I don't even feel like I can write an adequate review for this heartwarming and vulnerable memoir written by Katherine James about her son. It is a very powerful, moving memoir filled with pain, fear, hope and joy. There is a range of emotions that can be felt when reading this book. The drug addiction problems in America is real and consuming. This book is very eye opening to the addiction and a book to make you stop and think. Excellent writing and reads quickly.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book and give an honest review.

A powerful book that is very eye-opening. Kudos to the author for sharing this story with us. A must read. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.

As a mother to two young teenage boys myself, and living in a world full of addiction and access to all forms of addiction this book was hard to read. If only because it scared me to see a picture of the world that I am not currently familiar with, but that can come knocking at any moment in to anyone's life.

The first section of the book (Part One) was not as well written as Part Two. I felt like it was quite disjointed, and jumped around. It felt like the author might have struggled with her transitions and moving from one idea to the next....it was really quite different to me than Part Two. And I've actually questioned if whether that was done on purpose....since the author does discuss her own mental health issues and how the swings between being a good mom and a horrible one - and the bi-polar nature of it. Her thought process of Part One was more manic than the rest of the book.

In the book A Prayer for Orion we follow the parents of a young man referred to as Sweetboy as he navigates the dangerous paths of drugs, addction and the question of parents when faced with these treacherous realities. Questions such as, "Did we do too much? Was it our fault? Should we have forced rehab or allowed for the law to take the matter into their hands and lock our child up?"

In the beginning I felt like it was easy, as a parent, to say "That is NOT how I would have handled the situation with my son!" But I quickly found that I put myself into the author, the mother's shoes and viscerally wondered what choices I would have made along the way, how I would have tried to support and love my son, and how sometimes as parents we actually can't do enough to fix the problem.

The author referred to God, and to Christian principles that I could relate to, and that reminded me of the second great commandment - to love out neighbor as ourselves. I think that this also includes learning or remembering not to judge anyone. Whether we reserve judgement of the addicted, the supporters, and the parents - withholding judgement and giving an increase in love can be the best support anyone could have who might have gone through this hellish journey.

I would have probably given the book fewer stars based on the first 1/2 of the book....but I felt like it engaged me by Part Two, and I appreciated the flow and message of the story.

(I receive an Advanced Readers Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for my honest review of the book)

I have lived a version of the author's story so its message hit me deeply. This book is a story of grace for the loved ones who blame themselves (even a little) for another person's addiction. It's a story of love and deliverance for the prodigal. It's full of fact and relevance so we can all understand the epidemic we're facing. I want to personally thank the offer for her willingness to share a most tender story.

The experience of reading this book was fundamentally disturbing, despite its "happy ending," and I'm not sure why. It might have been the author's ethereal symbolism and constantly drawing every tiny, innocuous moment from the past into a divine, supernatural web that had profound secret meanings for her and her son. It really felt, for some reason, like a book I could not trust.

The author loves her son. That comes through clearly. Sometimes she sounds very much like an average Christian mom with her instinctive revulsion from texting acronyms ("yo, ima, city words") to saying "if I were a swearing type of girl" and then sort-of-but-not-really writing down swears. Sometimes she sounds like Joan of Arc, seeing visions and God's messages in dreams. I am not at all surprised that she writes poetry.

I tried to "practice not judging," like she says, but I did not succeed. It is not something I am good at doing, even though I keep trying. I don't understand. I don't think I will ever understand.

A memoir of a mother who lost her son to drug addiction.
I was initially intrigued by this book because of the population that I work with at my job, many of which are in rehab or were at one point in their lives for drug use. While I know every drug addiction story is unique and different, this one was a challenging read for me to follow. It flashes forward and back constantly, showing snapshots from her son's childhood as well as her own. Mrs. James is very open, sharing moments in vivid detail that at the time might have been normalized but now looking back, stand out starkly to her. The author also shares about her own struggles with bipolar disorder and questioning if she could have done something differently to save her son.
After a while, the pacing seemed "stuck" and I began skimming more frequently. This book does a good job of showing the raw impact that addiction can have not only on the person addicted, but on their family as well. I think this book does a great job showing the emotional side of the pain that this family was going through, as well as how clinging to the promises of God grew their faith in this terrible time.
There were many parts of the story that I felt seemed a bit unbalanced, dwelling a lot on the past and emotions, and skimming over other parts of the story like rehab and so on.
In the end this book wasn't for me, and was not the easiest to follow.
This review is my personal opinion and I received a complimentary ebook copy of this book. Opinions are my own.

A Prayer for Orion

A Son's Addiction and a Mother's Love

by Katherine James

InterVarsity Press

IVP Books

Christian , Religion & Spirituality


Pub Date 28 Jan 2020


I am reviewing a copy of A Prayer for Orion through Intervarsity Press and Netgalley:



She always thought it would be someone else’s kids, not their’s until Katherine James and her husband found out that their son was using heroin.



This is such an important book for anyone who has been affected by the Opioid Crisis in anyway. Their responses ran from anger to guilt, disbelief and helplessness.



As Katherine and her husband struggled to come to grips with their son's addiction and decide how best to help their son, their home became a refuge for an unlikely assortment of their son's friends, each with a story of their own, drawn by the simple love and acceptance they found there—"the Lost Boys," James calls them.



I give this memoir that is both sensitive and vulnerable while still being hopeful, five out of five stars.



Happy Reading!

I was drawn to this book because of the title and because it is a mother’s memoir about her son’s heroin addiction. Heroin and opiate addiction are a plague upon our nation, and I keep trying to understand it. I know that I am blessed that I have not gone through the agony the author did, but sadly, while reading this book, I learned of the death of an acquaintance from drugs.

This is listed on Amazon as Christian Self-Help, Parenting Boys, and Drug Dependence Recovery. The book is written in a dense and literary style. The effect of this on the reader is that we are not “told”, nor are we “shown”, instead we are plunged and immersed into the mind and feelings of the author. At times this is a beautiful and tragic way to share a story and at times it makes for a read that is hard to understand.

Another aspect of the book that did not resonate with me, was that she referred to her son who had the addiction as “Sweetboy” and his group as “The Lost Boys.”
She made them sound like gang members, like part of “The Outsiders.” I do not know if this was deliberate on her part or not, but it chilled me.

The title comes from Author James’ habit of looking out her window, searching for the constellation Orion, focusing on the 3 stars of Orion’s belt, and praying for each of her three children. This is a mother who clings to prayer and who prayed for her son, and his friends. The sovereignty and omnipotence of God shines through the story.

Thanks to NetGalley, InterVarsity Press and IVP books for a digital advanced review copy. This is my honest review.