At seventeen, Kenny Jenkins is fresh out of his third heroin rehab. He is among the last to be released before the U.S. government seizes control of all rehabilitation centers. It intends to end the heroin epidemic by any means necessary. Kenny fights to stay sober, afraid of what he faces if he can not, but his addict is stronger than his resolve and he ends up in the government program: One in Ten.
One in Ten forces reliance upon groups of ten patients, and uses constant surveillance inside the ward to bolster success. Kenny settles in with his crew, but grows concerned when he learns that patient-tracking continues after successful rehabilitation. He tries to follow the program and be successful for his group, but when Kenny realizes that the government's technology is more than superficial monitoring, he has one choice: break free or be broken by the system.
In this follow-up to his series of standalone novels that unflinchingly look at the dark side of being a teen in American society, Eric Devine crafts a novel about addiction and alliance, alongside a fight to find the truth within a government system selling one story while acting out another. It will leave readers questioning whether this is a near-future dystopian, or a prescient, contemporary tale.
Eric Devine is also the author of Look Past, Press, Play, Dare Me, and Tap Out. His work has been listed by YALSA for reluctant readers, a Junior Library Guild selection, and twice a "Best in Sports" for Booklist. He is an English teacher and lives with his family in Waterford, NY. You can find him at ericdevine.org, @eric_devine on Twitter, @ericjohndevine on Instagram, and Eric Devine: Author on Facebook.