Sharp Edges

Addiction is personified in this debut novel by J. Kirsch tackling the tough stuff-family skeletons, tragedies, mental health, drug use, and first loves. On a rainy, mid-July night, Marie moves her seventeen-year-old son, Michael Sinclair, to the inner-city ROY G BIV, away from the perfect Golden Suburbs of Richland, Ohio. Mike'll be the first to tell you his family is far from perfect-the Sinclair Family Levee constantly teetering on the verge of collapse. The oldest Sinclair sibling, Maddy, gained the reputation as the suburban heroin addict, her actions paving the way for Mike to become friendless and bullied by his peers, his other sister, Charlie, and their father, Leon. As he sits on the porch stairs with a sketchpad on his knees, the guy across Indigo Street changes Mike's entire view of the ROY G BIV and its cracked sidewalks, racist graffiti and cannabis air.Outlandish Jesse Harris, nineteen, has a reputation of his own. A punk raised in the ROY G BIV, he made friends with the middle-aged men drinking cheap American beer and shared his joint with the girl next door colored black and blue by her father's hand. This was home and gunshots never fazed him. While Maddy was the suburban junkie, Jesse's older brother, Daryl, was the infamous local meth supplier.Despite their curiosity, Mike and Jesse don't approach each other until tragedy has Mike running towards the gunshots, which leave Jesse wounded and bleeding on his porch. Destiny binds them into further catastrophes, deaths, misery, beanfield stargazing, and an electrifying love even I, Addiction, cannot stop. However, I am never without an itinerary, and my whispering, slick doctrines stalk Mike at every turn, decision, and joyous moment. Jesse and I become a fever Mike won't want to break, our heat unleashing qualities in himself he never knew existed. Akin to most illnesses, the side effects are harmful, and it won't be up to us to dictate how long he'll stay ill.He'll welcome it.He'll die for it.He'll die for us.