{Review} THE RITALIN ORGY by Matthew Dexter

ASIN #: B00BH1L5GY

File Size: 514 KB

Page Count: 206

Copyright: February 4, 2013

Publisher: Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing

Book Summary:

(Taken from Amazon)

"If you want to understand a society, take a good look at the drugs it uses. And what can this tell you about American culture? Well, look at the drugs we use. Except for pharmaceutical poison, there are essentially only two drugs that Western civilization tolerates: Caffeine from Monday to Friday to energize you enough to make you a productive member of society, and alcohol from Friday to Monday to keep you too stupid to figure out the prison that you are living in." -Bill Hicks

As a young teacher trying to inspire and save advisees from expulsion, Nick Neary immerses himself into the secret rituals and lives of his students, entering a world of excess beneath the campus that threatens everything, including himself. As a dorm parent, Mr. Neary battles his obligations to inform the deans about the ills he has witnessed with his visceral urge to crawl deeper into the clandestine underbelly to learn more. The Ritalin Orgy is the unmitigated truth of decadence, degenerates, and the debauchery which encompasses America's most prominent prep schools.

Mandy's Review:

Is this supposed to be a factually-based account of how life is like at a prep school? If so, I find it hard to believe. I do believe that there is drug use at a prep school and probably quite a bit of it, but the level of debauchery depicted in this book is on the verge of unbelievable.

I also believe that there are advisors who are more than willing to become involved in the drug use and become their advisees' friend rather than their mentor. Nick, however, seemed a little too eager to become involved in the "clandestine underbelly." He encouraged them to stop by his room any time during the day or night. He'd buy food for all of them and host parties, where black lights and drug use was accepted. He kept their secrets. He helped them perform pranks or covered for them when they did it. I just don't see where he even tried to act like the adult. I think he was too caught up living vicariously through the students that he easily became like them.

I understand what the author was trying to portray with this story, but I wasn't feeling it. I became quite bored with this story. It just seemed to be different variations of the same thing happening over and over again for a little over 200 pages. Not a fun read.


*An ecopy of this novel was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.