Recovery Road

Recovery Road is a teenage novel by author Blake Nelson.^[1] The book is centered on a teenager Maddie Graham at the rehab center Spring Meadows and how she overcomes her addiction to alcohol and drugs. The book shows how Maddie transforms herself from a drug obsessed and beer addicted teen to a mature young woman who ends up going to University and turning into an English professor and settling down into a normal life.

Recovery Road is currently in production as a TV drama on ABC Family.

Plot summary

Madeline ( or Maddie) Graham is starting junior year in rehab. She hates the losers surrounding her all except fellow rehab friend, Trish. Soon the two are escaping the halfway house every Tuesday to go to the movies with other recovering addicts. It is here that Madeline meets Stewart, another recovering addict, and the two teens are immediately drawn together. What follows is a story about being in love while trying to survive sobriety. Eventually, the two are released from rehab and must return to their previous lives; for Madeline that means returning to school and her old friends and routines. Her struggle to stay sober and find a new path is realistic and the strength of the story. Her relationship with Stewart, on the other hand, has the expected narrative ups and downs. When a tragedy strikes, Madeline is left to figure out what she really wants from life and how Stewart fits into her plans. Soon, Maddie discovers that she has lost so much in life because of drugs and she begins to take school more seriously. She graduates with a 3.8 GPA, a 30 on the ACT's, and gets into the University of Massachusetts where she studies English and Literature. Meanwhile, she and Stewart break up and he begins to date a girl named Kirsten. Maddie can't forget him but still decides to move on with her life and begins to date other boys including a smart and handsome young man named Simon who she begins to like more and more. Then two years after she saw Stewart last, she finds him on the streets as a filthy junkie. She tries to help him but he runs away, swearing at her and telling her to leave him alone. Finally, Maddie decides to forget Stewart for one and all and goes back to U MASS. Simon and Maddie continue their relationship hinting that they might even have married but Maddie still keeps Stewart, her old Stewart, inside her heart and waits for him to come back to her.

Awards

• YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults 2011
• YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers 2011^[2]

References