzle missing.
With the help of his sister, Mr Cratcher, and the friends he makes along the way, Adam comes to find the best way to beat addiction and answer the biggest question in life, “What am I?”.

Addiction
“We’re all volcanoes and we wander around engulfing each other in our disaster.”
Addiction runs in my family. So much so that if there’s something to be addicted to, someone in my family has probably been addicted to it and I have been addicted to my fair share of vices.
It’s a sobering thought labeling them for what they are though. We’re taught to avoid that word. It’s not an addiction until your life has turned to shit and no one can tolerate you anymore. But it starts way before then.
My new addiction is far less dangerous and self destructive, it’s books.
This is one of the ‘good’ addictions, the relatively socially acceptable addictions.
See my theory is that we’re all addicted to something. Some are just addicted to more than others, and some are just addicted to more harmful things than the rest of us.
Whether you're addicted to porn, medications, getting promoted at work, a T.V. show, the chocolate you sneak from the pantry, seeking the next high, we’re all addicted to something. However those addictions do not define us.
Not only does this book tackle addiction well, it touches on race and gender politics, in my eyes, did a good job of it. It didn’t go in deeper than it could handle, after all, the author is a white male, but it didn’t pretend like these aren’t issues in today’s world either. It was aware enough without crossing the line into being offensive, however, as a white woman I can only truly speak on the gender issues. So if you feel I’m wrong please do correct me.
“White people always ‘just figure’, and it needs to stop.”

The Characters
Adam
Everything’s an incredible heaviness.
Adam is addicted to porn. While he’s facing suspension, possible expulsion, Adam is curating a playlist of videos to watch as soon as he’s in the privacy of his room. It’s now gotten him into trouble. Through music, and the Knights of Vice group that adopts Adam into their group of recovering addicts, he not only comes to terms with his situation, but also discovers how to overcome it.
Adam’s intelligent, if a bit insensitive and clueless at times. He’s completely shut down, having built a strong wall around himself, but people sneak through the cracks that are beginning to reveal themselves and before he knows it, he has a group of friends, a support network.
I enjoyed reading about Adam, I thought he was intelligent but deeply flawed. Although he thinks logically, his view on life has twisted that logic, proving that even intelligent people can get things so very wrong.

Addy
What she does might not seem like much to anyone watching, but, to me, it’s everything.
She loves.
Addy is Adam’s sister. She’s come back after living with The Woman for the last few years. She know’s her little brother needs her but she has no idea just how bad things have gotten for Adam.
I loved Addy, she’s so sweet and just as switched on as her brother. Where Adam has shut off to the world, Addy lets people in, she has kindness for everyone. There’s a strength in that which a lot of the time gets looked past or seen as a weakness.

Dez
“You are made of broken and holy blazes of light.”
The phone’s silent for a few seconds. Have I scared her? Should I take it back? How do you take back a comment about being made of blazes of light? You are pure darkness? You are smoky tendrils of evil?
“Finally,” she eventually says. “I didn’t think anyone would ever notice.”
Dez is very much set up to be the Manic Pixie Dream Girl™, and the book makes jokes about this quite often. However the difference between Dez and the Manic Pixies we’ve been given so much of in the past, is that Dez has substance. We’re shown her reasons for trying desperately to be different, we’re given tastes of what goes on in her head, how the clogs move. Most importantly, Dez isn’t used as a vehicle for Adam to find his way and become a better person. They walk side by side in their fight for addiction, without the Hero™ getting to the end whole and relatively unscathed, while the Manic Pixie Dream Girl™ is forgotten, or turned into an example of what not to do, how not to survive. Dez develops and is her own person. She has a fucking character arc.
Female characters are allowed to be whimsical and eccentric, they’re allowed to be contradictions and damaged without being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl™, authors just need to make sure they make them into actual fucking people who develop and grow and exist outside of how fuckable they are, for the guy to see them as human beings and not things on a pedestal for them to work towards to attain.

Mr Cratcher
“There is always a variable we cannot account for.”
Mr Cratcher plays the old of the wise old man and thankfully he is actually wise, even if a lot of the points he makes get lost in the mounds of philosophical dribble he gives out like the cheap sweets your grandma always has in the bottom of her purse. He’s lived a long and full life and is happy to be able to pass on what wisdom he has to those who have their whole lives ahead of them to use it. Not only that, he’s not just the sharp mentor, he’s also a person. He has a backstory and a life before these teenagers. Connis makes every single one of his characters extraordinarily human and that is what makes this book work. You could have had all the same lessons but lacked the substance behind each character and I would have rated this book 1 star, maybe 2 if I was feeling generous. The humanity in this book is what makes it brilliant and moving.

The Relationships
“Welcome to the unnecessarily large mansion where nothing’s ever good enough. I’ll buzz you in.”
The speaker clicks off. While the gate slides behind the river rock wall, my dad looks at me. “You two are literally made for each other.”
Honestly there were a lot of relationships I loved in this story. It was filled with sharp characters that never failed to make me laugh with their dialogue, and exchanges with each other.
“I, Adam Hawthorne, have discovered that boobs look like books, and that our culture thinks women are disposable sex toys.”
“I, Adam Hawthorne,” Elliot says, ‘have discovered that men are supposed to last longer than one minute.”
Trey opens his mouth, but I cut him off. “I, Adam Hawthorne, have discovered that all my friends are dicks.”

Addy grabs her shake and then settles into the booth. Her eyes are focused on me. Her ears, all mine. The look on her face is one that says, “I’ve missed your heart”.
The Temptation of Adam also succeeded in portraying deeper interactions with people.
Adam and Addy have an incredible relationship, they love each other but there’s a lot of hurt there, too, which is part and parcel of family dynamics. This isn’t often depicted well, if at all, in contemporary novels, especailly with siblings.
It’s the same case with Adam and his father. You can see, painstakingly, how much they love each other but have reached a point where they no longer know how to show it or even how to interact.
The relationship between Adam and Dez is complicated. We’re given two addicts fighting their addictions at the same time as fighting to hold on to each other. They have an undeniable chemistry but society has taught them that it’s destined to fail. All addicts are good for is consuming. This mindset bleeds into his relationship with his friends Trey and Elliot as well.
“How can I help you stop?” I ask her, pointing at the flask. The question surprises both of us.
“Give me something else to hold.

“There’s no more running, Adam. You will face yourself.”
The Temptation of Adam hit me extremely close to home. It had a deep affect on me throughout the whole story and will continue to do so for years to come.
To me, this is how you do a YA contemporary that tackles philosophical questions correctly. This is how you write women in this genre. This is how you tackle a sensitive subject and come out the otherside realistically hopeful.
The Temptation of Adam hit something inside of me, at my core. It vibrated all through my body, shifted everything slightly, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get back to the version of myself I was before this book. And I don’t think I want to.

I need these guys, and they need me. A person’s hurt can’t be divvied up, but it can be experienced together, and maybe that’s what I need to survive.

Coming of age. And the subject of this book has never been really tackled. It's a good mosy especially for teens.

I appreciate the fact that the author attempted to write a story surrounding the topic of addiction particularly porn addiction. This is not a topic that I have seen done in the YA world and I was interested to see what direction the author would take it in. I would like to see this topic and other difficult topics like it written about in Young Adult books because it is something that some of them struggle with. It felt like the author beat around the bush with the topic at hand which was addiction to porn. I think that is why this book just didn't work for me. Addiction isn't something that you can pussy foot around and expect readers to take something away from it. I'm not saying that I wanted descriptions of what Adam was watching in detail but it would have been nice if the author would have went deeper other than feeling guilty that it happened again.
I wish that I would have been able to feel the struggle within Adam more so throughout the story. He was a bit of a meh character for me. He seemed to be in denial about a lot of things for the majority of the book. I also didn't like the relationship between him and Dez. I felt that it was toxic for him and I wanted him to kick her to the curb. The only character that I can say that I liked was Mr. Cratcher. He was caring and straightforward about his own flaws. He genuinely wanted to help others especially Adam.
I wanted the story to focus on Adam and what he was going through but it focused quite a bit on the backstory of Cratcher as well as other characters and their issues (Dez). I liked Cratcher but the book was supposed to be about Adam and I wasn't sure why the author took that direction. It didn't seem like anything was really resolved with the characters in the end with the exception of Cratcher. It felt like the author was forcing conclusions for each of them in such a way that it didn't feel realistic but rather rushed instead. I think the book was trying too hard to be different by adding certain elements like Adam's formulas and the pixie manic dream girl crap (Dez). I know that I have been beating the author up about her but she annoyed me with her "I'm so unique" and "I don't really have ONE problem like the rest of you".

Trigger warning: destructive behavior mentions including alcoholism and self harm; also, I talk about the main character’s comments about such behavior in the course of the story in this review.

I want to preface my review of The Temptation of Adam by saying that it’s a difficult subject to tackle. Addiction is a deeply personal and variable subject, so I tried to comment on the portrayal within this book and my opinion of that portrayal respectfully. If I have inadvertently offended anyone, I most humbly apologize.

I can’t remember reading many books that deal with addiction any kind. Growing up, I think the closest ones were some Ellen Hopkins or Go Ask Alice types. Fine enough in their own right, but limited. Seeing The Temptation of Adam as a relevant title to this age of consumption, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at what Dave Connis’s portrayal would be.

His portrayal of addiction, at least from my experience, had authenticity. The denial of a problem, the rejection of fault, can definitely be felt within Adam’s situation. It was a hard read sometimes because even knowing Adam had an addiction and we’re viewing the people around him through his scope, and even though I really didn’t like Adam as a person addiction or no, it was at times easy to side with him. That maybe he was being put upon by Mr. Cratcher or his dad. That balance in the writing was a shock at times when I realized what was taking place.

There were a few things that I had issues with that made this a difficult book to like, aside from the subject matter. Two of these are Adam’s indelicacy and his personal relationship with Dez.

When first meeting the Knights of Vice, Mr. Cratcher’s support group, he makes callous and inaccurate remarks about one of the members, Elliot’s, addiction to self harm, which “he saw coming with the hair”. He also calls it strange that Elliot cuts “because guys don’t cut”. I want to believe that Adam was uninformed about the subject and the author chose to portray that, albeit poorly in my opinion, but nonetheless, that passage struck me as one to look out for because it felt wrong. It didn’t feel like part of his defense of not having an addiction, his opinion that he was better than everyone there because he had his porn consumption under control. It felt extra and bad.

The relationship aspect between Adam and Dez in this book felt weird for a couple of reasons. First of which is that Adam (and I’m only mentioning him because he’s our primary window into the story) shouldn’t be focusing on that kind of thing right now when dealing with his addiction, especially a porn addiction.

Second, his choice of girlfriend. Dez is a somewhat interesting character: bold, unafraid of speaking her mind and confront Adam on his suppositions and what she calls his delusions of gender, but she’s in treatment too. Two addicts forming a relationship, an intense romantic one at that, when they’re supposed to be figuring out their own core, was more than a little troubling.

I also wasn’t comfortable with Adam’s sudden turn around and motivation for realizing he has a problem and wanting to quit his pornography addiction. It’s somewhat spoilery so I’ll just say that it felt inauthentic to the character in general and as a whole flat. I’m not saying that in real life it’s 100% impossible, but as it happened in Adam’s situation, it wasn’t believable with who Adam was as a person, so it made his journey toward redemption weak.

There was a lot of intense stuff going on in this book for a lot of people. Adam wasn’t the only one dealing with an addiction that we got to know, just the one we spent the most time seeing through. As such, I would have liked to see a better story for him. As it was, I don’t think the way his was told really worked. There were issues with his character and with his journey and there was so much potential, so much room for growth, that the climax, falling action, and “resolution” was unfulfilling.

I am reviewing The Temptation of Adam by Dave Connis. I received a free digital copy of it from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes that may appear below are from the text and are not my words.

We all have vices. It is part of being human. Anyone that claims to not have a vice of some form is a liar or is completely delusional. This book takes a good look at vices and how they can control people. Some vices even destroy your life. In Adam's case, they can get you thrown out of school and forced into therapy.

I am rating this book Three Stars because I could not relate to the main character and that was a serious problem for me. I wish that I could give it a higher rating but I just could not truly connect with it. I am not saying that I don't have vices. I drink more coffee than most people can even fathom. I read more books in a year than many would read in their lifetime. I may reread this book at a later time. I am intrigued as to what the author will write next. He definitely has potential.


InkedBookDragon

I want to thank NetGalley and Sky Pony Press for providing me with this copy in exchange for an honest review

This is a book that touches on the subject of addictions as a main theme and undoubtedly we need this in more YA books.

3/5 Stars

You can find this one and more of my reviews on my blog A Book. A Thought.

This book follows Adam, his mother has left recently, his sister went with her and he has stayed with his father who has fallen into a deep depression, which prevents them from having a healthy father-son relationship. With all this going on in his life, Adam decides to take refuge in his pornography list, until a family friend teacher discovers his addiction and decides to help him by sending him to a support group to overcome his situation, and although Adam decides to attend, almost force to, he will not be ready to face the seriousness of the situation


I think that the addictions issue, as I said at the beginning, is not a topic that is touched abitually in YA, and I find this as something positive, I think it should be more touched in books, in order to provide readers with more information about it. It was very interesting to know about this topic, in the book we not only follow Adam's addiction to pornography, but we will also meet other characters with other types of additions. I don't have much knowledge about addictions, but from my perspective I think it has been touched in a very respectable way and be able to see the states that Adam goes through and how this affects his life and his relationship with others was really something that I loved about this book


On the other hand, I haven't felt connected with the characters as I would have liked, I feel that some of them, especially Dez, have selfish behaviors. I can understand from the addictions side, how this can change people's personalities and all that, but even so, I would have wanted a different female character, someone more reasonable or empathetic, I don't know, I just couldn't connect with her


I liked Adam a lot, I appreciate the growth of the character during the book and in the end it really seemed to be someone else and that made me understand his actions and behavior at the beginning. So I would say he's a good main character, I even think that the readers can get to feel very identified with him and even so, surely you'll not like him at some point in the book but I suppose that this is the idea, since this whole book is about Adam's mistakes and how he get to overcome them or not


The romantic aspects were too forced for me, if there hadn't be a romace at all, then it would be a thousand times better, I mean, I understand the idea of love and how this helps in Adam's recovery, but I don't think this is the kind of love that he really needed, besides there is no possibility that Dez is THAT perfect, she's literally described as the most beautiful girl of the known universe lol, that is a bit too much for me.I lean more for the family dynamics and how this kind of love and support in the end can change someone, you know? , but it's only my point of view, of course, I think you might like the romantic aspects of the book, because although I didn't like it I think it has pretty fun moments and that's nice


The writing style is great, especially in the first half of the book, you just fly through it, it's very easy to read, besides the book is quite short so it would be a great read to take into account in some read-a -thon or something like that.


Although I have had some problems with it, I feel it's a book with a very powerful and positive message, it's about highlighting honesty, the importance of communication and the support of those who go through the same thing as you. I think that despite touching a delicate topic, it's a very positive reading and I recommend it if you're interested in the addictions topics, it will surely be very interesting for you

Blog review will be available from the 7th!

Adam is a teen boy who has become addicted to porn in response to his parents' nasty divorce and subsequent abandonment by each of them (physically in the case of his mother and emotionally in the case of his father). Then Adam gets suspended from school for 80 days. This part I didn't get. The number of days was really odd and when the reason is finally revealed I really didn't think it was worthy of the suspension. Maybe my expectations for today's teens are too low? But, all this brings him together with his former chemistry teacher and the Knights of Vice and Dez, beautiful mixed up Dez. Mr. Connis' writing is pretty much spot on with the somewhat immature and self-centered look at the world one would expect from a young adult protagonist; however, I felt the characters were all a bit too polished as though he had a check list of what should be covered by the different personalities. But little things like how Adam analyzes problems in the form of mathematical equations do add to the story. Despite that and despite any preconceived ideas about where the story might go, The Temptation of Adam is enjoyable and engaging.

Thank you to NetGalley and Skyhorse Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

While Adam isn't addicted to drugs (he prefers porn to numb his mind), some of the peers in his Knights of Vice and AA meetings are. I'm having a hard time trying to properly review this book because the material hits so close to home. Addiction sucks. Loving an addict sucks. It's painful and hurtful and scary to watch someone you love so much slowly killing themselves. Soon after I got to the part when they received the phone call every friend and loved one of an addict dreads, I also got a phone call. My loved one got lucky. This time. But the entire time we were at the hospital this person kept acting like we were stupid to come. That they were okay. They just made a mistake and bought from the wrong person. They'll be more careful. All I can think to myself is, why don't you hear yourself right now? You'll be more careful? Why don't you understand that I need you. I wish he knew how strong the is. I wish he knew he could beat this. I wish he would try.

The way they come together in the end and realize they are not just their addictions made me cry.

I think the initial appeal of this book was to read an addiction story that I haven't seen in YA. Adam is addicted to porn and at the first of the book he is in trouble at school but you don't find out for what until halfway through the story. Part of his punishment involves spending time with a neighbor, helping Mr. Cratcher complete a record album, weird rehabilitation but whatever. Mr. Cratcher also runs an addiction group called the Knights of Vice that Adam is required to attend and he meets other members battling different addictions including a girl named Dez. Of course there's a love connection between between Adam and Dez which I find troubling when Adam should be focused on treatment and recovery not love interests. Adam also has a troubled relationship with his family that should be his focus. There's a weird road trip with the members of Knights of Vice supervised by Adams' sister because someone with no experience in counseling should be in charge of an addiction group. Adams' porn addiction isn't addressed ever in full with what he needs to do to battle his addiction and the steps to recovery. The entire story is disappointing.

‘We cannot be whole on earth, but we can be variables of broken and holy light. We might no be able to love wholly, but we can love truly if we face our pain together.’

The Temptation of Adam is a Young Adult novel that deals with the dark sides of addiction, the wreckage it leaves behind, and the pain it inflicts – both on the addicts and the people who care about them.

Sixteen-year-old Adam has been suspended from school – for an offense that is only revealed later in the book, but one can assume that it is related to his addiction: porn. Since his mother has left, Adam spends hours on end organizing playlists and watching porn videos. He is a brilliant boy, but he is somewhat lacking on the emotional side. He likes to philosophize about life in mathematical equations that are sometimes cynical, sometimes condescending. Although he is not ready to admit to his problem, he has to attend a self-help group of other addicts and go to regular meetings. This is a condition set up by his teacher, Mr. Cratcher, who saves him from being kicked out of school. Mr. Cratcher genuinely wants to help Adam and asks him to help him produce a music album he never finished when he was younger. First, Adam is not happy with this arrangement, but then he meets this girl, Dez, who claims to be addicted to addiction itself. He also befriends other addicts of Mr. Cratcher’s self-help group, who call themselves the Knights of Vice, and he tries to improve his relationship with his father and sister. He slowly seems to be making progress when Mr. Cratcher is hospitalized, and the Knights of Vice take it upon themselves to travel across the country to finish the album and to overcome their demons. But is it really a good idea to throw yourself into an adventure with others who are equally troubled? Can they truly learn to love, or will they end up consuming and destroying each other?

I have somewhat mixed feeling about this book. While the language is often poetic and poignant, you can’t help but feel that the author just tries too hard sometimes. They way these young people speak and think is as distant from real life as Jupiter is from the sun. This vast divide cannot even be bridged by a seemingly fun road trip. I would have expected less talk and more action. Some passages didn’t make lots of sense to me and just seemed to be an intellectual exercise. ‘If manliness stays static, it gets buried in the dust of progressive humanity.’ Other passages were overloaded with pathos: ‘”…I want it to be true when we say it. If we want to survive, our love can’t be a shadow. It’s got to be a blaze. I need to know addicts can blaze.” “I know they can. If there’s anything I’ve learned in the last few months, it’s that there’s a blaze of light in everyone.”‘ This all sounds beautiful, but it somehow didn’t resonate with me. I can’t get rid of the feeling that this is a book talking about addiction and not a book about being addicted.

What I did like, however, is the fact that the characters are not epitomes of their condition, but still more or less complex beings. Alright, you get Holden Caulfield 2.0 and the manic pixie dream girl, but in the end, all the characters develop in a plausible way. I also liked that love, friends, and family are portrayed as strong motors of change in a person’s life, but that they cannot be the single reason to cause it. Adam has to learn that the hard way. It’s a lot about being true to yourself and coming into your own. ‘Once you know what you are, you are no longer a human who struggles with addiction, but a human who struggles with being human.’

In short, The Temptation of Adam is great if you are interested in the impact of addiction, and if you can handle lots of theorizing about this issue.

(Thanks to Netgalley and Skyhorse Publishing for this free ARC.)

Hmmmmmm . . . . I'm pretty torn on this one. So let's look at it from a pro and con perspective:

Pro: Connis does an exceptional job with his approach to addiction. Although addiction isn't really anything new in YA literature, I appreciated that the author explored a whole spectrum of addictions rather than focusing solely on drugs and alcohol. Additionally, I enjoyed the author's examination of the psychology behind addiction. It's so easy to discount addictions like sex or porn, but through Connis's narrative we discover that these are just as debilitating and it's necessary to look at the root of where these addictive behaviors stem from and not just the addiction itself.

Pro: Adam. I liked Adam. A lot. I think a lot of readers will be able to relate to Adam making this a worthwhile addition to YA shelves.

Cons: I completely understand that this is a galley copy and errors are par for the course. But there were A LOT of errors. Words in wrong places / misspelled words / words repeated. I know, when reviewing, we're supposed to do our best to overlook them. But when there are so many that it starts to disrupt the flow of the narrative …. Well…. C’mon!

Con: Dez. I’m sorry but I just couldn’t. She epitomizes the whole manic pixie dream girl trope and while, yes, the author pokes fun and blatantly labels her as one – it doesn’t change the fact that she was, probably, my least favorite character and really the one thing that brought the whole book down. She was obnoxious and unlikable and all of these things made it difficult to find any speck of empathy for her. I couldn’t wrap my head around what Adam saw in her, except for the fact that she was “hot” (as we are continuously reminded over … and over … and over …. You get the picture).

So there you have it. A short list of pros and cons. Ultimately, while this has debut written all over it, it's also a work with a lot of potential. I think the things that could easily make this a stand-out novel are fixable and I admire what the author was able to do with a subject matter that is pretty prominent in the YA universe. It will be interesting to see what Connis has in store for us in the future.