Beautiful Boy Book Review

“Fortunately I have a son, my beautiful boy.

Unfortunately he is a drug addict.

Fortunately he is in recovery.

Unfortunately he relapses.

Fortunately he is in recovery again.

Unfortunately he relapses.

Fortunately he is in recovery again.

Unfortunately he relapse.

Fortunately he is not dead.” (258)

“Beautiful Boy” follows the memoir of David Sheff as he deals with his son’s, Nic, Meth addiction. David becomes obsessed with the destructive path his son is on and tries everything he can to bring Nic back. The story is supplemented with David’s research on Meth, addiction and divorce sporadically placed between the depressing tales of rehabilitation, and relapses of his child.

To be completely transparent, I picked up this book after hearing Timothée Chalamet was portraying the son in the movie. I haven’t seen the movie but after reading the book, I feel like I most likely will not watch it in fear of ruining how I feel about the book.

At times, “Beautiful Boy” relies too heavily on fact. Sometimes I found myself skimming page after page of research. Do not get me wrong, all of that information was needed, and I imagine that David Sheff, the author, had hundreds of more articles, professionals and statistics he had to cut from the final production. The immensity of the information is daunting but necessary as it represents how “[David] became addicted to [his] child’s addiction.” (15) The story of David and Nic, played with all of my emotions, mostly sadness and anger. I think I cried while reading this more than I have ever cried in any book before. The exchanges between them broke my heart, especially the scenes were Nic is reaching out for help.

This is not a light book, but it is an important book. It is important for people who deal with drug addicted family members, face drug addiction themselves and for everyone else who falsely think their lives have not be affected by drugs. The effect is all around, it appears in fear people have towards addiction. Parents fear that their children will use, and as those kids turn teenager’s their parent’s fear becomes theirs. Adolescents fear peer pressure, the idea of not fitting in because they won’t try weed or alcohol, and if they don’t give in, the cycle continues with them and their children and so on. People fear the possibilities of abuse and “Beautiful Boy” validates those fears but give an affirmation to those affected by other’s use that it will be ok , because “You didn’t cause it, you can’t control it, and you can’t cure it.” (174)

“Beautiful Boy” is a fantastic book. It hit all the right marks for me, pathos and logos swirling into a masterpiece. Even with the slight drag of reading the research, I read this book in 3 days. I found myself always thinking about the story and the lives of the Sheffs. When I get so emotionally involved in the lives of the characters that it consumes my thoughts, I know it is a good book. I would recommend it to anyone, I would scream my love for this book from the rooftops.

Overall Rating: 4.5/5

Content Warnings: mature language, drug abuse