Teenage Degenerate: A Memoir that Explores the Depths of Methamphetamine and Drug Addiction
In 1996, Scott was nineteen and lost in adulthood with an endless job and no future ambitions. Teenage Degenerate is his story about drug addiction, music and growing up. Over the course of ten months, he quickly descends into the dark and dangerous world of crystal methamphetamine.
Scott experiments with crystal meth in a dark, deserted parking lot in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado and soon after his crew of misfits will do almost anything for their next high. One by one, family and friends disappear, and he is left alone with a decision to continue fighting or give up. This is his struggle to reclaim a normal life and the search for something real.
Teenage Degenerate is a vivid, heartbreaking, and harrowing story that explores the depths of addiction.
Teenage Degenerate Reviews
Kirkus Reviews: “An unflinching, effective story about the torments of drug dependence.”
“The first time I did crystal methamphetamine I was nineteen,” writes the author as he begins his story, which takes place over 10 months in 1996 and 1997. Scott and his friends went to parties and concerts–readers who are fans of the 1990s alternative scene will find their favorites within–and drugs were a constant throughout.
As the author became more and more dependent on meth, his life began to crumble; he quit his job, broke up with his girlfriend, and spent his time either high or coming off of benders. After further attempts to hold onto jobs failed, he eventually became a drug dealer; he then lost his friends, alienated his family, started going broke, and approached rock bottom. Sterling’s descriptions of his experiences while high are vivid and often disturbing, and he isn’t afraid to show the lengths to which addicts will go for one more fix.
Teenage Degenerate is an unflinching, effective story about the torments of drug dependence and there is enough action make for a quick, compelling read.
Read the review Kirkus.com
AudioFile: “A harrowing account of his addiction to crystal methamphetamine and his subsequent recovery.”
Narrator Sean Hopkins speaks straightforwardly as Sterling neither makes excuses nor blames others as he describes some of the physical costs of addiction, including meth sores, bloody teeth, and painful gums. The people in his circle are distinct, and it’s heartbreaking to hear how often they simply disappear. Listeners won’t be surprised when Sterling begins dealing drugs, narrowly avoiding arrest and maintaining a conscience (unlike his buddies) about such acts as shooting-up in a church. References to his favorite music and to many famous deceased users add atmosphere and context. It’s difficult to hear Sterling’s graphic descriptions, but listeners will want to know what happens next in this cautionary tale.
Read the review AuidoFile.com
IndieReader: “Teenage Degenerate is a heartbreaking, vivid account of the disintegration of human lives caused by crystal meth addiction, and of one young man’s fight to get free before it kills him.”
Teenage Degenerate is a poignant, disturbingly honest account of a young man’s life slipping away under the influence of crystal meth. Sterling doesn’t hold back in his descriptions of the effects of the drugs on Scott’s mind, body, and relationships, and the result is a striking and painful view of the damage that addiction can do to a person and a community.
The book is stark, concise, and quietly dramatic without ever slipping into melodramatic hype or preaching. Its first-person perspective and simple language only make the horrific situations Scott faces appear even more vivid and inescapable.
Read the review IndieReader.com
Examiner.com: 5 Stars
The book is stark, concise, and quietly dramatic without ever slipping into melodramatic hype or preaching. Its first-person perspective and simple language only make the horrific situations Scott faces appear even more vivid and inescapable.
The book is Sterling’s firsthand account of shedding his addiction to dangerous drugs as a way of growing up. His rapid decline once in the clutches of crystal methamphetamine addiction is a horror show magnified to highlight all the worst aspects.
In this book, young, misguided Scott experiments with crystal meth in dark, deserted parking lots all over the suburbs of Denver, Colorado, making and breaking deals among an ever changing smorgasbord of mutated outliers desperate for the next rush of chemicals. Inevitably, trusted family connections wither and atrophy in the wake of that synthetic storm of junk, leaving the author with hard cold facts mandating desperate realignment of his withered sensibilities.