*Heroin by Julie O'Toole (May 8, 2008)-Julie grew up in the heart of Dublin’s north inner city, in Sheriff Street. Living in this tough area, she was exposed to crime and drugs. She started using heroin when she was 16. By the time she was 18 she was a chronic addict. This story details how she spent the next four years living on the streets of Dublin; dealing drugs and stealing to feed her habit. It is a snapshot of how a young girl became a victim of circumstances. It happened in Dublin, but it could have happened anywhere in the world. Her life was saved by a chance encounter with a drugs counsellor who brought her to first to London, and then to America where she de-toxed and slowly began to rebuild her life.
*BOOKS BY TONY O'NEILL=
Digging the Vein's= unnamed narrator has a problem: He has a burgeoning drug habit and a wife he's only known for two days, but no job, no money, and no way out. As the narrator's life crumbles, the pills, booze, and problems multiply until he hits on a brilliant solution: heroin. Soon the narrator is associating with a cabal of street freaks. Just as the comedy is piling up, things go sour, making Digging the Vein a brutal look at a self-destructed, marginal life.
Down and Out on Murder Mile=After exhausting their resources in the slums of Los Angeles, a junkie and his wife settle in London's "murder mile," the city's most violent and criminally corrupt section. Persevering past failed treatments, persistent temptation, urban ennui, and his wife's ruinous death wish, the nameless narrator fights to reclaim his life.
SICK CITY=Meet Jeffrey and Randal, two desperate junkies and your guides on this top-to-bottom fun-house tour of Hollywood's underbelly. From infamous crime scenes to celebrity treatment centers, Sick City is an outrageous page-turning adventure set in the sun-bleached wilds of LA.
*The Heroin Diaries: Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star by Nikki Sixx (Sep 18, 2007)-
In one of the most unique memoirs of addiction ever
published, Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx shares mesmerizing diary entries
from the year he spiraled out of control in a haze of heroin and
cocaine, presented alongside riveting commentary from people who were
there at the time, and from Nikki himself.When Mötley Crüe was at the
height of its fame, there wasn't any drug Nikki Sixx wouldn't do. He
spent days -- sometimes alone, sometimes with other addicts, friends,
and lovers -- in a coke and heroin-fueled daze. The highs were high,
and Nikki's journal entries reveal some euphoria and joy. But the lows
were lower, often ending with Nikki in his closet, surrounded by drug
paraphernalia and wrapped in paranoid delusions.
*Beauty Queen by Linda Glovach-creates a likable, believable character in Samantha: we recognize her
humanity as a girl genuinely troubled by her mother's alcoholism (as
well as by her mom's lascivious boyfriend); we feel the unconditional
love she harbors for her diabetic Maine coon cat; we shake our heads as
her greed for money and flippant attitude about her addiction cause Sam
to make naive decisions. As Sam spirals further downward--still unaware
of how far gone she really is, even though she can't complete a journal
entry without shooting up--readers will feel the remorse of what could
have been, and may learn a valuable lesson in the processteenager, writing in her diary about an ex-boyfriend: "I will never fall
in love again, never, ever! Why is life so cruel? Why do people like to
hurt each other?" But a mere three months later--after moving into her
own apartment, taking a job as a topless dancer, and becoming addicted
to heroin--her tone takes on that of a grizzled drug abuser: "I've been
shooting in my bony hip area... toward my groin, so no one can detect
the needle points on my rear when I wear my G-string, and I'm getting
terribly numb there." Samantha's story is told entirely in the form of
her journal entries, which vividly reflect this young woman's rapid
descent into the seedy world of addiction. Author Linda Glovach
creates a likable, believable character in Samantha: we recognize her
humanity as a girl genuinely troubled by her mother's alcoholism (as
well as by her mom's lascivious boyfriend); we feel the unconditional
love she harbors for her diabetic Maine coon cat; we shake our heads as
her greed for money and flippant attitude about her addiction cause Sam
to make naive decisions. As Sam spirals further downward--still unaware
of how far gone she really is, even though she can't complete a journal
entry without shooting up--readers will feel the remorse of what could
have been, and may learn a valuable lesson in the process.
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