Before I Let You Go in Around the World in 80 Books

Jun 26, 2021 Colleen Chi-Girl rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2021, audiobooks, contemporary, women-centered, illness-suicide-addiction, alabama

3.5 STARS - rounded up for the importance of the subject matter(s).

I wavered back and forth in this book. Loved so much of it and it's such a very important topic - addiction. I was also frequently frustrated about long drawn out parts that felt like gratuitous writing. It could have and should have left something for the reader to deduce on their own. And Rimmer hit so many, many hot spots and button pushers, in addition to addiction.

Here's the gist of it: Lexi and Annie are very close sisters 3.5 STARS - rounded up for the importance of the subject matter(s).

I wavered back and forth in this book. Loved so much of it and it's such a very important topic - addiction. I was also frequently frustrated about long drawn out parts that felt like gratuitous writing. It could have and should have left something for the reader to deduce on their own. And Rimmer hit so many, many hot spots and button pushers, in addition to addiction.

Here's the gist of it: Lexi and Annie are very close sisters growing up, especially after their dad dies and the mom remarries...a controlling man in a cult. Boy, do their lives change. They both eventually leave home at different times. Lexi, the eldest, becomes a successful doctor. Annie is going to be a writer, but a boyfriend gets her to try heroin. She becomes an addict. Whatt!? Here is where the heartache is just beginning.

Cut to the present. Lexi the doctor is leading a busy but happy life with a loving partner, also a doctor. Out of the blue, Annie calls (they haven't spoken in a while because of her addiction and leaving rehab). Big news...Annie is pregnant, but still on heroin. This subject pushes buttons for many of us.

It pushes buttons for me for many reasons. Mainly for an innocent child to likely go through withdrawals, have a low birth expectancy and weight, and later, learning disabilities. There's the sadness of this being an illness that can't be fixed; then all the infertile women who would love to have a child and just cannot. Many more reasons, right?!

The sisters reconnect with Annie giving birth to baby Daisy, going to rehab, and Lexie promises to care for Daisy during Annie's rehab. There is so much court involvement when a child is born to an addicted mother. I learned a lot about the red tape, as well as some of the real safety measures in place for the baby, but it often felt unsupportive and judgemental of the addicted mother.

Their personalities are interesting. Lexie, the doctor, is a bit of an emotional mess who puts us on a rollercoaster, especially as she goes through her own adjustments and acclimates to her new way of life, which includes dissing and shutting out her fiance and becoming erratic.

This audiobook featured 2 very good narrators, but there's so much jumping to conclusions, blaming, whining, complaining, and a lot of anger that it got really tedious in parts. It's not that I didn't empathize with Lexie, far from it, but there were long, drawn out scenes, where less could have been so much more. The reader should be trusted to understand without being spoon fed.

Then the author got back on track and a new problem/drama would occur. I won't spoil it, but it felt like an emotional rollercoaster, as mentioned above, with so many hot spots and secrets revealed.

This is a raw, sad, enlightening novel about dysfunctional families and the horrible power of addiction. Having had a relative of mine go through addiction as a young man, with a very negative outcome, had me interested in learning more through a novel then on Google or in newspapers. It revealed a part of addiction that was very informative through the eyes of Annie.
Definitely worth reading.

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