Dreamland (YA edition)

Reviews

Does what ‘Fast Food Nation’ did for fast food to Black Tar Heroin and oxycodone . . . A stunning journalistic journey that follows the history and narrative trajectories that lead to this entirely new style of cultivating drug addiction . . . I just love this book. Journalist Quinones weaves an extraordinary story, including the personal journeys of the addicted, the drug traffickers, law enforcement, and scores of families affected by the scourge, as he details the social, economic, and political forces that eventually destroyed communities in the American heartland and continues to have a resounding impact. This fast-moving and relatively austere account will acquaint teen readers with important elements of the opioid epidemic, though this discussion is only a gateway, if you will, to a deeper story of distress. Yet it ends on a note of quiet hope. Having hit bottom, Portsmouth, Ohio, is turning itself around. “Once a junkie’s haven,” Mr. Quinones writes, it is now a place with a culture of recovery, “a refuge for those seeking a new life.” You won’t find this story told better anywhere else A sharp, engrossing work of narrative nonfiction. At once a heartbreaking narrative about the individuals in the grips of addiction, and a thorough history of how that addiction was made possible by a variety of key players. Featuring voices from every corner of the crisis, including pharmaceutical bigwigs, young Mexican drug runners, police, doctors, addicts, survivors, and families touched by epidemic, Dreamland is a must-read for anyone grappling with the story of heroin addiction in the United States. A scrupulously researched, well-crafted tale that sheds light on a timely topic. Expand reviews