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Scars from a Memoir

Marni Mann · back to the book

What’s in it

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24 books with the same feel

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Crank

Ellen Hopkins · 537 pages

Kristina is the perfect daughter: gifted high school junior, quiet, never any trouble. Then she meets the monster: crank. And what begins as a wild ride turns into a struggle for her mind, her soul---her life.

AddictionSubstance AbuseContemporary FictionRecovery Journey
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Go Ask Alice

Anonymous · 185 pages

You Can't Ask Alice Anything Anymore But you can do something. Read her diary. Strong, painfully honest, nakedly candid. The actual story of a desperate girl on drugs and on the run who almost made it. --back cover

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Problems

Jade Sharma · 187 pages

"Dark, raw, and very funny, [this book] introduces us to Maya, a young woman with a smart mouth, time to kill, and a heroin hobby that isn't much fun anymore. Maya's been able to get by in New York on her wits and a dead-end bookstore job for years, but when her husband leaves her and her favorite professor ends their affair, her barely-calibrated life descends into chaos, and she has to make some

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Ballads of Suburbia

Stephanie Kuehnert

Ballads are the kind of songs that Kara McNaughton likes best. Not the clichéd ones where a diva hits her dramatic high note or a rock band tones it down a couple of notches for the ladies, but the true ballads: the punk rocker or the country crooner reminding their listeners of the numerous ways to screw things up. In high school, Kara helped maintain the "Stories of Suburbia" notebook, which con

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White Lines

Tracy Brown · 512 pages

Fleeing her home to escape the abuse of her mother's boyfriend, Jada seeks refuge with Born, the neighborhood kingpin, but her new life is threatened by crack addiction, prostitution, a struggle to rebuild her life, and a stormy romance with a street hustler.

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The Clinic

Cate Quinn · 448 pages

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Candy

Mian Mian · 304 pages

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The Empty Room

Lauren B. Davis · 314 pages

Colleen Kerrigan wakes up sick and bruised, with no clear memory of the night before. She vows to quit drinking. It's Monday morning, and she is late for work again. She's shocked to see the near-empty vodka bottle on her kitchen counter. As she struggles out the door to the bus, she fights the urge to have a sip, just to take the edge off. But no, she's not going to drink today. But today is the

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Trainspotting

Irvine Welsh · 352 pages

Scottish writer Irvine Welsh's first novel, Trainspotting, is a collection of short-stories revolving around a group of friends, their drug use, and struggles in the city of Edinburgh.

AddictionSubstance AbuseContemporary FictionRecovery Journey
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Long Bright River

Liz Moore · 473 pages

A female cop begins to fear for her addicted sister. A serial murder is targeting homeless female prostitutes. Can Mickey find her sister before the killer does ?

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Any Woman's Blues

Erica Jong · 373 pages

Any Woman's Blues, first published in 1990, is a tale of addiction and narcissism-the twin obsessions of ourage. World-famous folk singer Leila Sand emerged from the sixties and seventies with addictions to drugs and booze. Leila's latest addiction is to a younger man who leaves her sexually ecstatic but emotionally bereft. The orgasmic frenzies trump the betrayals, so she keeps coming back for mo

AddictionSubstance AbuseContemporary FictionRecovery Journey
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Beautiful

Amy Reed · 240 pages

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Recovery Road

Blake Nelson

While she is in a rehabilitation facility for drug and alcohol abuse, seventeen-year-old Maddie meets Stewart, who is also in treatment, and they begin a relationship, which they try to maintain after they both get out.

AddictionSubstance AbuseContemporary FictionFirst Person Narrator
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Maya's Notebook

Isabel Allende · 408 pages

After the death of her beloved grandfather, nineteen-year-old Maya Vidal, turning to drugs, alcohol, and petty crimes, becomes trapped in a war between assassins, the police, the FBI, and Interpol, until her grandmother helps her escape to a remote island off the coast of Chile where she tries to make sense of her life. After the death of her grandfather, teenager Maya falls into depression, drug

AddictionSubstance AbuseContemporary FictionRecovery Journey
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All Fall Down

Jennifer Weiner · 441 pages

"Allison Weiss has a great job ... a handsome husband ... an adorable daughter ... and a secret. Allison Weiss is a typical working mother, trying to balance a business, aging parents, a demanding daughter, and a marriage. But when the website she develops takes off, she finds herself challenged to the point of being completely overwhelmed. Her husband's becoming distant, her daughter's acting spo

AddictionSubstance AbuseContemporary FictionRecovery Journey
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Demon Copperhead

Barbara Kingsolver · 560 pages

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose." Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in hi

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Factotum

Charles Bukowski · 205 pages

One of Charles Bukowski's best, this beer-soaked, deliciously degenerate novel follows the wanderings of aspiring writer Henry Chinaski across World War II-era America. Deferred from military service, Chinaski travels from city to city, moving listlessly from one odd job to another, always needing money but never badly enough to keep a job. His day-to-day existence spirals into an endless litany o

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Candy

Kevin Brooks · 368 pages

When Joe meets Candy, it seems like a regular boy-meets-girl scenario. They chat over coffee, she gives him her number, and he writes her a song. But then Joe is drawn into Candy's world --- a world of drugs, violence, and desperation. As the dark truth about Candy's life emerges, Joe finds himself facing real danger at every twist and turn. Soon Joe's conflicting emotions begin to mirror Candy's,

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Spin

Catherine McKenzie

"Kate, an undercover newbie gossip reporter, follows a celebrity into rehab to dish all the dirt--but things are always more complicated than they seem in the first charming novel by Catherine McKenzie"--

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The Girl on the Train

Paula Hawkins · 336 pages

A debut psychological thriller that will forever change the way you look at other people's lives. Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason

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The Goldfinch

Donna Tartt · 817 pages

"The Goldfinch is a rarity that comes along perhaps half a dozen times per decade, a smartly written literary novel that connects with the heart as well as the mind....Donna Tartt has delivered an extraordinary work of fiction."--Stephen King, The New York Times Book Review Composed with the skills of a master, The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present day America and a drama of enthra

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The Sun Sister

Lucinda Riley · 848 pages

AddictionSubstance AbuseContemporary FictionRecovery Journey
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