Nicole D'Settemi

Let me begin by saying I was so unimpressed by this book, I couldn't even finish it. I know I shouldn't be reviewing it but I could not bring myself to do and I really, really tried. The plot of this book is very misleading. I was led to believe it was about a woman recovering from her battle with heroin, not even close. From what I understand, the main character is living some sort of halfway house or sober living facility but seems to continue to drink and use drugs (even on the premises) with other "recovering" addicts. She and her friends basically spend their days trying to make money for more drugs and have a lot of sex while in the process. She constantly talks about getting sober and moving out of the city and trying to start her life over but does absolutely nothing about it and just fantasizes about. banging her counselor and other men who do nothing but manipulate and use her.

After 150 pages of the same story line, I gave up. It's a real shame because the author is an amazing writer. The writing style and detail in the description of everything is well written. Apparently, the author is actually a poet which you can tell by the way she writes. She should probably stick that instead of writing about a topic she knows little about.… (mehr)

This is one of those books where I admired it, but didn't particularly *like* it. To be fair, I have a substantial bias: I am an addictions counselor, and some of the ethical lines being crossed in the book were nauseating to me. It's hard to connect with the story when such a large portion of it is devoted to a relationship that repels you.

It is very well written and the author has a gift with language...and as hard as it could be to read at times, I appreciated the glimpse into what it can be like on the other side of my desk, and the reminder to be compassionate, courteous, and keep fighting for my patients. I don't regret reading it and would certainly recommend "Addictarium" to others, especially those who wonder why addicts "just don't stop" or "won't choose to get better". But I don't see myself reading it again.

(As an aside, I hope the book received another pass with the editor. Lots of unnecessary hyphens and missing punctuation, and the italics need to be dialed back quite a bit.)… (mehr)

Names have been changed to protect the guilty. This tale of despondency and redemption could only be written by someone who has experienced it -- depictions of actual events were too vivid to be otherwise. This is at once fascinating and disturbing; and while this book exists because the author prevailed, it is abundantly clear that so many will try and fail, or worse, not even try at all. The system in place to help such individuals is rife with indifference and inflexibility, ensuring many in rehab are churned back into deadly environment from whence they came.

Once in a while, LibraryThing Early Reviewers presents me with a story (or collection of stories) of real-life horror, and this is one of them. They are almost always unsettling, yet they are also the most impactful and stay vivid in my mind for years to come.… (mehr)