In Roxy, substances known as drugs by humans are actually wicked gods that manipulate their mortal victims into accompanying them to the hedonistic yet frequently fatal Party. 

Roxy and Addison are just two of the countless gods behind it all. Roxy has a reputation for her prowess at ensnaring her victims, while Addison is determined to prove to the other gods that he is fully capable of defying his helpful nature and being as deadly as the others. When an opportunity presents itself in the form of two siblings, Isaac and Ivy Ramey, Roxy and Addison make a bet to see who can bring their marks to the Party first. 

Isaac is determined to recover from a recent ankle injury that has the potential to destroy his dreams of winning a soccer scholarship, while Ivy is suffering from untreated ADHD as well as a lack of support from her friends. 

While both will experience the blinding lights and the exhilaration of the Party, only one will lose their life to the malevolent gods. 

The only unanswered question: Who will be lost to the merciless Party - Isaac or Ivy?

In my opinion, Roxy does an excellent job of hooking the reader in from the very first page with descriptions of the futile measures taken to save the dying Ramey’s life. The next one or two chapters after that does feel a bit slow, but the action slowly kicks in again throughout the novel, interjected in between descriptions of the Rameys’ struggles and triumphs throughout their daily life. It clearly illustrates the descent into dependence and then into addiction, and serves as a valuable reminder of the dangers that drugs can pose. 

The characters felt very well-developed, and I feel like the small, daily activities of the family and the Ramey siblings’ friends helped a lot with that. The plot similarly felt realistic and made sense logically, and the ending provided a great sense of closure to the story. 

As stated earlier, I do feel that the first few chapters after the introduction drag a bit, and some of the scenes were a bit redundant; I can’t name particular scenes without spoiling them, but while the scenes focused on the Rameys’ daily life boosted the atmosphere of the book, I think they could have perhaps either made them a bit shorter (or less frequent, although that might undermine the purpose of them) or more about plot and/or character development. I also felt that they could have added a glossary of the drug names at the end -I struggled with a few of the names that weren’t explicitly stated in the text or terms I had heard before, so I feel that some sort of guide to help me understand the various names used for the drugs would be helpful. 

Overall, I feel that Roxy was an excellent illustration of the dangers of drug addiction and abuse, and although it could have been more action-filled (especially in the beginning), I really enjoyed this book. I’d rate it a 4.8/5 because it did have a few minor flaws, but ultimately the strong points of the book vastly outweighed any complaints I have about the story as a whole.