Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

Book Summary and Reviews of Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

Beautiful Boy

A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction

by David Sheff

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Published:
  • Jan 2009, 352 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About this book

Book Summary

What had happened to my beautiful boy? To our family? What did I do wrong? Those are the wrenching questions that haunted David Sheff's journey through his son Nic's addiction to drugs and tentative steps toward recovery.

Before Nic became addicted to crystal meth, he was a charming boy, joyous and funny, a varsity athlete and honor student adored by his two younger siblings. After meth, he was a trembling wraith who lied, stole, and lived on the streets.

David Sheff traces the first warning signs: the denial, the three a.m. phone calls' - is it Nic? the police? the hospital? His preoccupation with Nic became an addiction in itself. But as a journalist, he instinctively researched every treatment that might save his son. And he refused to give up on Nic.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

#1 New York Times bestseller

"Filled with compelling anecdotes and important insights ... An eye-opening memoir." - Washington Post

"An honest, hopeful book, coming at a propitious moment in the meth epidemic." - Publishers Weekly

"An excellent book that all parents can relate to whatever their children's situation." - Library Journal Starred

"Those of us who love an addict ' - or are addicts ourselves ' - will find Beautiful Boy a revelation." - Martin Sheen, actor

"A welcome balm to millions…who thought they were making this journey alone." - Armistead Maupin, author of The Night Listener

"This book is going to save a lot of lives, and help heal…hearts." - Anne Lamott, author of Grace (Eventually)

"…moving, timely, and sobering. It's also startlingly beautiful." - Sir Richard Branson, chairman, Virgin Group

"An extraordinary story of pain, perseverance and hope." ' - William C. Moyers, author of Broken

"When one of us tells the truth, he makes it easier for all of us to open our hearts to our own pain and that of others.' That's ultimately what Beautiful Boy is about: truth and healing." - Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia

This information about Beautiful Boy was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

David Sheff Author Biography

Photo: Bart Nagel

David Sheff is the author of multiple books including the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Beautiful Boy, which was recently turned into a movie starring Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Outside, Rolling Stone, Wired, Fortune, and elsewhere. His piece for the New York Times, "My Addicted Son," received an award from the American Psychological Association for Outstanding Contribution to Advancing the Understanding of Addictions.

Sheff graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. He lives with his family in Northern California.

Link to David Sheff's Website

Other books by David Sheff at BookBrowse
  • The Buddhist on Death Row jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more biography/memoir...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: The Book of George
    The Book of George
    by Kate Greathead
    The premise of The Book of George, the witty, highly entertaining new novel from Kate Greathead, is ...
  • Book Jacket: The Sequel
    The Sequel
    by Jean Hanff Korelitz
    In Jean Hanff Korelitz's The Sequel, Anna Williams-Bonner, the wife of recently deceased author ...
  • Book Jacket: My Good Bright Wolf
    My Good Bright Wolf
    by Sarah Moss
    Sarah Moss has been afflicted with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa since her pre-teen years but...
  • Book Jacket
    Canoes
    by Maylis De Kerangal
    The short stories in Maylis de Kerangal's new collection, Canoes, translated from the French by ...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

X M T S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.