Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
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 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.

Rating : - Companion book to "Beautiful Boy" is just as devastating
I read David Sheff's "Beautiful Boy" a couple of weeks ago, and I couldn't wait to read this companion book, written by David's son Nic, to see what Nic's take was on the whole thing.

"Tweak: Growing Up On Methamphetamines" (325 pages) brings the memoir of Nic Sheff, on what it was (is?) like growing up being a drug addict. The book is not written in a straight chronological order. Instead, it jumps in at a point where Nick gets kicked out of his family's home and the first third or so of the book retells the next two weeks as Nic descends into deeper and deeper hell and drug addiction. Nic spares no details, and this is not for the faint of hearts. The rest of the book chronicles the following 2 years or so, and it is an endless up and down. When you read it, you simply wonder why anyone would want to go or live through this, again and again? Nic expresses remorse and sorrow, and towards the end of the book it appears that he has finally turned the corner. I was almost going to say "turned the corner, once and for all". But that surely would be an exaggeration. One simply can't ever know. For all we know, Nic has fallen off the band wagon again as I write this (although I can only pray for Nic and for his family and loved ones that this is not the case).

"Tweak" is not the first book that dives into the genre of drug-addiction survivor memoir, but it is well written, and a page-turner. Quite frankly, I couldn't put the book down, even thougb I've never been in that kind of situation (or maybe because of it). The amount of details that Nic is able to recall and describe on what he went through, despite his addictions, is simply amazing. And "Tweak" definitely does a tremendous job as a warning for anyone who even might be tempted in the slightest. In all, both David Sheff's "Beautiful Boy" and Nic Sheff's "Tweak" are highly recommended, and if possible should both be read.