Brown's book was from an inner-city perspective, crack users and dealers, and both the success (e.g. money and power for the dealers) and the costs (generally downward spiralling) to the users. The main characters are a young woman, who ran the gamut, having been a user, being turned out as a prostitute, "recovering", having a stable relationship with a successful dealer, relapsing etc.
The Banash book is from an entirely different perspective. The main character is an upper class late teen (17 years old) from a split family with a distant father and an abusive mother - not the best situation, but even at it's worst, was better than the Brown character lives.
The girl lives alone in an apartment paid for by her father, and has fallen into the club scene, where she works assisting in hosting parties for the partying crowd. She is exposed to and takes cocaine, some heroin (by accident) and ecstasy. However, for the most part, the drugs are commonplace in the environment she's in, and quite "normalized". She has some overdose experiences, but doesn't land in the hospital over time, and has some awakenings as she realizes how "cold" her real life has become and how reliant on drugs she's become to get by.
Side by side they portray very different lives, except for the purchase of drugs (which occurs off-scene in Banash's book as drugs are prevalent and sometimes it is not even clear who is providing them) it would be difficult to imagine interactions between the worlds.
As Banash's main character, Caitlin, is young, healthy and rich, there seems to be no permanent cost to her drug play. I had a similar "complaint" about Brown's book as well - even though there are perils and hurdles, the main characters in both books seem to have survived, with relatively little lasting impact.
In the Brown book, the turmoils were much harsher - actual gunplay, physical violence, becoming prostituted, but none actually seemed to be detrimental to the main character - she ended up in an environment much more stable and financially secure than would have been likely coming from that particular neighbourhood and household than would seem possible through "normal" channels (e.g. hard to imagine a stellar high school and college career, with 2.5 kids and a law degree). Banash's Caitlin likewise seems none the worse for ware - she probably flunked out of high school, but no real mention in the concluding chapter, but is living with a now-living parent in a financially secure setting (with servants), having seemingly kicked the drug habit and kept all her druggie and non-druggie friends alive and intact.
I probably liked the Banash book more than the Brown, though that is primarily due to higher expectations in the Brown book - the lower class neighbourhood, criminal associations - I expected more angst and much more reflection on how close to disaster all the players were.
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