Beautiful Boy A Fathers Journey Through His Sons Addiction

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Average customer rating 4.6 (7 comments)

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Beautiful Boy is a moving story that allows readers to relive David Sheff's nightmare of dealing with his son's addiction. Beautiful Boy shines light on the painful reality of addiction and attempts to help those of us who have never dealt with such heartbreak, understand the horror. The book felt a bit redundant and hopeless with Nic's multiple relapses. Although it began to feel like I was reading the same story each chapter, the loss of hope as a reader brings to life the pain that David Sheff and his family must have felt. David Sheff includes multiple chapters containing research about Meth - Nic's drug of choice. Those few chapters made the book a bit dry and feel like an extensive research paper. Definitely not a light read, but worth picking up if you want a better look at addiction and the effect it has on a family.

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In beautiful boy, David Sheff tells his own story about being a parent to an addicted teenager. He shares with us his son's childhood and how he got submerged into addiction. This book is very informative and helpful, especially for parents that have addicted children themselves. It can also be a great way to help parents,siblings and friends cope and understand the situation that they are in. It can be a perspective changing for those who have no concern for addicts or their loved ones. If anyone has or is dealing with a similar situation, this book will definitely be enlightening and therapeutic.

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Now on my list of "definite reading recommendations"

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I bought this book at the Powell's, at PDX airport, on the way out of town and read it on the plane, while relaxing at the beach and it was finished by weeks end. EVERYONE who has been touched by drug addiction should read this book. It really is quite powerful and really makes you feel you are not alone in the crazy, sad, irritating journey of dealing with a loved ones addiction.

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With a literary journalist's skill and a father's compassion, David Sheff lets readers in to a heartbreaking and hopeful story. Sheff holds nothing back as he writes of his initial denial of his young son's drug use and the ups and downs of the years that followed. For anyone who's walked this same path, Beautiful Boy will be a comfort. For those who haven't, it will offer insight and understanding into the complexities of addiction. It took courage for Sheff and his family to lay out this journey for others to read, and it takes courage to read it. I cried, cheered, worried, and wondered along with them. Now I want to read the son's version; he's written two memoirs of his own - Tweak and We All Fall Down.

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While this book is not a "new" one, it is absolutely riveting. I feel like I am going through, with Sheff, the unrelenting, and often harrowing, emotional roller coaster of a parent's love for and vigilent worry about a child with addiction. He is right when he says we are always tethered to our children and our love for them, no matter how old or "grown-up" they are. I highly recommend this book to ANY parent whose child is addicted, either to drugs/alchohol, or to any other dangerous behavior, because you will find that you are not ALONE in this.

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This story of a father’s experience with his son’s meth addiction is an honest account of a difficult situation. As well as providing an insight to some of the universal aspect of addiction, it is also full of well-researched information.