Scan barcode
mbgianni's review
3.0
I debated between 3 & 4 stars - very informative book on an important topic, but it wasn’t edited well. It became repetitive and jumped around a lot. The end result was not a totally cohesive narrative, but the overall story was fascinating, and I enjoyed the descriptions of progress and notes of hope at the end.
allison_sirovy's review against another edition
5.0
I think my new favorite genre is narrative nonfiction. Dreamland takes the opiate epidemic and makes it real with human stories.
This book made me see the hypocrisy, though, of how Black and White addicts are/were treated differently. The author Sam Quinones talks about it explicitly - very briefly, but it was clear while reading the differences between the treatment of Black and White even though the book focused solely on White addicts. It’s amazing how our country rallied around White addicts and became much softer on crime, but Black addicts are still looked at as needing tough on crime laws.
Young adult adaptation: I’d recommend 7th grade and up.
This book made me see the hypocrisy, though, of how Black and White addicts are/were treated differently. The author Sam Quinones talks about it explicitly - very briefly, but it was clear while reading the differences between the treatment of Black and White even though the book focused solely on White addicts. It’s amazing how our country rallied around White addicts and became much softer on crime, but Black addicts are still looked at as needing tough on crime laws.
Young adult adaptation: I’d recommend 7th grade and up.
mtnmama's review
3.0
Interesting and informative, but the various locations and individuals became hard to keep track of after a while. At times, it also seemed repetitive and jumped around, making it hard to follow.
yearlylists's review
3.0
This book was quite heavy. I already knew that opiates were a problem in the United States, but oh my.. I did not know that it was this bad. This really opened my eyes to the major flaws and mistakes that led up to this point, and it seems that little is done to actually change things on a deeper than surface level.
So, why 3 stars? Well it was well written, I feel like the writer had done a lot of research. However, a lot felt like repetition. He obviously had to make clear in how many places this was happening, and how separate these situations were being treated until people finally started to connect the dots. But often I found myself wondering if I was reading a part for the second time and my ereader somehow made a mistake or didn't save my progress.. This was not the case, just a lot of the same descriptions for very similar situations.
So, why 3 stars? Well it was well written, I feel like the writer had done a lot of research. However, a lot felt like repetition. He obviously had to make clear in how many places this was happening, and how separate these situations were being treated until people finally started to connect the dots. But often I found myself wondering if I was reading a part for the second time and my ereader somehow made a mistake or didn't save my progress.. This was not the case, just a lot of the same descriptions for very similar situations.
ktbentsen9's review
3.0
Lost stars from me due to problematic, stigmatizing language and redundancy of material explored. But the meat of this book is important info every American should know more about.
anandazhu's review against another edition
5.0
this book made me cry yet gave me many reasons to be hopeful and optimistic about the strength and resilience of this country (a tall order in such a bleak year) - a surprisingly restorative read on an important albeit devastating topic.
princesaa's review against another edition
5.0
Such a beautifully written, extensively researched book on a man-made epidemic that has swept the nation. I was fully immersed in this novel from beginning to end--the writing is that delicious.
rosalie2's review
1.0
“I spent years researching the causes of the opioid epidemic which I will outline repetitively and in detail for hundreds of pages and then for some reason at the very end conclude abruptly suggest that it was actually caused by SNOWFLAKE college students expecting TRIGGER WARNINGS and SAFE SPACES, citing one anecdotal article in The Atlantic and literally no research. The years of interviews I did are much weaker evidence than the Vibes I feel.” this man is so fucking annoying!! Anti-intellectual excuse for a journalist utterly uninterested in examining his preexisting biases. I learned more about the opioid epidemic from 10 pages of Empire of Pain.