By Emily Han, Easton, Massachusetts
The young adult fiction book Gripped Part 4 by Stacy Padula is a page turning continuation of Padula’s thrilling stories. The storylines of Cathy and Jason, The Dunkin family, and others continue as we begin to see how things have fallen apart. Through Padula’s use of double timelines, we can see how drug and alcohol use has long term and short term effects.
We see how easily people are changing, from only smoking weed or drinking to taking painkillers and snorting drugs, a massive example of how gateway drugs can affect someone. This book especially touches on peer pressure from friends, boyfriends, and popularity in general. This book has the most severe actions we’ve seen yet, with accidental drug taking and mixing hard drugs. By reading this novel, teens can learn how to deal with these potentially devastating decisions by reading about how they affect the characters who parallel people they know in their own lives.
About Emily
Emily Han is a senior at Oliver Ames High School in Easton, Massachusetts. She is the captain of her varsity field hockey team and a leader on her club team, Lead The Way. She is a member of National Honor Society and a founder of the PAWS Club and an active member of the Jimmy Fund Club. Her hobbies include scuba diving, exercising, and volunteering at local field hockey clinics and with Save The Bay. She hopes to major in Environmental Science and play field hockey in college.
Articles by Emily:
Teens Relate to New Y.A. Book Series
Refreshing Y.A. Book Prepares Teens to Make Difficult Decisions
Emily Han on the “Gripped” Characters
Easton Teen Says Y.A. Novel Is Too Relevant To Be Ignored
Teen Fiction Novel Exposes Consequences of Substance Abuse
Books by Stacy A. Padula 
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