Review of The Last Stop
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Danielle Briggs
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Review of The Last Stop
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Last Stop" by Patricia Street.]
The Last Stop is a memoir by Patricia Street, written about the life of her son, David. David, a troubled adolescent, is drawn into alcohol and drugs, trying and using whatever is available. In his mid-20s, David becomes addicted to heroin and enters the vicious addiction/recovery/relapse cycle. David’s personal journal, letters, emails, and Facebook messages are used along with Patricia Street’s memory to create a timeline of David’s life.
By using David’s personal writings, the author was able to give us a first-person perspective into the life of a drug addict, which I enjoyed. The use of different fonts for different things allowed me to immediately identify if it was a letter, email, or Facebook excerpt that had been added to the story without any added confusion, which was nice. Street was able to include the strong emotions she felt as heroin addict’s mother, but she did not let them overshadow the story she was telling, which is praiseworthy. Her ability to shine a light on how substance abuse deeply affects family members and friends of the addict gave me an eye-opening view of the true destruction of addiction that I had not thought of before. I truly enjoyed the addition of David’s work at the end of the book. Knowing he wanted to be an accomplished and published writer, it was nice to see the types of things he was working on. The parallel between his real life and that of his main characters is incredibly transparent and almost painful to see.
I wish more context was added to some of the excerpts, especially from David’s Facebook messages. There were times that I wanted to know more about the message itself, or more from the conversation that the message came from. This addition would have allowed me to more understand the intent behind the original messages and possibly David’s thought process while writing them. Besides this, I had no other negatives about this book.
I give this a 4 out of 4. The amount of detail the author used to give the readers a full picture of heroin addiction and its effects was incredible. Patricia Street invokes empathy and a connection with readers, even if the reader does not have a personal connection with addiction. The book was exceptionally well edited, with no errors found. I only had one negative, and it did not impact my enjoyment of this book enough to affect my rating.
I recommend this book to readers that are interested in a raw look at addiction. The author’s honesty with her feelings of failure, disappointment, and anger is sure to connect with readers who have been in a similar situation. I recommend this to family members or friends of addicts who could use this book as both a comfort and a tool to help them. There is some profanity and violence, so I would not recommend this to younger readers.
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The Last Stop
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
The Last Stop is a memoir by Patricia Street, written about the life of her son, David. David, a troubled adolescent, is drawn into alcohol and drugs, trying and using whatever is available. In his mid-20s, David becomes addicted to heroin and enters the vicious addiction/recovery/relapse cycle. David’s personal journal, letters, emails, and Facebook messages are used along with Patricia Street’s memory to create a timeline of David’s life.
By using David’s personal writings, the author was able to give us a first-person perspective into the life of a drug addict, which I enjoyed. The use of different fonts for different things allowed me to immediately identify if it was a letter, email, or Facebook excerpt that had been added to the story without any added confusion, which was nice. Street was able to include the strong emotions she felt as heroin addict’s mother, but she did not let them overshadow the story she was telling, which is praiseworthy. Her ability to shine a light on how substance abuse deeply affects family members and friends of the addict gave me an eye-opening view of the true destruction of addiction that I had not thought of before. I truly enjoyed the addition of David’s work at the end of the book. Knowing he wanted to be an accomplished and published writer, it was nice to see the types of things he was working on. The parallel between his real life and that of his main characters is incredibly transparent and almost painful to see.
I wish more context was added to some of the excerpts, especially from David’s Facebook messages. There were times that I wanted to know more about the message itself, or more from the conversation that the message came from. This addition would have allowed me to more understand the intent behind the original messages and possibly David’s thought process while writing them. Besides this, I had no other negatives about this book.
I give this a 4 out of 4. The amount of detail the author used to give the readers a full picture of heroin addiction and its effects was incredible. Patricia Street invokes empathy and a connection with readers, even if the reader does not have a personal connection with addiction. The book was exceptionally well edited, with no errors found. I only had one negative, and it did not impact my enjoyment of this book enough to affect my rating.
I recommend this book to readers that are interested in a raw look at addiction. The author’s honesty with her feelings of failure, disappointment, and anger is sure to connect with readers who have been in a similar situation. I recommend this to family members or friends of addicts who could use this book as both a comfort and a tool to help them. There is some profanity and violence, so I would not recommend this to younger readers.
******
The Last Stop
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Moonlit Nights by Jacob Parr
