Special thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing and Simon and Schuster Young Adult Publishing for the ARC of this book in exchange for my own opinion.

Ugh I hated reading this book because I am one of those kids who were put on Oxycontin as a 20 year old , iI am now 50 and still struggling. I was put on an unheard amount of oxycontin.. Doctors today will not and cannot put patients on the amount i was on. I would say I applaud Neal Scusterman, but as I've seen in his comments he has experience with Adderall and not with Oxycodone, I am not sure he should write about it and not experience what its really like, especially for someone like me that was pushed on it for back problems., Oxycodone, Oxycontin or Roxy's as they are called on the street, are not party drugs. . I wish he new the real dangers of how it can destroy your life as it did mine. But maybe if this book was written 30 years ago, would I even pay attention to it???. I'm not sure.

I will not give a good rating to this book. Because I don't think anyone could write about opiates having never experienced the real things that happen, such as doctor shopping, going to heroin, how the drugs (even prescribed) ruin your teeth, the withdrawals which lead to anxiety, depression and in some cases suicide because some people don't have the means for help. I know adderall is also addictive but I can't speak for that drug, just as I think Neal Scusterman can speak for oxycodone. If his reason is to warn kids against drugs, I didn't get that, but to be fair, I stopped reading it because I'm angry what this drug has done to my life.

I'm not sure that I like what this book is about. It doesn't scare young adults enough I don't think. I think if he made it more scary, I would've gave it a shot., instead of the world being a party or rage!

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!

Roxy is a unique take on a story about the ever relevant opioid crisis. Isaac and Ivy are both in need of drug related help for different reasons: Isaac for pain management, and Ivy for ADHD. In the world of Roxy, they become the unfortunate subjects of a bet between Roxy (Oxycontin for Isaac) and Addison (Adderall for Ivy) to see who can cause the downfall of their person first (by bringing them to "The Party").

Wow, Roxy is a heavy and powerful book. The topics covered in this book could easily become very after-school special, but the authors created a very original story that still gets the message across. Having Roxy and Addison as actual beings, digging deep their characters, and showing their paths of destruction in the lives of Isaac and Ivy made this book hard to put down. My one worry going into this book is that the plot would glamorize or mishandle the topic of drug addiction, but that is not the case; it is clear that a lot of thought and care went into this book. Roxy is a fascinating and heavy story that will stick with the reader afterwards; I would recommend it but also note to the reader to be prepared for the difficult subject matter. 4.5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing; this is my honest and voluntary review.