Junk (released as Smack in America) is a 1996 Carnegie Medal and Guardian Award-winning novel by Melvin Burgess. The book is about the experiences of a group of teenagers who fall into heroin addiction and who embrace anarchism on the streets of Bristol, England. It is both critically and commercially the best received of all Burgess' novels.
The novel is told in the first person from various points of view; much of the narration is by Gemma and Tar, and takes place over the course of a few years in their lives. At the beginning of the story, Gemma is spending time with Tar, a gentle teenager who is planning to run away from home after suffering abuse at the hands of his father. Gemma is a rebellious 14 year old and, despite having loving parents, decides to leave home and join Tar in Bristol.
