Maddie, a sixteen year old high school student, is off to rehab. She has a serious substance abuse problem and was left with no other alternatives in her young life than to go into a treatment facility before she even comes close to walking in a cap and gown.
In the Spring Meadow rehab center she meets fellow teenager Trish and slowly builds a friendship based on their common struggle. Trish becomes a confidant and sounding board as well as a source of entertainment. Maddie also meets Stewart, devilishly handsome, punk rocker type who checked into the center several weeks before Maddie's checkout date. The two become very close, fall in love and have to navigate sober living with graduating high school and living hours apart.
Upon Maddie's release from treatment, she leaves Stewart and goes back to high school in an attempt to graduate and move on to college. She finds that her friends before can no longer be her friends after if she wants to stay sober, which she does. The social adjustment comes with ups, downs, temptations and triumphs. She struggles with the changes but finds herself making it one day at a time with the help of some unlikely individuals.
A series of tragic and violent events test her resolve and commitment to sobriety while she is trying to completely turn her life around, mend broken relationships, and become the person she thinks she can be.
This book is classified YA and reads like one but it deals with difficult subject matter. The most difficult part about this is that these issues are not over exaggerated and do happen to kids this young. In a world where 12 looks like 25, pre teens and teenagers come face to face with the harshness of reality at an increasingly early age. All it takes is one time for an experience to morph into a habit which morphs into an addiction.
I have a bit of an issue with the story because it seems like Maddie's transition is too easy. For anyone who has ever swore to themselves they would stop a behavior knows the roller coaster of successes and failures. The first several days you are completely determined and think you are in complete control but then just as suddenly things go off the rails; multiple that times ten for someone who is addicted and not just wanting to change aspects of their lives.
This book does however deal honestly and truthfully with the social changes that happen when a person gets sober. Free times change, associates change, ideas of a good time change, everything about that life changes. It takes time to adjust and find what a new normal is. Substance abuse is a lifestyle and non abusive is another lifestyle. These days it seems like everyone knows someone who has an addiction whether it be drugs, alcohol, food, gambling...everyone is fighting a battle and everyone can benefit from taking a step back from judgement and look to make a positive impact in that persons life.
This book is a good poolside/beach read. It has short chapters, moves incredibly quickly and will keep you interested. Does Maddie stay sober? Does she end up with Stewart? Does she graduate high school and make it to college? To find out, pick up Recovery Road today.
2.5 out of 5
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