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lvleggett's review
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Deagler builds this world so quickly and completely that you feel like you are sitting at the Monk family breakfast table from scene one. This is the type of natural and free-flowing writing that sweeps me along without realising how much time has passed. We travel from month to month, couch to couch, story to story as Dennis navigates the first year of sobriety in a world that doesn't get it or is actively working to stay drunk or high. This is a book of short stories really, tied together with the thread of the main character and his slow evolution. I appreciate that we meet Dennis a few months in. This isn't a story about getting sober, this is a story about staying sober. And it's insightful, honest about what that looks like and feels like. This is also a book about Philadelphia, which serves as a parallel narrator, evolving around its characters. There's a hint of Isherwood in here - a man wandering through life observing the world around him. While it appears to stick to the surface of Dennis and his world, don't be fooled - there's a vulnerable heart underneath that has a lot to say about our world of substance users and abusers and the spaces they occupy. Everyone will recognise someone in this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism
Moderate: Addiction, Mental illness, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Death, Drug use, and Hate crime