Smacked by Melinda Ferguson

About the Book

For six years Melinda Ferguson was driven by one motivating force - the next hit. For this, she would abandon her promising film-making career, lose her comfortable suburban home, her husband, her two children and, in a gruelling finale to six years of remorseless self-destruction, herself. Rescued from the maw of Hillbrow's drug and prostitution underworld, Melinda not only survived, but recovered to tell this harrowing tale of how an intelligent, middle-class girl from Joburg hits rock bottom, face first, and claws her way back to redemption.

Thanks to Jean Fryer for the review copy

Review

I sat across from Melinda during the introduction lecture of a Publishing Honours course I had started, almost a year ago.  Her bold and bubbly personality took over the room as peacock’s feathers would spread out.  I had seen her book do amazing things at that stage and meeting her only made me want to read it more, again late bloomer here.

If you have ever driven through the streets of Joburg and known the goings on but never seen them first hand, you and I would be in the same boat.  I have never seen a line of heroine, a crack pipe or even a bong (I know what marijuana looks like, thanks to a PowerPoint presentation given on drugs in Grade 3).  So imagine the brutal slap I woke up to with Melinda’s edgy and evocative opening chapter.  She opens your eyes to a hunger, unlike any other and to what extent one would go to feed that hunger: Drugs.  I call Melinda the queen of simile; the tool she uses to wrestle you down and listen (or read).

The entire read made me think it was written for film, a Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels movie ready for screens!  This book becomes more than a crack addiction, it asks questions about God and what of us we really want to show people.  

A gritty tale that will shove itself right up into your perfect little world and scream “Hello, I am addiction”, the question is do you want to face it?

About the Author

Melinda Ferguson is the senior feature writer for True Love magazine. Shortlisted for several prestigious awards, including the Revlon Woman of Courage, she devotes her time to writing and speaking publicly about her battle with drug addiction and raising her sons.

Also see Hooked by Melinda Ferguson

Goodreads | Twitter | Exclusives.co.za