This heartbreaking true story explores a father’s perspective while his son battles addiction. He tries so hard to understand his son through research and talking to experts. He watches as their relationship changes, and he tries to love his son. This is one of my favorite books. It is heartbreaking and shows how addiction affects an entire family. It also shows how much-loved ones truly want to help you. The book is a slow read, so it forced me to think about the book and its effects.
Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver, is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel that is inspired by Dickens' David Copperfield, centering around the life of a child as he matures.
Go Ask Alice is the diary of a young drug addict. Our narrator’s life transformed from an
idyllic all-American coming of age story to a life filled with vice. It starts when she goes to a party
and ends up drinking an LSD-laced soda, and is drawn into a life of parties, dubious dealers,
and toxic relationships. Though she is supported by friends and family, she can’t seem to drag
herself out of the addiction she has fallen into, and eventually her life ends from a suspected
overdose.
Siblings Isaac and Ivy both have a lot going on in their life. Isaac has an ankle injury that has left him unable to play and needing pain relief. Ivy’s ADHD is affecting her schoolwork and she needs something to keep her focused. Isaac turns to Roxy and Ivy turns to Addison. They follow different journeys with the drugs they’re taking but both end up in the same precarious situation. How will they deal with the repercussions of the things they’re taking?
Emory, a high school girl, was in a fatal car accident with her brother, Joey. The car accident ending up killing a friend of hers, Candy Mont Claire. Everything seems different after the accident— her friends are different, her life is different, and she feels like a different person. Now she must navigate her life and find out who she really became.
When 16 year old Eve gets major back surgery to fix her scoliosis, she is left alone to deal with the aftermath. She reminiscences about the times she spent with her best friend, Lidia. Throughout the story, she struggles with medicine addiction, loss, and disability.
Dreamland tells the tale of America's opiate epidemic in a way that feels as though you are hearing it firsthand; it weaves the stories of addicts and activists alike into a novel that is enticing and shocking. Quinones writes a novel that shows the behind the scenes of an epidemic that hits close to the heart of many Americans, yet he tells it in a way that takes you on an adventure rather than a report.
There's a brand new drug: Death. Take it and you'll experience the best week of your life - and then die promptly after.
I thought it was a decent, fast-paced book. The concept was very interesting. I felt very distant from Adam, who, despite being the main character, had a lacking presence. However, I loved his character - he wasn't really a "hero", he cries when his life is crumbling around him. He's a gold digger. He's an awful boyfriend. In short, he's a complete loser. I found that really fascinating.
Adam scores the ultimate tickets to the last concert of rock star Jimmy Earle. How does he know that it is Jimmy's last concert? Because Jimmy has taken Death, the latest and greatest drug on the street. Live one glorious week on the high of your life...then die. Adam and his girlfriend Lizzie are there to see Earle give the performance of a lifetime, then die on stage. As the crowd goes wild, the two escape the area to find masked members of the Zealots handing out Death capsules on the street.
