Wasted
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Product Description
Review
As gripping as it is appalling, WASTED is all you could ask of a misery-and-trauma book - it's shocking and it's haunting and it's about one hell of a life (DAILY MAIL )
Review
As gripping as it is appalling, WASTED is all you could ask of a misery-and-trauma book - it's shocking and it's haunting and it's about one hell of a life DAILY MAIL
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Lazy labels like `misery memoir' are slapped onto books of varying quality. Mark Johnson's Wasted, based on his life on the streets, is in a class of its own. It's a harrowing tale with a happy ending and a strong but far from simple message. Mark is an amazing success story, someone who, after years of abuse and addiction, offending and sleeping rough, has gone on to become living proof that rehab works. You could also say he's an example of the wisdom that comes with experience. In telling his own story, Mark is telling the story of other young people, and it's no surprise his ideas about mentoring are now being taken seriously by the probation service in England and Wales. There's nothing self-serving about his recollections, no denial, no preaching. This is the real deal from a writer who is bigger than the story he's telling, and with a story as powerful and compelling as this that's saying something. When Johnson talks about the world he came from, the one he left behind, and the one he wants to help others out of, his writing has the passing bell ring of truth. "Pranged is the tuning fork that never stops vibrating", Johnson says of the comedown from crack, "Pranged is fingernails on metal dustbin lids. Pranged is your body and mind being cut open and exposed to everything sharp in the world", and "pranged" is what the reader feels after putting down this brave, breathtaking, brutally honest book.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a brilliant, honest, and in places shocking, of a man who came up from the very depths of society to make a success of himself. The problems with drugs, his battle with them - and to emerge and make his life a success - simply brilliant, un-put-downable. I wanted to know just how drugs affected people who indulged. Now I do know. Then the fact that he fought back to having a good life.
Cathy Cave
Cathy Cave
19 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"Wasted" is a book that will stop you in your tracks. It's no-holds-barred account of a violent childhood and adult life on the streets is at times painful to read. But its a read that you can't put down and which forces you to turn the page... then the next... and then the next.
Its exactly right that Amazon have paired the book with "Abandoned" by Anya Peters. I've read both and they complement each other perfectly - one describing homelessness and childhood suffering from a male perspective the other giving a female point of view.
Two aspects of both books stand out for me. An eye for the telling detail of everyday life that says so much more than a lengthy descirption. And the voice of the central characters which come across so distinctly. Its as though you are there on the streets yourself: in "Wasted" sleeping rough in doorways, looking for that next fix, in "Abandoned" living in your car, trying to maintain a pretence of normality when your situation is anything but. I couldn't say one book is better than the other. Read them both and its an experience you won't forget.
Its exactly right that Amazon have paired the book with "Abandoned" by Anya Peters. I've read both and they complement each other perfectly - one describing homelessness and childhood suffering from a male perspective the other giving a female point of view.
Two aspects of both books stand out for me. An eye for the telling detail of everyday life that says so much more than a lengthy descirption. And the voice of the central characters which come across so distinctly. Its as though you are there on the streets yourself: in "Wasted" sleeping rough in doorways, looking for that next fix, in "Abandoned" living in your car, trying to maintain a pretence of normality when your situation is anything but. I couldn't say one book is better than the other. Read them both and its an experience you won't forget.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
wasted review
THis is a very interesting book and the life of mark johnson really is one hell of a life. it is well written and hard to put down. Read more
Published 25 days ago by benny boy!!!
honest, articulate & inspiring
This tells the true story of the author's journey from drug abuse and criminality (at an early age) to drug addiction & homelessness and how the guy turned it all around. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Genie
EXCELLENT READ
This brutally honest, well written and truely inspiring autobiography was brilliant to read and is a true inspiration to anyone who is lost in or has been affected by the world of... Read more
Published on 26 May 2010 by melanie cook
A nasty piece of work.
I really enjoyed this book. It was very interesting to read his decet ino drug abuse and am amazed at the quantity of drugs this man consumed but by the end i really didn't like... Read more
Published on 11 April 2010 by Aiden87
Hard to read in parts but worth it!
I think that this book should be used in schools to educate about drug abuse.
The awful childhood life that the writer had to endure may not have happened to them but it... Read more
The awful childhood life that the writer had to endure may not have happened to them but it... Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2010 by Michelle-Conchita
An epic tale of addiction and struggle
Wearing, unsympathetic, violent and self-destructive, that's Mark Johnson's life in the grip of his many addictions. Read more
Published on 17 Jan 2010 by William Cohen
AN EXCELLENT READ
This book is a superb insight into the downward spiral that a life of drugs and alcohol can bring. I use this book as a resource. Read more
Published on 21 July 2009 by Jeannie Payne
Rivetting read
A truly amazing life with the story moving at such a pace it takes your breath away!
Uplifting, depressing, sad, happy, funny. All manner of human emotions are evoked. Read more
Uplifting, depressing, sad, happy, funny. All manner of human emotions are evoked. Read more
Published on 16 July 2009 by G. Nasillo
Wasted
I read this book working with adolescents, I have recommended that some of the adolescents I work with to read this.
Published on 13 July 2009 by Hannah Luck
Everyone should have read this book by the age of 15
This is a tour de force. A wonderfully articulate and emotive journey that grips you from start to finish. Read more
Published on 29 May 2009 by Mr. S. Haillay
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