Nic Sheff

An unreliable narrator with a mystery to solve. After having this book on my tbr for years I decided to just buy it. Wanting to make my reading more diverse and reading more own voices I thought this would fit right in.

The story is about Miles. A teenager who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Just when he got his first breakdown he and his family were at the beach. Having all the attention turned to him to see what was wrong, his little brother disappeared. Miles feels an enormous amount of guilt, not something that goes in hand with his mental health. Miles feels like he’s not being heard by his psychologist. He feels weird in his own body and with the guilt building and building he decides to take action into his own hands. He’s going to get his brother back.

This was a mixed one for me. When I got into this book I thought it would be a story about a guy dealing with his mental health. Seeing how things started and how his environment would behave. I had no idea the book was more a mystery vibe with a little mental health thrown into it. What I liked about the book was that it was very easy to read. It’s a quick read and the mystery does make it that you want to read faster and faster just so you know how things turn out. The main character had good motives that I understood and I could place myself easily into his situation. It also brought a new perspective for me on the whole schizophrenia. I myself haven’t had much got in contact with this so it was interesting to me to read about it.

What I didn’t care for was that the mystery seemed to take up most of the story. The reason why I picked it up was because I wanted to read about someone dealing with the disease. I wasn’t picking up a mystery/thriller. Even though the end tries to make up for it, it felt more like cheating and little bit like lazy writing. You write yourself in a corner so you make a few adjustments and you roll with it. The ending is what made this 4 star an actual 3 star. The whole hospital bit was just cringy and weird. The comment about the transgender person was really uncalled for and I kinda felt like quitting the book right there but I only had 15 pages left. Trying to make it better a couple of pages later by saying it’s a brave person didn’t resonate with me well.

If you’re not looking for a thriller but still want to read one you should pick this up.… (meer)

I’ve never heard of the movie called Beautiful Boy which is apparently based on this book so I cannot day which works better, although I do see a lot of reviews comparing the two. I enjoyed the book though, especially the way the two sides were shown from Nic and his father.
Having dealt with this addiction personally in my life with friends, it is not an easy thing to give up no matter how hard you want to stop. There is definitely a high chance of relapse if you are able to stop. That being said, I see a lot of reviews mention that the writing in this book is not great. That maybe so but the fact that someone was able to put their fight and struggle into written words to try and help others says a lot to me about the people involved and I commend them for being so honest.… (meer)