Blazed

by Jason Myers

Genres: YA Family

Synopsis

Jamie uncovers life-changing secrets from his past when he’s sent to live with a father he’s never met in this gritty novel from the author of Exit Here. and Run the Game. Jamie is invincible when he is high. His anger, his isolation, his mom’s manic mood swings—nothing can shatter his glass castle. But one brutal night upends everything, leaving his mom broken and Jamie betrayed. Sent to live with a father he’s never met, Jamie is determined to hate the man he blames for his mother’s ruin. And he blocks out the pain with drugs, fierce music, and sweet, sweet Dominique. Except the more time Jamie spends at his dad’s, the more his mother’s scathing stories start to unravel. Who is he supposed to believe? And how much will he have to sacrifice to uncover the truth?

Release date: June 17, 2014

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Print pages: 528

Sample

Blazed

1.

“WHY ARE YOU SO ANGRY?” She asked me.

We were sitting on a green park bench, and she looked so anxious and so pretty. I’d known her for three weeks.

“That guy is so fake,” I said. “He’s a phony. How can you like that? He looks so generic and he’s not cool and he never will be. He’ll never like good music or good books. Who cares if he has a fucking car? He’s not real. He doesn’t have a soul.”

“I wasn’t just talking about right now, Jaime,” she said. “I was asking why you’re so angry all the time?”

“I’m not.”

She threw her arms into the air. “Oh my god! Yes, you are! You are an amazing boy. You’re cute and so talented and so fucking sweet. But you’re also the angriest boy I’ve ever met.”

“Fuck you,” I said. “Why don’t you go climb back into his car and listen to that bullshit music and listen to him lie to you? I thought you were better than that.”

“And I thought you were better than this,” she said, before standing up and walking away.

I never saw her again.

And I’ve thought about her every day since that afternoon.