britlaccetti's review against another edition
2.0
A lot of people have recommended this book to me, so when I saw a copy at Goodwill I knew I had to buy it. After sitting on my “to-read” shelf for a couple of years, I picked it up to read. The first couple of chapters were easy to read and that’s when I decided to research James Frey. He’s a fraud.
I decided to read the book regardless. I wish I knew how much of it is true because it reads a lot like a fairy tale. There’s the “best friend,” “the powerful room mate” and “the love story” and it all feels feel very cliche and something I would watch on lifetime. Is it a good story? Yes. Is it non fiction? No. The biggest problem with the book (besides the random capitalization and sporadic line spacing) is the danger it could pose to people who are dealing with addiction. This is because Frey paints addiction as a conscious decision that can be stopped by pure strong will. He basically claims that all addicts are choosing to be victims, which I find problematic.
Overall, it was meh. Back to Goodwill the book goes.
I decided to read the book regardless. I wish I knew how much of it is true because it reads a lot like a fairy tale. There’s the “best friend,” “the powerful room mate” and “the love story” and it all feels feel very cliche and something I would watch on lifetime. Is it a good story? Yes. Is it non fiction? No. The biggest problem with the book (besides the random capitalization and sporadic line spacing) is the danger it could pose to people who are dealing with addiction. This is because Frey paints addiction as a conscious decision that can be stopped by pure strong will. He basically claims that all addicts are choosing to be victims, which I find problematic.
Overall, it was meh. Back to Goodwill the book goes.
novelesque_life's review against another edition
1.0
ZERO stars
Horrible fiction or non-fiction. He is trying too hard to shock the reader and it is not very well written.
Horrible fiction or non-fiction. He is trying too hard to shock the reader and it is not very well written.
houseofjules's review against another edition
2.0
I'm gonna keep this short and simple.
This book is way too repetitive, lacks basic punctuation and sentence structures suck.
There is an entire page in this book that looks like this
"Cry.
Fight.
Mom.
Dad.
Brother.
Cry.
Fight.
Live.
Torch.
Pipe.
Bottle.
Sick.
Sick.
Sick."
We'll you get the point, it's trying to be, what, poetic? Dramatic even?
No, it's wasting time, it's lazy writing. It's constant repetition of words and sentences.
Do you know how many times I had to read "I am an Alcoholic and a Drug Addict and a Criminal"?
Enough that I don't ever want to lay eyes on that sentence again.
This story was interesting and captivating and it could have been told in 300 pages or less.
A 1/4 of to book is just repetition for the purpose of exaggeration or emphasis and just comes across as annoying.
More often than not I would skim parts that I know have nothing to add to the story.
I'm give it a 2 star because by the time I got to the last 50 pages I already wanted the book to end.
This book is way too repetitive, lacks basic punctuation and sentence structures suck.
There is an entire page in this book that looks like this
"Cry.
Fight.
Mom.
Dad.
Brother.
Cry.
Fight.
Live.
Torch.
Pipe.
Bottle.
Sick.
Sick.
Sick."
We'll you get the point, it's trying to be, what, poetic? Dramatic even?
No, it's wasting time, it's lazy writing. It's constant repetition of words and sentences.
Do you know how many times I had to read "I am an Alcoholic and a Drug Addict and a Criminal"?
Enough that I don't ever want to lay eyes on that sentence again.
This story was interesting and captivating and it could have been told in 300 pages or less.
A 1/4 of to book is just repetition for the purpose of exaggeration or emphasis and just comes across as annoying.
More often than not I would skim parts that I know have nothing to add to the story.
I'm give it a 2 star because by the time I got to the last 50 pages I already wanted the book to end.
gjv's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted to like this book. His candid descriptions of drug addiction and the recovery process were truly fascinating. But knowing that some of the events weren't true bothered me. Some say that that's creative license, and I say that's fine, but he marketed the book as a memoir, which to me implies that everything is as true as he can remember, and only the unimportant details (like what someone was wearing or the exact wording of dialogue) are fudged. Frey admitted, after someone called him out on it, that some of the significant events in the book weren't true, which detracted from the impact of the whole book for me, not knowing what really happened and what didn't. I also wasn't a fan of his stylistic choice to capitalize certain nouns (like "People," "Room," etc.), use no quotation marks on dialogue, and not indent his paragraphs. I probably would have let it slide if he had just capitalized Addict, Addiction, Criminal, and that sort of thing, but he capitalized so many unimportant objects that it was distracting. The lack of quotation marks and indentations simply made it difficult to read, difficult to sink myself into the story. I had to read actively so I could differentiate dialogue from narration and identify who was speaking. If you think you're willing to look past the writing style, it's a good book, but--fair warning--definitely not to be read while eating. I have a fairly strong stomach, but there were a few scenes where I had to put the book down until I was done eating, and afterwards I could only read a few lines at a time, shutting the book and closing my eyes for a few seconds in between.
zzkat's review against another edition
5.0
Despite the fiction issue surrounding the book, I could really identify with the author's account of the inner feeling of addiction...the desperation to kill the feeling, the need to be filled up with something, that incessant mental churn and need need need that turns you inside out. For that, I found it valuable. But beyond that, I just really enjoyed it as a book, once I got into the unusual writing style.
caryambler's review against another edition
4.0
Don't care if it wasn't entirely true, still liked it!
kendyl180's review against another edition
3.0
2.5-3 ⭐️ Good quick read. Interesting take on addiction and recovery. Took a bit to get used to the writing style, but made the reading go quickly. Seemed to lend to the chaos of addiction. Read some about the controversy that followed the publication (which I somehow completely missed at the time) and that made some of the more dramatic seeming pieces of the book make more sense.
leannaaker's review against another edition
This was an interesting read. I am actually glad I listened to this on audiobook, as it was very repetitive. I think it was a better listen than it would have been a read. Even still, it was a very stilted style that could have used some glossing up with editing.
The controversy over this book (that Frey fabricated some of it but gave the impression it was mostly all true), doesn't matter much to me. It was still an enjoyable read.
I particularly enjoyed the bits about the Tao de Ching...as I felt the same way (unreligious, but moved by the passages in it).
The controversy over this book (that Frey fabricated some of it but gave the impression it was mostly all true), doesn't matter much to me. It was still an enjoyable read.
I particularly enjoyed the bits about the Tao de Ching...as I felt the same way (unreligious, but moved by the passages in it).