Toxic by Nicci Cloke is the story of a teenage holiday, the aftermath with a side of parental/peer pressure. It discreetly tackles some touchy subjects including teenage drinking, depression and homosexuality.
The official tagline is: Sometimes parties are not all they are cracked up to be…
Most people either love the idea of a greek island, sunny weather and a few more fishbowls then they should really consume, or they absolutely hate it, and cannot understand why anyone would do it. 
There were parts that almost felt a little ‘inbetweeners-ish’ but in a positive way. The book is a whirlwind. We start with Hope, who has tagged along on the lads holiday because the girls one got cancelled. Its okay though, she feels like one of the guys, even though her ex, Logan is there. The holiday starts as many would, Drinks, sunburn and hang overs but the the memory loss occurs and people either cant or wont admit what happened.
As a character Hope doesn’t come across as a confident outgoing person, but it feels like she s starting to understand who she really is as we go through the book. Shes the first narrator, taking us through the holiday portion of the story. Then her ex Logan takes over the narration. Hes no clearer on some parts of the story then she is, and slowly starts to alienate everyone around him. Hes not an overly interesting character and I found his part a little hard to read, mainly because I just didn’t like him. whilst he creates more questions in is narrative we finally end up with his girlfriend Daisy taking on the storyteller role. I like Daisy. A little quirky, and a writer, her stories sounds amazing. Id be logging in to read them. I think shes just a little unlucky, and lucky to have some solid friends around her.
I enjoyed the book, but I dont think its going on the must read list. It would have been nice to have splits of some kind in the book. Chapters, maybe split out by each day, and to have a header so we knew who has narrating, and when it changed, It annoyed me that it didnt have either. Although I did receive an ARC so this may change before publication at the end of July.
Official description:
Hope has never been happier. She’s on her way to Crete, after a group of her friends have made her an honorary ‘lad’ and let her tag along on their boys’ holiday. There’s a slight complication in that one of those boys, Logan, is Hope’s ex-boyfriend, but they’re still friends and Hope’s pretty confident it won’t be too awkward.
The next couple of days are exactly what Hope was hoping for – lazy days in the sun, and long, drunken conversations. She can’t help but notice that Logan’s flirting with her. Logan and Hope end up alone and Hope is horrified when, after she leans in to kiss him, Logan completely rejects her.
Embarrassed and annoyed, Hope is on a mission to get drunk, and with the alcohol flowing, and the sun going down, Hope’s starts having a great time.
The next thing Hope knows, she’s being woken up on the beach by two strangers. It’s 9 o’clock the next morning and she can’t remember anything about the previous night . . . what on earth happened
One More Chapter 