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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
More like 3.75 stars. Dreamland has a lot of scope; we start off in Mexico, looking at the socio-economic conditions in one town that helped foster the rise of heroin dealing as a cottage industry. The methods and model of the US based dealers and their unique customer service approach that hadn't been done before in street dealing, or at least not done on such a widespread level.
Quinones writes lucidly and clearly lays out how all the disparate links of economic struggles, social poverty, isolated communities and prescription painkillers come together to fuel the rise of heroin use.
He does tend to repeat the same points every few pages and I felt the book could easily have been a 1/4 or even a 1/3 shorter without losing any of the heft. It was feeling particularly bloated towards the end. And one thing I felt was implied throughout but only briefly made explicit was how it was only when the opioid crisis begin touching the fringes of the white wealthy upper-middle classes was it deemed to be a startling problem. Only then was it seen to be a crisis worth responding to.
If the opioid use and deaths among white users skyrocketed, I wish he had included some statistics about use/death/recovery rates of black addicts. It's barely mentioned despite saying how heroin use had been traditionally seen as a 'city' problem and using this idea to highlight just how shocking it is to see heroin in predominantly white suburbs. So while, yes, heroin use, painkiller addiction and economic stagnation has devastated rural communities, they are also the focal points and beneficiaries of new methods of recovery and treatment.
What I want to know is how does the crisis compare elsewhere? I get that the focus of the book is to specifically look at rural communities, but I don't think that story would have been undermined with the inclusion of statistics and stories from black users.
Quinones writes lucidly and clearly lays out how all the disparate links of economic struggles, social poverty, isolated communities and prescription painkillers come together to fuel the rise of heroin use.
He does tend to repeat the same points every few pages and I felt the book could easily have been a 1/4 or even a 1/3 shorter without losing any of the heft. It was feeling particularly bloated towards the end. And one thing I felt was implied throughout but only briefly made explicit was how it was only when the opioid crisis begin touching the fringes of the white wealthy upper-middle classes was it deemed to be a startling problem. Only then was it seen to be a crisis worth responding to.
If the opioid use and deaths among white users skyrocketed, I wish he had included some statistics about use/death/recovery rates of black addicts. It's barely mentioned despite saying how heroin use had been traditionally seen as a 'city' problem and using this idea to highlight just how shocking it is to see heroin in predominantly white suburbs. So while, yes, heroin use, painkiller addiction and economic stagnation has devastated rural communities, they are also the focal points and beneficiaries of new methods of recovery and treatment.
What I want to know is how does the crisis compare elsewhere? I get that the focus of the book is to specifically look at rural communities, but I don't think that story would have been undermined with the inclusion of statistics and stories from black users.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
The story is not told exactly chronologically or in an organized fashion — I know why, because the story of the opioid epidemic is not linear. Sometimes the way the book is written (jumping around from Purdue to the Xalisco Boys to pain research and back again) works and makes sense; sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it’s overly repetitive; sometimes the author expects you to remember something from 20 chapters back. I also was irritated by his use of language (he threw “junkie” around constantly, which I believe you should not use casually unless you yourself are a drug user or in recovery) and wtf was that afterword? That said, the book WAS very informative and well-researched and I’m glad I read it.
medium-paced
I love the subject because we always here about the epidemic, but not how it came to be and who was affected. I read it for a class but it was beyond interesting how the story was told. You can tell it was well-researched and I liked how it was narrated.
emotional
informative
medium-paced
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
Informative but repetitive. Less a scientific lens than I'd prefer.
challenging
informative
slow-paced
Wowwwww what an incredible story, I gotta say I’m much more knowledgeable about the spread of heroin in the US. I also thought it gave a great explanation on how Purdue marketed these drugs to doctors and WHY we have an opiate crisis in the first place. I obviously knew about it but never fully understood it. Also directly comparing Purdue Pharma to drug dealers was TEA but I think it’s a very valid comparison.
Two things that weren’t awesome:
1. A bunch of people on here were going over the repetition of the story, which is valid but also the repetition of PHRASING! I read multiple times how towns were “tenderized” by opiates before heroin came along and how the Xalisco Boys delivered heroin “like pizza” like come on we can come up with something new.
2. The afterward was…interesting? Citing college kids need for “trigger warnings” as a part of why we have a heroin epidemic was definitely said by someone’s boomer uncle this past Thanksgiving. But heavy agree on how modern suburbia makes it impossible for kids to build community outside. Sam kinda predicted iPad kids in that way
Two things that weren’t awesome:
1. A bunch of people on here were going over the repetition of the story, which is valid but also the repetition of PHRASING! I read multiple times how towns were “tenderized” by opiates before heroin came along and how the Xalisco Boys delivered heroin “like pizza” like come on we can come up with something new.
2. The afterward was…interesting? Citing college kids need for “trigger warnings” as a part of why we have a heroin epidemic was definitely said by someone’s boomer uncle this past Thanksgiving. But heavy agree on how modern suburbia makes it impossible for kids to build community outside. Sam kinda predicted iPad kids in that way