'TRIPPING BACK BLUE' - Kara Storti

I received this book from Walker Books Publishing in exchange for an honest review. The synopsis didn't intrigue me too much, but I'm always open to reading something different; plus the cover is gorgeous! So I decided to pick the book up on Friday and ended up finishing it in less than two days.

Finn is a 17-year-old full of paradoxes. He's a drug dealer, but he's scoring money to send his twin sister to Harvard. He's desperate to shoot up even though he's the most popular kid in Dammertown. He's a philosopher and orator who's failing all his classes. The only time he finds peace is when he's bird-watching. Finn's life begins to spiral out of control, until he discovers a miracle drug called indigo. Finn is convinced that the drug is the way out of everything broken in his life. But is it really as magical as it seems?

CHARACTERS: I personally loved the main character, Finn. He is going through such a hard time in the novel; he is a drug dealer and taker, his sister has mental health problems, as does his mum, and he probably does too. However, this doesn't get in the way of Finn trying to be the hero for his family. Even if the way he goes about things isn't the best way (selling drugs to get money to look after his sister), he has nothing but good intentions. I loved reading about Finn's character, and this would have to be my favourite aspect of the novel.

Finn's relationships with the other characters also added to the story line. It is obvious that he loves his sister, Faith, and would do anything to look after her and ensure that she can go to Harvard. However, Faith didn't ask for his help and doesn't agree with the way that he's going about it. This definitely puts a strain on their relationship and causes a lot of ups and downs.

There was also Finn's relationship with Orah; and elderly woman who he found taking drugs in a cemetery one night (weird... I know). I didn't fully understand this relationship; even after reading a whole lot of reviews on Goodreads, I still couldn't make sense of it. From what I understand, Orah lost her husband and daughter within a small time span, and resulted to drugs.

STORY LINE / PLOT: I wasn't totally impressed with the storyline, but it's probably because this isn't really my type of this. I loved how Storti expressed and talked about some serious issues; such as drug abuse and mental health. However, the plot itself I didn't love. I found myself quite confused at times and thought that the story was going a bit slow. This caused me to scan the rest of the book as I was getting a bit bored, which unfortunately lead to me not understanding the rest. This is my own fault as I have a short attention span - but it was a bit of a disappointment to not enjoy what can be the most important part of the book. 

ENDING: The ending was quite emotional and sad; despite being dissapointed with the overall story line the ending almost made up for that. However, I found the ending quite abrupt considering I found the rest of the story slow and dragged out. It finished maybe too soon and almost rushed, and I felt that there were many story lines left unresolved. Although I did enjoy the ending over the overall story line, I felt it could have been a lot better.

RATING: Overall, I decided to give this book 3.4 stars out of 5. The cover is beautiful (just thought I'd add that) and I loved Finn's character and how he related to other minor characters throughout the book. I also found the emotion that the ending brought quite an effective way to end such a dark novel. However, what brought the overall rating down is the main story line and plot, which I didn't really love. This is just my personal opinion and perhaps this book just isn't for me.

I would recommend this book to readers of dark fiction/YA, or maybe even teenage boys. It does send a strong message across and talk about some issues that aren't talked about seriously enough in YA.


I'll be doing a video review over on my YouTube channel soon so be sure to keep you eyes out for that.

Check the book out on;
Goodreads; https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26393355-tripping-back-blue?ac=1&from_search=true

Dymocks; https://www.dymocks.com.au/book/tripping-back-blue-9781512403084/#.V0k_ifl97IU

Amazon; http://www.amazon.com/Tripping-Back-Blue-Fiction-Young/dp/1512403083/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464418194&sr=1-1&keywords=tripping+back+blue



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