Book: Sway

 Book: Sway

Author: Matthew Bocchi

Pages: 288

This is my 180th read for the year

This is the story of the author.  Matthew was only 9 years old when his father was killed in the 9/11 attacks.  His father - who worked on the 105th floor was above where the planes hit and knew he would never make it out.  However - Matthew and his three brothers - never could understand why.  At such a young age, they thought their father would walk through the door at any minute.  Once Matthew's father was confirmed dead, Matthew started down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out what happened to his father.  He became obsessed with watching videos of jumpers - tryings to see if one was his father.  In the midst of his grief, a family member who he trusted took his innocence and that, along with the death of his father, sent Matthew down a path of personal distruction.  He spent years uner a fog of drugs and alcohol being well into his 20s before he got help.

This is a hard book to review.  Matthew sustained a terrible trauma with the death of his father and the abuse from an uncle that his path didn't surprise me all that much.  His mother was trying to hold herself together and that of his younger brothers (one that was only a few months old when 9/11 happened) that I think Matthew's struggle got easily overlooked.  Matthew was an adult before he told someone about the abuse.  I was happy to hear that he finally got the help he needed and has been in recovery for a few years now.  I hope it takes.  The downside for me of this book was there was just page after page of drug abuse.  It started strong in the beginning of his tale of what happened after 9/11.  But I don't think there is enough substance of this book to make me give it higher than 3 stars because it was just endless drugs.  And while that was obviously his story, it just got to be overwhelming and I was hoping to read more about his family or his brothers.  It could be that they asked not to be a part of it - who knows.

Tragic story.  I hope his path forward continues to improve.

Stars: 3