Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines

Author: Sheff, NicBrand: Atheneum Books for Young ReadersEdition: 1Features: Atheneum BooksBinding: PaperbackNumber Of Pages: 352Release Date: 06-01-2009Part Number: 9781416972198Details: Product Description The story that inspired the major motion picture Beautiful Boy featuring Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet. This New York Times bestselling memoir of a young man’s addiction to methamphetamine tells a raw, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful tale of the road from relapse to recovery.Nic Sheff was drunk for the first time at age eleven. In the years that followed, he would regularly smoke pot, do cocaine and Ecstasy, and develop addictions to crystal meth and heroin. Even so, he felt like he would always be able to quit and put his life together whenever he needed to. It took a violent relapse one summer in California to convince him otherwise. In a voice that is raw and honest, Nic spares no detail in telling us the compelling, heartbreaking, and true story of his relapse and the road to recovery. As we watch Nic plunge into the mental and physical depths of drug addiction, he paints a picture for us of a person at odds with his past, with his family, with his substances, and with himself. It's a harrowing portrait—but not one without hope. Review "Nic Sheff's wrenching tale is told with electrifying honesty and insight." -- Armistead Maupin, author of The Night Listener and Michael Tolliver Lives"Difficult to read and impossible to put down." -- Chicago Tribune"Tweak is...Bukowski and Burroughs, the heart to his dad's head—and the kid can write." -- Seattle Weekly"An unflinching chronicle of life as an addict." -- U.S. News & World Report"Full of jaw-tightening and occasionally grisly scenes of shooting up, deals gone bad, guns and sex, Sheff’s story takes off like a shot in the arm with a terse, honest and spontaneous narrative." -- Kirkus ReviewsReview of Tweak and Beautiful Boy: "Both takes on this story are riveting, brilliantly written, thoughtful, searingly honest and equally essential. They should be mandatory reading for every teenager and every parent of one." -- London Daily Mail"The trajectory of drug addiction is nothing new, but Sheff's lucid, simple prose makes the heartbreaking journey seem fresh." -- San Francisco Chronicle“A raw and sad account, vivid in its depiction of the pleasures and tunnel vision of addiction and the challenges of sobriety.” -- BCCB"Raw, powerful, and honest." -- The Bookseller About the Author Nic Sheff is the author of two memoirs about his struggles with addiction: the New York Times bestselling Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines and We All Fall Down: Living with Addiction. Nic lives in Los Angeles, California where he writes for film and television. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Day 1 I'd heard rumors about what happened to Lauren. I mean, I never even knew her that well but we'd sort of hung out a few times in high school. Actually, I was sleeping with her for about two weeks. She had moved to San Francisco when I was a senior and we met somehow -- at a party or something. Back in high school it was just pot, maybe I'd do some acid and mushrooms on the weekend. But I smoked pot every day. I was seventeen and had been accepted at prestigious universities across the country and Ifigured a little partying was due me. I'd worked hard those last three and a half years. Sure I'd had some problems smoking weed and drinking too much when I was younger, but that was all behind me. I was smart. I was on the swim team. My writing had been published in Newsweek. I was a great big brother. I got along with my dad and stepmom. I loved them. They were some of my best friends. So I just started smoking some pot and what harm could that do me anyway? Hell, my dad used to smoke pot. Most everyone in my family did. Our friends did -- it was totally accepted. But with me things were different. In high school I was rolling blunts and smoking them in the car as I drove to school. Every break in classes had me driving off to get high. We'd go into the hills of Marin County, dropping acid or eating mushrooms -- walking EAN: 9781416972198Package Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inchesLanguages: English