What is “normal” anyway?
As Chris’s home life deteriorates and he descends into an abyss, he’s showing up for high school finals so high he can’t even remember his locker combination. While other kids are having Thanksgiving dinner, Chris is chasing his drunk mom down the sidewalk of a strip mall, trying to take her to rehab. He’s winning a cruise to the Bahamas, drinking and pretending to be in his twenties to hook up with someone much older. Bad decisions and misadventures abound when Chris tries his best to be “normal” having no idea how.
Set in the mid-90s outside of Chicago, this riveting memoir—by turns heartbreaking and uplifting—chronicles how a family broken by alcoholism creates an uncertain world for Chris as he stumbles through suburbia, trying to find a way out. Both a cautionary tale and coming-of-age story, “We Are All Made of Scars” is also a rarely seen glimpse into the world of addiction from a teenage boy’s perspective.