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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
Fairly extensive look at the opioid crisis and the intersection with the Mexican black tar heroin trade. This book is *incredibly* repetitive. The subject matter is fascinating in its own terrible way, and I recommend reading this if it’s a topic of interest but by all means skim if you find yourself thinking “he just talked about this anecdote a chapter ago.”
This was very well done and a great compliment to Dopesick. Where Dopesick detailed more of the human repercussions of the opioid crisis and attempts to amend them, Dreamland takes a more historical perspecitve and describes the multi-factorial conditions that lead to and perpetuated the opioid crisis. What was especially interesting to me was the author's economics lens as he described how heroin dealers from a small town in Mexico revolutionized the heroin distribution business and how their small business model and sales practices created and maintained their markets across the US. Quinones also used this lens to show how pharmaceutical companies were similarly motivated by their bottom lines to promote and sell their opioids. It's a fascinating story of greed, corruption, and American excess that begs the question if the country has gone too far in its quest for constant satisfaction as the status quo.
Book club read that I would never have picked up if not for that. I did find it very interesting and informative. I had no idea this was going on in the US. I knew there was an upswing in opioid and heroin use, but I found the way the sale of heroin and the reason prescription drug use increased very fascinating.
Liked it but felt so repetitive I stopped reading halfway. Great knowledge and insight along with background information. A good book, I just lost interest.
Very well written and researched. I especially enjoyed the Afterword at the end, which includes the author’s own reflections and musings (whereas the rest of the book was written more journalistically). While it was repetitive at times, this book does an incredible job tying together the many themes of the opioid crisis and all the flavors of America’s complacency and greed within it.
Książka typu niby bardzo ciekawa a jednak nie mogę się zmusić do skończenia przez ilość chaotycznych wątków
Every page contains factual information, but it isn’t told in a boring manner; instead, the author intricately weaves the shocking details into a narrative that is both easy to read and relevant to anyone living in modern day America.
this book was.... bad. with the subject matter there was so much opportunity to do justice to the lives of people and communities affected by opioids and heroin, but instead this book was an unorganized sequence of confusing narratives that focused more on how police investigations unsuccessfully addressed drug sales instead of the war on drugs or trauma or drug user organizing. idk maybe the author did mention some of those things but I skipped probably a dozen chapters because they seemed to repeat things said in numerous previous chapters.
Coming from Ohio, I was fascinated by how organized and targeted the heroin trafficking is in central and southern Ohio. Incredibly interesting and very well researched and written. Highly recommend.