Beth Macy: Finding Tess: A Mother's Search for Answers in a Dopesick America

Tess Henry was an addict. But she was also a loving mother, and she also desperately wanted to get clean. Somehow, she ended up dead in Las Vegas, her body dumped in a dumpster just after Christmas. Tess didn't die of an overdose. Her killer hasn't been found. Finding Tess by Beth Macy follows the story of one of the many people she interviewed for her book Dopesick. Macy follows through Tess's many attempts to get clean, to stop using heroin and prescription pain-killers (oxycontin). It also examines how hospitals, support groups, rehab facilities, and law enforcement all failed her.

This book was eye-opening. Some have tried to call the opioid crisis a pandemic, but it always seems to fall on deaf ears. No one seems to want to listen or solve the problem. Meanwhile, many of the victims are not what we stereotypically think of as druggies. They're white, upper class, straight-A students, and athletes. This image doesn't fit the stereotype. It broke my heart to see how Tess attempted over and over and over to get clean, only to be met with prejudice each time. I truly enjoyed reading this book, heartbreaking though it is.

It is a little difficult to read if you haven't read Dopesick. I feel my understanding of this book would have been totally different if I'd read that before launching into this one. I also felt that occasionally the timeline was hard to follow. Beth Macy bounces around a little in Tess's life, but also between the present and the past.

Overall rating: PG-13 and 5 stars

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