jennc_20's review

Go to review page

informative reflective sad

4.5

Great read on the WV opioid crisis (and ultimate corruption of them and current WV Atty Gen Patrick Morrisey). 

emmyjames's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

sharlappalachia's review

Go to review page

3.0

I'm appreciative of Eyre and the work he presents here, but I think I would rather read the reporting he did that won the Pulitzer. At times he seems to sketch almost cartoonish characters out of his subjects, and I wish he had taken a more journalistic, impersonal tone at times. Nonetheless, I'm thankful to have read it, and thankful people like Eyre are out writing important stories.

gayle_carr's review

Go to review page

2.0

From the acknowledgment at the end of the book, the author writes, “Frances found me an extraordinary editor, Kathy Belden, who embraced my ideas from the beginning and taught me how to take a series of events and shape them into a cohesive narrative.” Well she really didn’t—it’s not a cohesive narrative at all. And that’s the source of my displeasure with reading this book. There’s a story there someplace in the 500+ pages of the ebook. I don’t think it’s the reader’s responsibility to have to sift through the pages to find it. The real responsibility lies with the author.

My thoughts throughout each chapter: Get to the point. What’s the point? Pointless.

knbee's review

Go to review page

5.0

The opioid epidemic is another example of profit over people, and as in most situations, the greed runs deep. Here: drug manufacturers and distributors, pharmacists, state pharmacy boards, the DEA, politicians… Glad to have investigative journalists working to uncover these truths- and people willing to share their stories. Eyre does a great job of personalizing the ongoing crisis and explaining all of the legal proceedings without heavy use of jargon in this expansion of his Pulitzer-winning work for the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

justinpizz16's review

Go to review page

4.0

I picked this one up after finishing Demon Cooperhead and wanting to dive deeper into how the opioid epidemic came to devastate Appalachia and so much of the country. This book does a great job contextualizing and humanizing the crisis within West Virginia while also providing a critical expose on the despicable role suppliers, distributors, local pharmacies and regulators all played in accelerating this crisis. You’ll be seething while reading some of the statistics (12M+ pills shipped to one town of 400 people over 3 years!!!) and clear evidence of corporate greed and regulatory incompetence. It also underscored the importance of local journalism in holding those in power accountable—and highlighted the dangers we face in losing this important medium. TLDR: f*ck big pharma, communities struggling with addition deserve compassion, save local newspapers. Kudos to Eric Eyre on this brilliant work.

rschmidt7's review

Go to review page

2.0

This book started off well, but quickly veered into self-aggrandizement as the author trumpeted his own investigative exploits, and diverged into a story of dueling newspapers and the challenges of 21st century journalism.

The opioid crisis is perhaps the most important domestic issue in the US that is simmering under the surface, destroying communities, and wreaking havoc that won’t be sorted out for years to come.

This is, unfortunately, not the best treatment of the issue. Would not recommend. Read “Dreamland” by Sam Quinones instead.

samanthamccabe_'s review

Go to review page

4.0

Searing investigative reporting on how pain pill distributors drove the opioid crisis in tiny towns across rural coal town America. There are some outstanding stats in here, and it’s no surprise Eyre won a Pulitzer for this work. I was lost at a few points amid a myriad of overlapping lawsuits and a rotating cast of characters but he does very well in pulling the human element out of the numbers and making things very interesting.

happygirl1199's review

Go to review page

4.0

Great look into the Opioid epidemic in Kermit, WV and surrounding areas and how three of the largest distributors were taken on by the court systems.

specialk136's review

Go to review page

4.0

This book made me think a lot about accountability. Who's responsible for the opioid epidemic, really? The manufacturer who concealed the drug's addictive nature and sold it like gangbusters? The distributors who didn't seem to notice they were sending millions of pills to a town with a population of a few hundred? The crooked pharmacists who made bank on the pills? Or the doctors who prescribed them in bulk? Or what about the DEA, who should've known but didn't stop it?

The answer is, of course, all of them. And that's the problem. Because the epidemic was a failure of accountability on all fronts, it's easy for any responsible party to shift the blame to someone else so they can excuse themselves. "Why didn't someone stop me?" they all seem to say.

Enter the intrepid reporter and author of this book. His implicit argument, and it's one I agree with, is that if it weren't for the press doggedly pursuing this, it would've gone unchecked due to everyone's rampant greed. The irony is that reporters are struggling for their very existence - the author's own paper is struggling for survival throughout the book. It's a sad commentary on the things we place value on.