An informative look at what it means to overcome addiction.
One woman’s long journey out of sex addiction, among other struggles.
Debut author Sprout begins her story with her childhood, and in the first chapter, she abruptly states that her maternal grandfather was a pedophile. Although the author writes that she herself never fell victim to her grandfather’s abuse, she says that her formative years contained many other troubling influences, including alcoholism, religious fervor, and abusive comments from her own father. Later, while she was in college and ostensibly free from her parents, Sprout’s personal life was a whirlwind that included infidelity, binge-eating and -drinking, and a growing fascination with pornography. At the same time, she began to develop an interest in mental health issues, and she eventually received a master’s degree in social work. Following graduation, she was able to find work in her chosen field, but her adulthood eventually became just as complicated and troubling as her early college years. Sprout writes that she came to find herself at the mercy of a pushy therapist (who, she says, would form a bizarre attachment to the author’s sister); she also abused the spending power of credit cards and ended up in a long-term relationship with a jazz musician and self-proclaimed sex addict named Jason. His open identification as someone who was addicted to sex initially shocked her: “the second I heard the words ‘sex addict,’ I started getting overriding input from normally dark corridors inside my mind.” As time went by, though, she wound up applying the same label to herself. Some details of the author’s past aren’t graphically described in this memoir; for instance, readers are told of Sprout’s obsession with pornography, but it doesn’t reveal very much about the specifics of that obsession. Instead, the focus of this book is on the author’s recovery. The crux of the story involves Sprout’s attempts to obtain some level of normalcy in her life as she worked through 12-step programs, her financial difficulties, and the process of making peace with members of her family. It’s depicted as having been a long and difficult battle overall, although it wasn’t without its surprises, as well. The author finds moments of comic relief in New Age practices and incompatible mental health professionals; take, for instance, a member of a drum circle who says of a clothing-optional solstice celebration, “There’s drumming there, right? What could go wrong?” That said, the tone of the book is an earnest one, and the author’s point of view is honest and relatable. A curious reader who fears that he or she might be suffering from similar problems, or who knows someone else who is, couldn’t expect to find a more welcoming place to begin their investigation than this memoir. Throughout, the author is courageously frank about her own past as well as her family’s. In her story, readers will see that, even with the aid of sponsors and well-established protocols, recovery is not a simple or glamorous process.
An informative look at what it means to overcome addiction.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9962668-1-9
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Recontext Media
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
