This month we will be reading In Spite of Heroin by Dana Chase!

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Book synopsis

An idyllic upbringing, unconditional love, and the serenity of the Heartland USA were not enough to shield this close-knit family from heroin. In her moving, ultimately hopeful narrative of struggle and redemption, Dana Chase writes unsparingly of how she survived the shock of learning that her beautiful identical twin sons had become heroin addicts and the terror that unfolded as a result.

Chase and her husband returned to North Dakota in 1993 when their twins were ten months old to give them the same benefits she had as a child. But steadfast family values, and the manageable pace of North Dakota did not work their charm this time around. By the time the boys were twenty they were drug dealers, heroin addicts, and felons.

This family’s catastrophic status quo included overdoses, attempted suicide, court-mandated stays at rehab centers, and countless cycles of incarceration, including a federal indictment, none of which had been anywhere near Chase’s maternal radar. Chase had lived her entire adult life believing ‘what you think about, you bring about.’ In spite of her innate optimism she wondered… if I wasn’t thinking about it, how’d I bring it about?

This is a cautionary tale that delivers a blunt impact of reality to any parent who believes ‘this can’t happen to our family’. It portrays a courageous mother and her attempts to save her sons from wasted lives and tragic drug-related deaths.

In Spite Of Heroin reveals a parent’s nightmare and the struggle of a lifetime. Eminently readable, In Spite Of Heroin is a shocking true story that readers will sacrifice sleep to finish.

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