"Beautiful Boy," by David Sheff

The book Beautiful Boy is an extremely emotional non fiction text, that takes you through the story of a father navigating his son's meth addiction. There are many moments of hope as well as despair, and throughout the book there is the looming fear of relapse. David Sheff, the father of the meth addict, Nic, has a conflicted relationship with his son that weighs heavily on his shoulders. After the long harrowing journey they both endured, David decided to write a memoir about his experience. He talks a lot about how much he learned and how he grew as a parent during the book. We learn about his past with drugs, Nic’s upbringing, and everything between. 

The book begins by giving a look into the future. Nic comes home from college, seemingly sober and healthy, until one night he asks to borrow the car to go to an AA meeting and returns in the dead of night, high. We see how wary David is of Nic due to the addiction, and how all trust is slowly erased relapse after relapse. Now we are transported to the beginning of Nic's life, how his parents met, Nic starting school, his parents divorce, and David remarrying. Karen, the now stepmother of Nic, goes on to have two children with David. Nic is in sixth grade when Jasper was born and Daisy was born right after Nic graduates middle school. During middle school Nic begins to experiment, and eventually David finds out. One day he is putting things away in Nic's room and accidentally finds a bag of marijuana, he confronts Nic who confessed to buying the drugs from a classmate. This causes David and Karen to have an in depth talk about the dangers of drugs. After middle school Nic gets into a very good high school however, he is caught buying merijuana from a student once again and is suspended. David is now realizing that Nic may be going down the wrong path, and finds him a mentor. Fast forward a few months, Nic's mentor leaves the school, he quits his sports and clubs, and smokes often. During this Nic leaves for an abroad study in Paris, and when he comes back David finds out that Nic has an ulcer. Come to find out that this was caused due to daily drinking in Paris. During junior year Nic gets arrested from failure to appear in court due to Merijuana possession. David bails him out hoping that he has learned from this experience. Evidently he did not and began to experiment with meth. This leads to years of addiction for Nic, and a neverending sense of worry and fear within David. There would be months where Nic would just disappear and no one would hear from him, and there would be periods of time where Nic would go through recovery. He spent more than one year sober just to relapse once again multiple times. Nearing the end of the book Nic is really struggling but nonetheless is attempting to get sober. David and his ex wife Viki stand by him and try to help, but their relationship is damaged and there is almost little to no trust that David has in Nic. 

Throughout the book David also discusses information about the effects of meth on the human brain and how it affects nerve receptors. This is why the detox process for meth is so difficult, ultimately leading to relapse most of the time. David also attends something called Al-Annon meetings where other parents of drug addicts or alcoholics meet and talk about their experiences. This helps David and Karen tremendously as they hear the comforting words and advice of parents who are experiencing the same thing.  In the beginning of the book David bends to his son's will, trying to help him in every way possible. Through the book we see how he changes as a person, father, and husband. He learns how to deal with addiction and how it affects his family including his two younger children. By the end of the book he has learned how to support his family through difficult times while supporting himself. 

I loved this book because it highlights how difficult addiction is and the toll that it takes on the people you are surrounded by. This book also takes place where I used to live so I was able to visualize scenes, and this made the book so real in my eyes. This is because I know people that have had similar things happen to them and it is very interesting to hear it from another point of view. I also really enjoyed this book because of the background information that was provided about drugs, more specifically meth. I would definitely recommend this book, it truly opens your eyes to a world that only a portion of people experience. However it is very sad so be cautious. Ultimately, I think that this book is an important read and can educate people about addiction and how detrimental it can be.