First published 2000
Miranda Woke has everything a nineteen year old could want. Her socialite parents give her access to exclusive parties. Page Six has featured her sixteen times. Designers dress her in Prada and Manolo Blahniks. Cocaine and champagne flow freely at every gathering she attends. But Miranda hates being an "It girl." She calls herself the living embodiment of an awkward phase with more problems than a fashion magazine has pages. The Upper East Side party scene feels like a trap. Xanax does nothing for her anxiety. Neither do Deepak Chopra meditation tapes. Everything gets worse when her junkie friends destroy her parents' house during a party. Miranda must drain her trust fund to pay for repairs. Then she thinks she has killed her boyfriend. Panic drives her deeper into cocaine, Valium, and heroin. Her cell phone rings constantly but nobody offers real help. Miranda sees only one way out of her glamorous prison. She will drug herself into oblivion. Her downward spiral continues until real friends step in. They force her to face what she has become and seek treatment.
Genres: fiction, addiction, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: downward-spiral, redemption, rock-bottom
Setting: New York, Upper East Side
Period: 21st Century
320 pages · Paperback · Sceptre
Content warnings: addiction, drug-use, mental-illness, substance-abuse