Love is the Drug

By: Alaya Dawn Johnson

Narrated by: Simone Missick

From the author of The Summer Prince, a novel that's John Grisham's The Pelican Brief meets Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain set at an elite Washington D.C. prep school.

Emily Bird was raised not to ask questions. She has perfect hair, the perfect boyfriend, and a perfect Ivy-League future. But a chance meeting with Roosevelt David, a homeland security agent, at a party for Washington DC's elite leads to Bird waking up in a hospital, days later, with no memory of the end of the night.

Meanwhile, the world has fallen apart: A deadly flu virus is sweeping the nation, forcing quarantines, curfews, even martial law. And Roosevelt is certain that Bird knows something. Something about the virus--something about her parents' top secret scientific work--something she shouldn't know.

The only one Bird can trust is Coffee, a quiet, outsider genius who deals drugs to their classmates and is a firm believer in conspiracy theories. And he believes in Bird. But as Bird and Coffee dig deeper into what really happened that night, Bird finds that she might know more than she remembers. And what she knows could unleash the biggest government scandal in US history.

©2014 © 2014 by Alaya Dawn Johnson (P)2014 Scholastic Inc.

Not my favorite, couldn't get through it

I'm the kinda gal who loves "doomer fiction" and this plot was right up my alley! I was very much looking forward to the book. Too bad the execution is a dud. First of all, the narrator is very quiet and monotone and slow -- it almost sounds as if she's reading a relaxing good night story to a toddler. I usually can do well with most narrators, but I found myself daydreaming and drifting away from her voice, continuously having to rewind and play again -- which I almost never do with other books. Also, the story itself is slow. It reads almost as if Emily is drugged through the whole entire thing. It's foggy and slow paced with a lot of descriptive words. It reads almost like poetry, which would be beautiful with the right story, but feels completely out of place here. This apocalyptic plot with danger and mystery should be fast-paced, exciting, full of tension and apprehension, but instead it feels sleepy and tranquil. In the first hour or so of the book, there's virtually no information about the virus itself, or how it has affected the world, or how life has changed. These upper class teenagers just go through the motions of their day, talking about weddings and jewelry and tampons in a very shallow, superficial way. It's all just kind of strange, and I just had no interest in finishing it. Bummer. I'm going to return it for my credit back...