Many of us could probably write a book about addiction. It’s ruined enough lives and enough have been saved from it, that it makes interesting reading. Since there are so many stories, the ones we need to tell are the ones that will have an impact on the reader such an impact that it is enough to view drug abuse vicariously by reading about it.
Hopefully, these two books under RECOVERY ROAD and WE ALL FALL DOWN will meet this criteria. Hopefully more interesting and helpful than the Charlie Sheen story. Here is a review of the two books.
“We live in a society filled with temptation, where drugs and alcohol are illegal for minors but still easy to obtain. They’re so readily available, in fact, that 11 million American youths need treatment for substance abuse, according to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Yet few teen addicts get the help they need. And those who do are likely to relapse before they truly recover.
It’s these hard truths that are tackled in two new books for young adults, each of which handles the subject slightly differently. Blake Nelson’s “Recovery Road” is a fictional account of 16-year-old “Mad Dog Maddie,” whose rap sheet includes drinking alcohol, downing OxyContin, smoking hash, snorting coke, stealing a car, getting arrested and being thrown out of her home and sent to a halfway house.
Nic Sheff’s “We All Fall Down” is the real-life account of Sheff’s struggles to recover from addictions to increasingly hard-core substances. He started smoking pot at age 12 before the high no longer worked, and he moved on to alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamines, heroin — and rehab. Rewind, and repeat.
Both books are told from the addict’s perspective, offering up-close and personal views of their protagonists’ descents into substance abuse and the tragic effect on those who care most about them. “Recovery Road” just offers a slightly more sanitized version of the rehabilitation process — one that is likely to appeal to readers whose interest in illicit substances is purely vicarious. The follow-up to “Tweak,” Sheff’s New York Times bestseller about his meth addiction, “We All Fall Down” is a grittier, in-the-trenches retelling of his recovery that will resonate with readers who are struggling with their own addictions or those of someone they love.”
If the books don’t mention rehab in the foot notes – then let us mention it here.
Drug rehabs such as Narconon can help a person rewrite their life in such a positive vein, that it can perhaps seems unbelievable. However, it is true – any person alive can create a new life for themselves.
