Beautiful Boy
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Description
‘What had happened to my beautiful boy? To our family? What did I do wrong?’
Those are the wrenching questions that haunted every moment of David Sheff’s journey through his son Nic’s addiction to drugs and tentative steps toward recovery.
Before Nic Sheff became addicted to crystal meth, he was a charming boy, joyous and funny, a varsity athlete and honor student adored by his two younger siblings. After meth, he was a trembling wraith who lied, stole, and lived on the streets.
With haunting candour, David Sheff traces the first subtle warning signs: the denial, the 3am phone calls (is it Nic? the police? the hospital?), the attempts at rehab. His preoccupation with Nic became an addiction in itself, and the obsessive worry and stress took a tremendous toll.
But as a journalist, he instinctively researched every avenue of treatment that might save his son and refused to give up on Nic. This story is a first: a teenager's addiction from the parent's point of view – a real-time chronicle of the shocking descent into substance abuse and the gradual emergence into hope.
Beautiful Boy is a fiercely candid memoir that brings immediacy to the emotional rollercoaster of loving a child who seems beyond help.
Read the other side of Nic Sheff's bestselling memoir, Tweak.
Praise for Beautiful Boy:-
'A brilliant, harrowing, heartbreaking, fascinating story, full of beautiful moments and hard-won wisdom. This book will save a lot of lives and heal a lot of hearts'. Anne Lamott
'An important book... moving, timely and startlingly beautiful.' Richard Branson
Book Information
Posts
I once again realized that memoirs are not my cup of tea. I didn't click with the writing style and I watched the movie beforehand so I pretty much knew the story. It's still heartbreaking to know that this is a true story about a son addicted to meth and how his family has to deal with that. I also liked seeing and reading about the amount of research the author put into this book. So read it if you want or watch the movie (I personally preferred the movie)
“Beautiful Boy” is an autobiography of a father trying to save and help his son, a teen slowly loosing himself in his drug of choice: crystal meth. “Tweak” was written by Nic Sheff himself, I recommend reading in this order. First Beautiful Boy, then Tweak.
I read this book a few months ago but can still vividly remember the events that took place in this book. Nic Sheff is the son of David Sheff and falls into addiction at a young age because of many factors but mainly his mental problems that are rooted in his younger years. His parents are divorced and both in their second marriage, the father takes responsibility while he has school and the mother when he has holidays and if free of school. In the book we accompany David Sheff and his journey through his son’s addiction. It portrays how not only the user but their family, friends and close circle is also very affected by the abuse of drugs. It is a very heartbreaking book in which one hopes every time that it will get better, that Nic will stand back up after his fall. A masterpiece that one should read to empathize and try to understand the view of a drug addict. This is a sickness, one that affects many people in real life. For someone that has only heard of the life of addicts and their family, it is very important to read this book in order to be able to understand the situation better. It’s not something for the weak heart, read it at your own risk. Trigger warnings should be given for drug use and abuse, self harm, plus 18 scenes, family issues, gore and other graphic descriptions of wounds etc. I really recommend the book, it is very informative as well. There are many numbers given.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon, Beautiful Boy The movie made me cry and so did the book. It's really painful to read about all the sadness, anger, disappointment, fear and worry this loving family had to endure like so many other families. Having a child whose a drug addict must be so hard but Nic's and David's story is a hopeful one. I'm so glad to see that Nic's been clean for some years now. David is such a brilliant and caring father, it's unbelievable. "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
Description
‘What had happened to my beautiful boy? To our family? What did I do wrong?’
Those are the wrenching questions that haunted every moment of David Sheff’s journey through his son Nic’s addiction to drugs and tentative steps toward recovery.
Before Nic Sheff became addicted to crystal meth, he was a charming boy, joyous and funny, a varsity athlete and honor student adored by his two younger siblings. After meth, he was a trembling wraith who lied, stole, and lived on the streets.
With haunting candour, David Sheff traces the first subtle warning signs: the denial, the 3am phone calls (is it Nic? the police? the hospital?), the attempts at rehab. His preoccupation with Nic became an addiction in itself, and the obsessive worry and stress took a tremendous toll.
But as a journalist, he instinctively researched every avenue of treatment that might save his son and refused to give up on Nic. This story is a first: a teenager's addiction from the parent's point of view – a real-time chronicle of the shocking descent into substance abuse and the gradual emergence into hope.
Beautiful Boy is a fiercely candid memoir that brings immediacy to the emotional rollercoaster of loving a child who seems beyond help.
Read the other side of Nic Sheff's bestselling memoir, Tweak.
Praise for Beautiful Boy:-
'A brilliant, harrowing, heartbreaking, fascinating story, full of beautiful moments and hard-won wisdom. This book will save a lot of lives and heal a lot of hearts'. Anne Lamott
'An important book... moving, timely and startlingly beautiful.' Richard Branson
Book Information
Posts
I once again realized that memoirs are not my cup of tea. I didn't click with the writing style and I watched the movie beforehand so I pretty much knew the story. It's still heartbreaking to know that this is a true story about a son addicted to meth and how his family has to deal with that. I also liked seeing and reading about the amount of research the author put into this book. So read it if you want or watch the movie (I personally preferred the movie)
“Beautiful Boy” is an autobiography of a father trying to save and help his son, a teen slowly loosing himself in his drug of choice: crystal meth. “Tweak” was written by Nic Sheff himself, I recommend reading in this order. First Beautiful Boy, then Tweak.
I read this book a few months ago but can still vividly remember the events that took place in this book. Nic Sheff is the son of David Sheff and falls into addiction at a young age because of many factors but mainly his mental problems that are rooted in his younger years. His parents are divorced and both in their second marriage, the father takes responsibility while he has school and the mother when he has holidays and if free of school. In the book we accompany David Sheff and his journey through his son’s addiction. It portrays how not only the user but their family, friends and close circle is also very affected by the abuse of drugs. It is a very heartbreaking book in which one hopes every time that it will get better, that Nic will stand back up after his fall. A masterpiece that one should read to empathize and try to understand the view of a drug addict. This is a sickness, one that affects many people in real life. For someone that has only heard of the life of addicts and their family, it is very important to read this book in order to be able to understand the situation better. It’s not something for the weak heart, read it at your own risk. Trigger warnings should be given for drug use and abuse, self harm, plus 18 scenes, family issues, gore and other graphic descriptions of wounds etc. I really recommend the book, it is very informative as well. There are many numbers given.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon, Beautiful Boy The movie made me cry and so did the book. It's really painful to read about all the sadness, anger, disappointment, fear and worry this loving family had to endure like so many other families. Having a child whose a drug addict must be so hard but Nic's and David's story is a hopeful one. I'm so glad to see that Nic's been clean for some years now. David is such a brilliant and caring father, it's unbelievable. "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."