“Junk”. Bit of an ambiguous title. At first glance, I thought I would be reading a tale about household garbage or things people had thrown out to waste. Yes, in spite of the bright picture of the red syringe on the front cover, I embarked upon the first few pages wondering why my mum had bought me a book about refuse. Of course, she must have neglected the blurb on the back describing the novel as a ‘love affair’ with heroin.

Junk is in fact the story of two teenage runaways who both leave home to go and live in Bristol to escape the constraints of the parental nest. It is what many of us dream of doing at thirteen or fourteen: screaming a big ‘up yours’ to the parents and breaking free of curfews, kissing bans, forbidden loud music and restricted hemlines. However, as the main characters Gemma and Tar become entwined in the empty world of drugs, theft and prostitution, it becomes clear that squatting in the city does not have the glamorous appeal of the fantasy.

Gemma’s rebellious attitude to life is at first quite liberating, but when she becomes addicted to heroin and brings Tar down with her, she is revealed as a selfish spoilt brat. Tar leaves home because of the violent relationship between his alcoholic parents: whereas Gemma runs away simply because she has to obey a few rules. The narrative alternates between the different perspectives of Gemma, Tar and the other teenage heroin users, as well as focussing on the parents’ viewpoint. Burgess’s insight into the minds of both teenagers and adults provides a complex psychological subtext that plays out the fragility of the parental role and demonstrates how easily it can be destroyed. Junk is not just an account of the subversive desires of the teenager: it illustrates the complexities of the parent - child relationship and shows how naivety and innocence on both sides inevitably results in tragedy.

In some ways, Melvin Burgess’s novel swiftly invokes a morality yarn warning about the bleak reality of running away from home. This can be quite irritating for the rebel, because it implies that anyone who disobeys their parents will end up pumped with drugs selling themselves on the streets. However, on the other hand, the sympathetic approach to anarchy and the criticism of bureaucracy results in a novel that challenges the political and social repression of our society. Tar and Gemma’s teenage years are essentially tragic: Burgess warns how this could be avoided. An exciting read, and a novel I found hard to put down.

8/10