Cathartic Review of Book About an Alcoholic's Daughter

Title : Intoxic

Author : Angie Gallion

Author Website : angiegallion

angiegallion

Genre : General Fiction/Coming of Age

ISBN : 978-1536904055

Amazon Purchase Link  

Reviewed by Jendi Reiter originally for Amazon

5 out of 5 stars

This stunning coming-of-age novel introduces the indomitable Alison Hayes, 

a 16-year-old girl living with her alcoholic mother in a trailer park in small-town Illinois. 

Wise beyond her years, forced into adult responsibility too soon, but a lonely little girl inside, 

Alison shepherds her mother through cycles of recovery and relapse while striving to pass 

the milestones of normal adolescence: a job, a high school degree, a crush on the

perfect-seeming neighbor boy who owns a horse farm. She also copes with the aftermath 

of sexual assault.

This summary may sound depressing, but although Intoxic has many moments of painful 

truth, the tears it elicits are cathartic, and the honesty and courage of Alison as she matures 

will inspire you. Rarely have I read a story so accurate about the complexity of loving and 

hating an abusive mother (and Alison's mother, while she is more tragic than malicious, 

is so neglectful that I must put her in this category). Most fiction about parental trauma 

follows a simplistic narrative arc from anger, to understanding, to forgiveness. 

 spirals through these perspectives, and back again, multiple times throughout the book 

and its sequels. She does not settle on a single verdict on her mother and herself, 

but rather, starts learning to hold all of these contradictions together..

I was especially moved by Alison's pervasive sense of difference from her peers. 

Besides the stigma of relative poverty, she is isolated by the lack of freedom to enjoy her 

youth. She has to worry about paying the bills when other kids are playing sports and

 picking out prom dresses. Nothing can distract from the mission of becoming independent 

of her dysfunctional mother and leaving the small town that knows their shameful secrets. 

This was very true to the experience of having a mentally ill or addicted parent.

The first book ends with a crisis that produces both grief and liberation for young Alison, 

and a mystery to be resolved in the sequel. You will root for her all the way. I swear 

I shouted at my Kindle reader a couple of times, "No, Alison, don't do that!" knowing 

she would have to repeat some of her mother's mistakes, but also having faith 

that she would rise again. What gives one damaged person the drive to learn and heal, 

while another sinks beneath the waves of depression and addiction? Intoxic will not answer 

that question (perhaps no one can) but if you've been on that journey, 

you'll find a friend and companion in this determined young woman.

MORE ABOUT THIS REVIEWER

Jendi Reiter is the author of a poetic LGBT Novel, Two Natures, and editor at the prestigious (and helpful!) WinningWriters.com. Learn more about her at http://www.JendiReister.com.

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