This book is more than just the crisis it goes into the whole issue behind it and around it, from the families to the medical staff in hospitals to paramedics and EMTs, to the police officers on the streets, this just affects so many people that you don’t take into account to reading about them and then you yeah now I see what you are talking about. A very good book.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

American Epidemic covers the insanely important topic of this opiod crisis going on.
This is a powerful, informative and important book.

Read it.

This book is a compilation of articles, which taken together give a clear and fairly comprehensive view of the opioid crisis. The whole situation is just tragic for all involved. The emergency personnel who do their best to save lives are heroes!

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

While this book provided multiple portraits of addiction, it did not teach me anything I didn't know already. At times, it was easy for me to gloss over and skip certain passages that were redundant. America's heartland is being decimated by a drug that Big Pharma pushed and doctors handed out like Halloween candy.

What was most frustrating about this book was the organization. Organized into two parts ("Reporting and Essays" and "Treatment and Solutions"), the types of reporting in each section vary in style and voice, from regional newspaper reporting to The New Yorker to The Atlantic to online magazines and news outlets. Toward the end of the volume, "H: On Heroin and Harm Reduction" a piece from the literary magazine told in the second person is jarring before and after hard news reporting. By the end, I'd wished that the pieces were organized by type/genre.

This was such a good read and I am really glad I picked it up. Having this be a compilation of articles was such a good idea. It made it very accessible to people (like me) who want to learn more about the opioid crisis without being to difficult to understand. All of the people and situations mentioned were talked about in such a humane way without taking away the agency of everyone involved. It also mentions other sources regarding the subject, so if you were looking to read more in depth you would know where to start. A very important read and I would highly recommend it to anyone!

This is a compilation of newspaper articles written from around the United States. Dealing with every single aspect of the drug war and the addiction epidemic.
I thought that this book was going to be another tried and true story look at the Opiod epidemic. It is, but its also so much more.
Its about the cops, the paramedics, the addicts, the families, the entire medical system.
I learned some new information about how to support someone going through addiction.
I hope that more people can read and learn from this book.
Overall its a good read, a hard read, but an important read.