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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
informative
medium-paced
Very interesting and complicated look at Heroin in the US. I wasn't aware of how long the opiate issues facing us has been a constant presence.
The opioid epidemic is something I know frighteningly little about, so this was an enlightening book. But I did have an issue with the structure, because it jumped around so much. There were different stories to tell, and I think the author did a good job telling them. Though jumping around from one to another did bother me at times. Still, there were some insane stories about an issue that is important to quite a lot of people in this country.
informative
slow-paced
The topic is one of the nearest and dearest to my heart, but the writing wasn't great. It jumped between too many characters and delved too much into personal stories, rather than distilling the information down. The author kept revisiting themes without adding much additional insight, resulting in a very repetitive book.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
informative
sad
fast-paced
Highly, highly recommend this book. one of my favorites so far in 2017.
Here and there I catch an article about "the opioid epidemic" but (to my knowledge) it hasn't directly affected me/those I'm close to, so I honestly never paid close attention. This book is absolutely fascinating and draws together all of the various factors that over a very short period of time (~25 years) has led to such a massive problem. It seems like literally the perfect shitstorm of big pharma, black tar heroin, a brilliant (and terrifying) drug marketing and sales strategy, a declining economy, and legitimate medical attention to the concept of pain (especially chronic pain). This book was one of Nicholas Kristof's recommended readings, so I knew it would be good, but I didn't expect to be as shocked and invested as I now am.