The Book: Sixteen year old Gordie Jessup struggles to find the best way to deal with his brother’s methamphetamine addiction. Through Gordie’s eyes we are given a realistic portrayal of the affects this addiction has not only on the user but also on family, friends, and others in society. Tweaked depicts hope and disappointment, both the highs and the lows.
The Author: One of six children, Katherine Holubitsky was raised in rural southern Ontario and moved to Vancouver at the age of 15. She studied psychology at Simon Fraser, married a newspaper journalist, and moved to Alberta where she completed the Library and Information Management Program. She now works as a high school librarian in a unique school for returning grade 12’s between the ages of 18 and 20. As a child Katherine took great delight in reading and as an adult takes equal delight in writing. Katherine has published six young adult novels since writing her first award winning title Alone at Ninety Foot. Through her writing she seeks to reassure young adults that the extreme emotions often experienced during that stage of life are normal.
A story that can be all to common in today's families. Gives you something to think about how you may think you know about someone, but do you really?
ReplyDeleteMany people don't really understand the concept of addiction, it's so easy to think, "Just stop using, you're ruining your life," but it's not that simple. This story opens our eyes to the world of a teenage boy (Gordie) with an older brother addicted to meth. This addiction puts their family into enormous amounts of debt, tears apart the relationship of Gordie's parents, and puts him under an incredible amount of stress. It's an absorbing read that puts life in perspective.
ReplyDeleteNot my favourite... it was almost written in a monotone.
ReplyDeleteI thought the book really showed how one person's drug addiction can take a whole family down. It was a sad story, but it teaches us once again to stay far away from drugs!
ReplyDeleteAnother good read about this subject is: Beautiful Boy - A father's journey through his son's meth addiction, written by David Sheff
I really did enjoy this book. It gave me a glimpse in to the surrounding lives of a drug addict. It got me going, I was really mad at the boy who was wrecking his families lives by selfishly nursing his habit. It was a good read. It was different from other books that I usually read and I like that.
ReplyDeleteI found this book hard to read. It's well written but it's a big wake-up call to the very real situation Gordie found himself and his family in. I found myself thinking about the affects of a drug addict on a family and I have to say that the author was very right when she wrote in that it would tear up the rest of the family.
ReplyDeleteTweaked was awesome! I loved seeing how Gordie and his family got through Chase's drug addiction. It shows how much drugs can effect people and how greatly it effects not only the drug addict but all their family and friends.
ReplyDeleteI think that Chase's mother was the most interesting character. She tried to help her son, but really, she was doing more damage than good. This irritated me, as a mother and a grown women, she was so niave to what was going on in the family aspect.
ReplyDeleteThis book was a huge wake up call for me. I know someone who has an addiction. Not from cyrstal meth but another one. I know what some of the things they are going through once I read the book. But it irritated me that the mother really wanted to help Chase and kept giving him money but not even trying to have a relationship with Gordie. I knew how Gordie felt.
ReplyDeleteThis book really puts into perspective how easy it is to fall into the whole drug thing and how hard it is to get out. Shows how the drugs drag not just the person addicted to drugs down, but also the entire family.
ReplyDeleteThis book was a bit slow moving but i think its important to read book such as these. They help us remember that there are families going through situations such as these, and gives us an insight on the effects an addiction has not only on the addict but how if effects their whole family..
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