Tweakerville

At the drug house, the party is going full-blast. Snort it, rail it, rock it, poke it, chong it, launch bowls, bang lines, take whacks, smoke it out of glass… It feels like the whole yard could ignite, jump off and blow up into action any minute under the drunken moonlight. For Jesse Gomes, this is the best night of his life. Jesse is 17; “eighty-sixed” from his honest working-class Hawai`i family home, living with the dealer and his crew, running drugs on his moped, useful because he is still legally a juvenile.

But his life is about to take another abrupt turn for the worse. Waking up after spending the night in a drugfueled binge, Jesse finds a strange girl lying next to him, dead - OD’d on crystal methamphetamine, or ice. He then finds himself involved in a gruesome cover up to dispose of the body and in this crazed world outside the law, Jesse wants to believe in some kind of code of honor. Banished from his own family, he needs human connection. But ice is savage – it can twist loyalty into treachery and betrayal. Ice rules life and ice can decree death. This is the story that Jesse is compelled to tell, and Tweakerville is compulsive reading, appalling and enthralling from killer beginning to killer ending. “A shockingly powerful novel that pulls us into the world of crystal meth. The characters are our neighbors, our cousins, our brothers, the ones who break our hearts. A breathtaking debut”. - Chris McKinney “

"Alexei Melnick takes us into the innermost depths of the brutal world of young Jesse Gomes, a kid seeking solace and resolution in the wake of a horrific crime. Jesse’s honesty, veracity and unique voice allow the narrative to transcend the chaos of his violent life”.- Kaui Hart Hemmings