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Just like with oh so many self-development books, the temptation to turn common sense ideas into an overreaching "innovative" framework did not escape this one as well. While the core of the book could probably fit in 20 or 30 pages, it is instead stretched significantly with meaningless filler and those wonderful examples supporting the premise oh-so-conveniently and ranging from life changing experiences to big companies suddenly seeing the light and reinventing themselves (out of perverted curiosity, I did a very cursory research on Alcoa, prominently featured in the book, only to find it perennially marred in scandals and lawsuits - go figure).

All in all it is not a bad book. However, I strongly feel that my original disdain for "book summarizing" services is slowly evolving - it seems like those services are a perfect fit for books like this, where a 10-page summary would save me a lot of time wading through the padding and author's garrulity.

WHAT I LIKED. The book is a wealth of information and research on the narcotics epidemic in the United States. It covers a massive swath of events (some of them rather incidental) that resulted in what we call the "opioid epidemic" and what ravaged not just urban megapolises but also the Heartland of America. Mr. Quinones takes a systematic look from many different angles and the volume of data and histories he collected for it is quite immense. Knowing virtually nothing about it, I learned a lot.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE. The Author's writing style is rather peculiar. First of all - it jumps around the storylines and timelines, a lot. While it is sometimes an effective writing device, in this particular case it makes the overall narration choppy and quite annoying. Surely, the book covered several narratives, but the way they were presented wasn't helpful.

Secondly, the narration gets quite repetitive - a lot, actually. There are probably more than a dozen of long passages where the Author elaborates again and again the technical details of the Xalisco Boys operation. Other storylines get the same treatment with multiple long recaps. This quickly loses novelty and makes the book quite dull to read. More than once I felt that each chapter was originally intended as a separate magazine article.

To sum it up, the topic is extremely interesting (and terrifying, actually) and I highly recommend the book. But you might struggle plodding through it.