Total Page : 368
Publisher : Pocket Books
Publication Date : 2008 02 04
>> Lost Soul
Having just finished Beautiful Boy recently I had to move on to Tweak and close the chapter of Nic and his father and their experiences with drug addiction Tweak is written by Nic Sheff who is the son of David Sheff David wrote Beautiful Boy which I talked about a couple of weeks ago
Tweak takes a slice of the time period from Beautiful Boy and tells his perspective as the drug addict giving a depiction of his experiences firsthand The two books together give you an interesting dual viewpoint of a time period as you understand the turmoil that the father encounters and now the conflicting feelings that Nic felt as he experienced life as a drug addict
Finding himself in a downward spiral with nothing to grab to stop his fall Nic experiments at a young age quickly moving to hard drugs and at one point is willing to inject or ingest anything that is within reach He loses ties with all his family members and friends as he steals and lies his way through several rehabs only to relapse back into the seedy world of addicts Having no money and nowhere to live at points in his life he resorts to prostitution to pay for his habit doing whatever it takes to scrape together enough money for the next day s high
As in most cases I am guessing Nic has to find out that while addiction is a disease he must also deal with his personal feelings and reasons behind why he became addicted in the first place His self image and lack of self worth play such a role in needing the drugs to keep him feeling like he is capable of dealing with normal life situations His parents have to deal with the roles that they played in setting the foundation of Nic s psychological foundation and struggle with second guessing what they could have done differently to build a healthier environment
In the end it is Nic s life and no matter what happened in his childhood he is the one that has to deal with where he is and make the decision to like himself enough to pull out of the world he has become so accustom The story is again a difficult one to read but it is such a must for anyone who has children nearing their teen years and beyond Drugs are so prevalent in our society and I personally feel until we realize this and embrace dealing with the temptations head on we will continue to struggle with our children s temptations
I am making my fifteen year old daughter read this and would strongly encourage anyone with children who has not read these two books to do so Tweak is a little choppy at times in the writing style but the emotion that the book is written with is so abundantly genuine that it reads adequately enough to bring the story across You find yourself rooting for Nic while at the same time loathing who he is and what he has become Like all parents I would find it difficult to let go and push my child out of my life but in the world of drug addiction there is only one person that can decide on changing and that is the addict themselves
Hopefully Nic finds his way and the family can heal I would rate this book as a must read
>> Just Another Dope Slammer Story
This is the story of a guy hooked on drugs so what only thing makes it interesting is it s in L A and the kid is the son of a semi famous Hollywood type if you are not familiar with the world of slamming drugs then this might be an eye opener book for you I guess Nic is a decent writer and he has his moments of wit
>> A little harsh but real
Well written Good book to give to teens to let them know from someone who has been there how drugs can effect your life He give a full account of what he did and how his life changed due to drugs The things he goes through and does are not pleasant
