Wells’ story is full of lurid scenes, but she avoids melodrama; her writing has both a lyrical intensity—“I love the feel of a big piece of crack. Rough between my fingers. I hate when I have to break it up too small. Reducing its might.”—and a deadpan humor that dispels bathos. She manages to convey a whirlwind of narcotized craziness with remarkable clarity and insight.

An entrancing journey through the lower depths.