Vicious spring

A brutal and darkly comic first novel that traces the drug-addled descent of a Nashville teenager from high school into the skin trade. Christy does drugs because she's bored, and the last day of high school is an occasion to drop a hit of acid and sign on for the ride. She smokes pot with her dad in the bathroom as a way of bonding against the Jesus-freak tendencies of the rest of the family. Del, her boyfriend, is in his thirties and works as a bouncer at a strip club. He provides relief from boredom, but when enough bad things happen that compel her to get the hell out of her house, Del also provides employment, and Christy becomes a lap dancer. In Vicious Spring, Hollis Hampton-Jones traces every turn of Christy's downward spiral with eerie authenticity. This is an unflinching, riveting portrait-a one-sitting read that has the inexorable, can't-turn-away quality of watching a tragedy unfold and the black comedy that comes from a narrator who is at once unfailingly honest, dangerously apathetic, and painfully self-aware. Christy is an unforgettable creation. A thrilling drug trip, a mighty dose of irony, or a chance brush with loveliness can still move her, but she may just be beyond the reach of any kind of salvation. Then again, maybe not.