In this book, the editor has brought together a comprehensive view of all the literature in this complex field, and in terms of the detail and coverage, the book cannot really be faulted. The issue of alcohol use by young people is not only hugely important, but is important to a range of people in many different roles and professions in addition to that of specialist adolescent psychiatrists; unfortunately, this tome is directed towards a specialist psychiatric readership to an extent that it is entirely possible to lose the will to live during some of the more densely opaque jargon-filled sections. There is also a distinct air of moral authority running through many of the …