Crystal Lies

By Melody Carlson

Book Overview

A Son's Addiction. A Mother's Heartbreak. A Family's Crisis. As the wife of a prominent city attorney and the mother of two teenage children on the brink of adulthood, Glennis Harmon lives the kind of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1578568404
• ISBN13: 9781578568406
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: PRH Christian Publishing
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.2" x 0.9" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Drugs hurt everyone. Any questions?

Glennis thought she had the perfect family. She thought everyone was happy and this was the way her life was always going to be. But then she learns her son has a drug addiction. And she will do anything to protect him and help him out. However, her husband wants nothing to do with him because it will harm his career. Her daughter blames her brother and mother for everything bad happening in the family. The family because ripped apart and soon Glennis finds out there's nothing she can do about it. Are you a fan of happy books that sugar coat life and make you feel warm and cozy inside? Well then you will be in for a shock after reading this book. I'm not an expert on crystal meth so I learned a lot from reading this book. Reading about how the family got torn apart because of the drug addiction was very difficult. Everyone turns against each other, the family didn't have a good sense of unity. Since I've read many Melody Carlson books, I was prepared for a gritty, realistic story that would not hide back any details. Well reading this book was like a punch in the gut. The scene where Glennis finds the stash of needles under Jacob's bed and he keeps lying to her about them was very emotional. You really could feel her character wanting to break down at that point. Now there were times during the book where I wanted to yell at Glennis because she kept ignoring the signs of her son's addiction. Of course I know as a parent, there are times where you turn a blind eye because you want to see the best in your kids. It just made the story sadder because things could have been prevented if people had just noticed earlier. I think the best thing about this book is how realistic it is. There is a note in the beginning of the book where the author writes about how she knows what it's like first hand to be the mother of an addict. I believe this book should be read by everybody. It's a heart wrenching tale but the events mentioned take place every day. It's a sobering (no pun intended) read will really shake you up. VERY HIGHLY recommended.

great book

As a woman married to an alcoholic, this is a great book. It deals very accurately with how addictions affect families and how they can deal with them in so many different ways. I am so glad this book has been written. Wish more were like this. I really recommend this book!!!

Wonderfully written, honest and accurate

I've worked in the field of addiction for over 15 years and Melody's story Crystal Lies is an emotionally accurate and powerful illustration of the damage that drug addiction causes in families, right down to utter devastation. Especially intravenous drug addiction. Meth is one of the most destructive drugs available today. If one of my sons was addicted to that poison it would no doubt destroy me emotionally if I didn't have Christ to carry me through. Melody shows how God can use tragedy to grow the believer in their faith and how God uses the love and support of others to bring the hurting into a realm of healing. For any parent dealing with addiction or even the spouse of an addict, this book is a must. Excellent story.

Meth = DEATH

This was a very quick and entertaining read. I didn't find out until afteward, but the author is known as a Christian author, and while God and church and faith were mentioned quite frequently in the book, it didn't take away from the plot. It is about a family torn apart by their son's addiction to Crystal meth. It is heartbreaking at times and it definitely engages the reader.

A realistic story with spiritual content and no preaching

Glennis Harmon's life is wedged firmly between a rock and a hard place: her unforgiving, tough-love-minus-the-love husband, Geoffrey, and their drug-abusing, lying-through-his-teeth son, Jacob. When the conflict between the two men drives a wedge between her and her husband, Glennis opts to provide a safe place where her son can get the love and support she believes he needs. In doing so, she places her marriage on the line and threatens to do more harm than good to Jacob. It doesn't help that Sarah, the Harmons' college-age daughter, has planted herself firmly in her father's camp, providing little comfort to Glennis and none to Jacob, who at 19 has traded in school for a string of dead-end jobs and a group of deadbeat friends whose main goal in life is to partake of the narcotic du jour. It also doesn't help that Geoff Harmon serves in a high-profile position as city attorney, or that the Harmons are well-known in the community as a model church-going family. Hesitant to expose her family for what it has become, Glennis keeps the worst of her pain inside, hiding it even from her friend Sherri. But the situation with Jacob escalates --- or degenerates --- to the breaking point for her. She shares the truth about Jacob's addiction with Sherri, who proves instrumental in helping Glennis navigate her way through the mess her family is in --- a mess that includes the secret life Geoff has been living for six months or more. Embedded in the title CRYSTAL LIES are at least three symbols integral to the plot: the false promises of crystal meth, Jacob's current drug of choice; the transparency of the many lies Jacob tells his mother and himself; and a Waterford crystal vase that represents the Harmons' shattered marriage. Carlson's treatment of those themes and others sets her apart from many of her peers; with each of her recent books, she further reinforces her fearlessness in handling difficult issues in a realistic and often gritty way not generally seen in Christian fiction. The spiritual element is very much a part of the story, and it is blessedly well integrated into the dialogue and story line. Carlson provides spiritual content without ever preaching or inserting sermonettes into her characters' conversations. And unlike the typical, fictional Christian family, the Harmons sound like a real family: Jacob quit youth group in middle school; Glennis gets mad at God, sneaks a cigarette outside church (just once, but still...), and realizes that the Christian life is not all her church tried to make her believe it would be; various family members use words like "suck" and "freaking" and no one freaks out; and a remorseful Geoff makes a decision about their future that is utterly unpredictable. Every aspect of this story rings true. Anyone who has been involved to any extent with an addict will recognize the all-too-familiar behaviors, which Carlson so capably describes: "It seemed to happen every time Jacob had gotten involved in drugs. It was