Sherry Johnson is young, beautiful, bright and athletic. She has everything going for her, except for one thing. She is addicted to love. Her life is a vicious circle of nightly trysts and morning regrets. Her addiction got her kicked out of college, cost her the love of her life and has left her in complete despair. But still Sherry keeps falling in love. And falling. And falling. Finally, as Sherry struggles to pull herself up from a bottomless abyss, she realizes that she will have to learn to love the one person she has loathed for most of her life. Herself.
*May Contain Spoilers*
Stephen Bradlee goes no holds barred with his novel, Falling in Love, a fictional piece based on a true story of sexual addiction.
The realness of this novel was shocking and emotionally astounding.
Sherry, who tells the story from her own point of view, is a troubled young woman who was raised in a world full of emotional and physical abuse. She's honest, blunt, psychologically unstable, and wants to share her story with the world so that others may believe that after the storm comes the calm.
Sherry is such a strong character even though she is plagued with sexual addiction. She fights herself every step of the way, knowing that in order to survive life she must make some very big changes. The first, and hardest, being to find a way to love herself.
Readers will connect with her based on her intense honesty and desire to make her life better. After growing up in a home where she was sexually molested, mentally abused, and with the knowledge that her mother deserted her, Sherry still desires a better life for herself and is willing to travel the deep roads of depression to find it.
Her story is startling. It leaves an echo of unbelievable truth. I wouldn't recommend this to every reader; many of Sherry's accounts are difficult to read because of the graphic nature. However, Bradlee writes this novel with nothing but Sherry's version of a stark reality, relaying a side of life that many of us have never encountered nor understood. In doing so, he gives readers a glimpse of what power addiction holds over its victims.
Rating: 4/5 cups
