Laurel Daneau has moved on to a new life, in a new town, but inside she's still reeling from the loss of her beloved mother and grandmother after Hurricane Katrina washed away their home. Laurel's new life is going well, with a new best friend, a place on the cheerleading squad and T-Boom, co-captain of the basketball team, for a boyfriend. Yet Laurel is haunted by voices and memories from her past.
When T-Boom introduces Laurel to meth, she immediately falls under its spell, loving the way it erases, even if only briefly, her past. But as she becomes alienated from her friends and family, she becomes a shell of her former self, and longs to be whole again. With help from an artist named Moses and her friend Kaylee, she's able to begin to rewrite her story and start to move on from her addiction.
Incorporating Laurel's bittersweet memories of life before and during the hurricane, this is a stunning novel by one of our finest writers. Jacqueline Woodson's haunting - but ultimately hopeful - story is beautifully told and one readers will not want to miss.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Beautifully Written, but Wanted More
By Alyssa Marie
I liked this book. It was a quick read, and I loved how the writing style reflects Laurel's state of mind. Laurel's story is told in brief, halting flashes, jumping from past to present. I really felt like it was written in moments between her highs -- small moments of lucidity when she wasn't feeling the effects of meth. And then, there was a dreamy, almost ethereal quality to the language, which made the narrative seem like Laurel was in-between states. Not quite high, not quite grounded in reality. I thought it was perfect for a journal of a girl who is trying to break her addiction and start a new life.The story Laurel tells is heart-breaking, and I love how Woodson is able to bring together recent events to tell a story that some teenagers can really relate to. Beneath a Meth Moon tackles the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina and paints a small picture of the suffering and devastation that followed the event. It also goes into the widespread use of meth among teenagers, and how their lives are ruined by their addiction. And despite these horrific and depressing events, she turns it into a hopeful message. Life goes on. We are able to go on with it by just putting one foot in front of the other and getting through bad times step by step.However, while I appreciated the link between the style and Laurel's frame of mind, I would have liked there to have been more development. In the flashes we get of Laurel's life in a new town, I don't feel as if she has moved on. I don't feel like she has a best friend, or even get the sense of a boyfriend from T-Boom. The way she started meth confused me. T-Boom held out a meth-covered finger to her and told her to sniff. Why did she? Why didn't she just leave the guy? What was going on in her mind while she did this? We don't know. Laurel never tells us. And while theorizing would make for good discussion in a book club or classroom, I would have liked a little more in terms of why and how, besides the fact that she is depressed about the deaths of her mother and grandmother. I didn't need a lot, but something that hints as to why she felt compelled to start meth in the first place.Still, I do think this book has a lot going for it. It's a quick read and can be used in a classroom as a perfect source of metaphor, symbolism, and style. But maybe supplement it with a lesson on the dangers and effects of meth, because while Laurel's life does fall apart, the health consequences are briefly mentioned. And with the dreamy quality of the narrative, I'm not sure the second-hand stories of death have enough of an impact.*I received this book from LibraryThing as part of the Early Reviewers Group in exchange for my honest review.*
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Beneath a Meth Moon, A BookBandit Blog Review
By N., The BookBandit
Before the moon Laurel was a normal girl. A girl who had dreams and aspirations of one day becoming a writer. A girl who had friends and family. But that was before. Before Hurricane Katrina. Before her, her daddy, and younger brother Jessie left to go stay with her aunt. Before the water washed away her home. Before the water washed away her mamma and grandmamma. Before life as she knew it ended.But when new boyfriend T-Boom turns Laurel onto Moon a new life opens up to her. A life she never knew was possible. Feeling higher than life, the moon allows her to move forward and to forget the past.Her new life means forgetting. Forgetting the past, the people she loves and who love her, forgetting herself. Is Laurel strong enough to shake her habit, or will she die before she has the chance to?Written by acclaimed author Jacqueline Woodson, Beneath a Meth Moon is a gut-wrenchingly painful, yet beautiful examination of addiction.Just under two hundred pages Woodson's has brought the life and struggles of a meth addict to light. These struggles aren't pretty, they are gritty and often ugly. These struggles aren't easy, they're ruthless and full of frightful emotions. These struggles, as Woodson presents them, are startlingly realistic.Woodson's writing is sharp and purposeful. Beyond that there is a poetic quality to her writing. And even though as hopeless as Laurel's story is, there is a hopeful tone to the overall book. As the story bounces from one point in time to a completely different, unrelated point, readers won't only understand Laurel's life as a meth addict, but will come to appreciate the brutal honesty in which her story is told.Laurel, who's often portrayed as weak due to her crippling meth addiction, is a strong character. Not just strong, but memorable. Reader's will carry her story with them, in the minds and hearts long after the book has ended. At first glance Laurel often appears helpless, lost, and weak. But the perseverance that lives inside of her makes her a powerful character that is determined to make a better life for herself dispite her problems.Beneath a Meth Moon is a one of a kind book. Reader's will appreciate Woodson's delicate handling of the subject matter, and will applaud her honesty.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.A transformative novel
By Teen Reads
Renowned YA author Jacqueline Woodson writes poetically about an intense and sobering subject: teenage drug addiction. BENEATH A METH MOON is a touching novel that challenges many commonly held notions about teenage drug use and the way society treats young addicts --- the idea that addicts begin with a lesser substance, that they are troubled kids, that they lack good parental support, that most are criminals or misfits, that addiction doesn't happen to smart, good kids. This is the story of a good-natured girl who falls easily into a haze of invisibility, a peculiar kind of elegy to family and friends who support and inspire substance abusers, and to the twisted poetry of "the moon," the euphoric substance with deadly appeal for those with a death wish.By all standards, Laurel Daneau was a good girl before using meth. She came from a loving Southern family and was a cheerleader in her Mississippi high school, the new kid in town who had made a few solid friends and had shown fair prospects. But her emotional troubles began long before using meth or becoming friendless and hopeless. Laurel lost her mother and grandmother in a tragic flood during a hurricane that hit much of Mississippi hard and left the family drifting.Laurel's father was unaware of the degree of Laurel's emotional displacement when he moved the family away from their home at Pass Christian, Mississippi, to live with relatives in Galilee. He had been dealing with his own grief along with his daughter's and was just hoping to "make a new start." Unfortunately, Laurel was still in shock even while attempting to relive many cherished childhood memories. Ironically, her grandmother's words would become prophetic and redeeming for her: "While you're living...It's the rocks in your life that will stand by you. Your words, your friends, your family."This girl's complex psychological state is revealed very subtly and makes for some interesting reading from beginning to end. Obviously there is some increased susceptibility to peer pressure here and dangerous modes of coping. In no time at all, after her first use of "the moon," Laurel becomes a deranged beggar, her family unaware of her whereabouts and her father worried sick about her as she's out begging, unsettled, freezing, and nearly starving to death on the streets --- but still in denial. It is too easy for "respectable society" to forget and ignore kids like her, people who do nothing more than throw a coin and not look at or recognize the homeless --- something most of us are guilty of, a simple means by which we deal with our feelings of guilt, worry and disgust. Were it not for the saving grace of true friends, children like Laurel wouldn't stand a chance at recovering from serious drug addictions.BENEATH A METH MOON is intoxicating, very artistic and emotive. It will capture hearts even while it educates readers about the complex, difficult experiences and mindsets of drug-addicted teens. Woodson is very honest in her writing style and provides a direct but caring perspective for teenagers and parents. She also provides an equal focus on society's ill treatment of the homeless, a marginalized group that is much too easily discarded and forgotten by everyone but their own families. This is a transformative novel I would highly recommend to any young adult reader, and every parent or adult who seeks a better understanding of the nature and victims of deadly substances.Reviewed by Melanie Smith
