Thursday, March 28, 2024
Book Reviews Medical Fiction Psychological Fiction Psychology

Book Review: The Flawed Ones

Photograph by Victoria_Borodinova

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Flawed Ones: A Story of Mental Illness, Addiction and Love by Jay Chirino is an amazing personal story that takes your breath away. Jey Rodriquez is an only child that grew up by two over protecting parents. This kind of parenting did not allow him to develop the proper social skills that are needed to survive in a harsh society. He was bullied at school and ridiculed. He did not have the opportunity to grieve his grandfather death properly. All these had a mental and emotional impact on Jay. At the tender age of nine, he already developed a severe depression. Growing up he developed a love for alcoholic beverages. It was his way of fitting in with the rest of the guys. Without realizing it, it turned into a full-blown addiction. His girlfriend at the time urged him to see a doctor about his problem.

The doctor prescribed him Xanax, and that was downhill for Jay. He started mixing Xanax and alcohol, and that created an even deeper and more dangerous addiction. At some point, his life was only how to acquire the magic orange pills. His addiction cost him the loss of the love of his life and the worsening of his relationship with his parents. The book is written primarily I think to help him understand what happened to him in the past and what is going on with him ten years after his addiction. It is commendable that the author has ten years of sobriety under his belt.

I really connected with the author’s problem because I was a nicotine addict myself and one of the reasons I write books about how to quit smoking and also articles at my blog is to help people and also help my self better understand what happened to me. Furthermore, the writer wrote the book as a way of paying his respects to the people he met while was going treatment. It is a way of saying thank you to them and that they are not forgotten by him. Also, the message of the book aims towards people that are having an addiction and also to the individuals who support and stick by their loved ones that are under drug dependencies.

The book’s beautiful story starts with Jay’s admission to the hospital after trying to kill himself. The book, for the most part, is an excellent monologue of the author. It gives you a realistic picture of what he went through while he was hospitalized for his addiction. His descriptions of the situation he was in and the people he met there are constructed in such a way that it keeps your interest and your curiosity high. The description of his dreams and hallucinations while in treatment, his sessions with his doctor are very entertaining and informational. I especially liked the conversation he had with the clock on the wall of the mental wing he was in. I found that very funny. The most important item I got from the book for me was that you could see step by step of the way a drug addict thinks and behaves.

Then you can observe how with the aid of medicine and counseling the drug addict thinking is replaced by a healthy individual who desires to get better and also dreams of getting back into the society as a useful member,  both to himself and to the people around him. It’s a story with a happy end and I really enjoyed reading it. If you have addiction problems, or you had, or you are a person that wants to help a friend with dependencies issues then this book is for you. It will give you hope and it will show you that you are not alone.

Andreas Michaelides

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