Dennis Foon’s drama for young audiences has won him a heap of awards, including a Gemini, and an Emmy nomination for last year’s CBC movie White Lies, about white supremacist organizations recruiting teenagers. So while this is the Vancouver writer’s first foray into young adult fiction, there’s no question he already has a firm grip on the territory. He’s never shied away from gritty, hard-hitting material – teen prostitution, for example – and his fiction debut continues this successful pattern.

Double or Nothing’s narrator is Kip, a smart, smooth kid who can talk his way around anyone. Because life isn’t much of a challenge, he amuses himself playing the odds, and for Kip those odds look pretty good – high marks, a solid relationship with his mother, a great after-school job as a waiter at Uncle Ralph’s restaurant. Things seem to be getting better when he meets Magic Girl – and her silver-tongued dad, King. But when King introduces Kip to the racetrack and the casino, the odds radically shift.

A warning, especially for faint-hearted parents: don’t read this book at bedtime. Once Kip gets his mother’s PIN, this is worse than Stephen King. Foon’s skills are such that we not only observe but experience how it feels to be sucked step by step into sleep-depriving addiction. We’re taken along with Kip to sublime heights and belly-scraping depths. And when it’s all over – and Kip’s college fund is down to zero – there’s no silver lining.

Like much of Foon’s work, this book packs a dynamite educational punch and belongs on high-school reading lists. Only a really bad English teacher could make it boring enough not to give you nightmares.