Love Is the Drug

by Sarahbeth Purcell

Wonderfully empathic, smartly comic, and wickedly insightful, this captivating debut novel maps the progress of an unforgettable young woman endeavoring to mend a broken heart and find salvation.

"Hello, my name is Tyler Tracer and I am falling apart. I am twenty-four years old, and I have no ability whatsoever to choose an occupation or a hair color."

Meet Tyler, the singularly irresistible and straight-talking heroine of Sarahbeth Purcell's touching first novel. An incurable romantic, Tyler's chief obsessions include music, list-making -- and David, the man who broke her heart. Despite an exhaustively detailed list of reasons for why she should just forget about David once and for all -- including (but by no means limited to) chronic illness, terminal self-absorption, and geographical inaccessibility -- Tyler remains hopelessly hooked on him. Hence the wild ride she embarks upon in the wake of her father's death, a ride that takes her from her hometown in Tennessee to sunny Los Angeles, all in hopes of saving David from his ominous take on life.
This hilarious and dark cross-country expedition finds our young heroine negotiating the universally perilous terrain of sex, love, and relationships with uncommon verve, wit, and more than a little recklessness. Along the way, Tyler discovers, among other things, the uniquely redemptive powers of roadkill, the fact that enduring love tends to blossom in the most unexpected and unlikeliest places, and, above all, that nothing can stop her from making her own rules and mapping out her own life. Not even herself.
A joyous triumph of a debut to which readers will respond with a sense of instant recognition, Sarahbeth Purcell's Love Is the Drug spins a story of bold living and loving that crackles with energy and innovation.

Genres: Fiction, Music, Chick Lit

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Sarahbeth Purcell was born in Nashville, Tennessee, where she still resides.

Sarahbeth's novel, LOVE IS THE DRUG, was released by Atria/Simon and Schuster in hardback in 2004 and paperback in April 2005, with congratulatory review from publisher's bible "Booklist", among others.

Sarahbeth's second book, THIS IS NOT A LOVE SONG, was released in stores Nationwide by Simon and Schuster / Washington Square Press, April 11, 2006 as well as for download on ebook format via Simon and Schuster's website.

After her second book was published, Sarahbeth concentrated again on her visual art and photography hobby, with gallery exhibitions and sales nationwide.

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I totally related to this book. I dated a guy for six years. It was a toxic relationship... and it took me a long time to get the courage and strength to move on.

Love is the Drug takes you on one girl’s journey to find herself. Although she explains her boyfriend, David, she does so through an obscured lens- so the reader never really knows him. The boyfriend exists on a third level of character. This is done so you see only through Tyler’s perspective. The novel revolves around lists of Tyler’s “top tens”. Each chapter begins with a new top ten list and then the chapter develops these ideas. There are many questions you as the reader ask while reading and in the end everything becomes clear and you develop a new respect for the writer.

[Janelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tyler is “irresistible” huh?

Man, you've got to be kidding me.

I'm irritated. Seriously irritated. I had high hopes for Purcell's Love is the Drug. After reading books about straight-talking, strong and feisty female protagonists I thought maybe I should give this one a shot. I mean, what person hasn't been where Tyler's been? Who hasn't liked or loved a person who didn't necessarily reciprocate those feelings? Who hasn't sat around with their gallon of ice cream (or, let's be honest, bottle of wine) and mourned that for a little while. I know I have. The difference is for a little while.

Tyler has only known this guy for a couple of months and most of that is from the Internet. She leaves Nashville for California to spend a few weeks with this guy who, after the first glorious day or two, wants essentially nothing to do with her. The thrill is gone. So she leaves back for California, desolate and heart-broken.

(Btw: this guy is a LOSER. There is not one redeeming quality given to this character to make us understand why she 'loved' him in the first place.)

She returns back to CA and has to deal with her father dying and her supposedly dysfunctional family, who have made her the way she is. Even in these moments, she's still obsessed with David.It takes her father's last note to her, reminding her of all that she wanted to accomplish, to get her moving. So she does. She leaves Nashville...

With the goal of rescuing David from himself.

GIVE ME A BREAK. I mean it. I don't think I've been this disgusted with a character for a long time. It literally takes Purcell 117 pages of a 212 page book to show Tyler even considering somewhat of a change. Even when she works her way through the list of things she wants to accomplish, she's doing all of it with David in mind. Along the way, she meets another guy who makes it all better for awhile. Completely out of left field, it's a rock star who sweeps her off her feet.

Why couldn't this woman learn to stand on her own two feet? Why would you automatically throw her into the arms of someone else right after SHE ATTEMPTS SUICIDE? ( Btw, the way she's cured from this suicide makes me want to kick someone in the teeth. I'll just say it involves an armadillo.)Why not have her get help? Where on earth are her FRIENDS (There are two mentioned and she only interacts with each once) to help her through this?

Tyler's low self-esteem and self-respect is allegedly the fault of her family. We're not given any evidence of this until the end of the book. Her family is mentioned several times but, even when she's living with them, there is very little interaction. Still, she must rid herself of this poison. She must walk away.

I don't know what I was supposed to come away with, what meesage I was supposed to get. I just know that I spent a little while with a woman who made me cringe. The last few pages of the book made me angry. This character showed no growth, (in my opinion) no depth and she, even though depressed and 'broken, evoked no sympathy.

Music lovers may love this book. She makes a lot of music references (Don't get excited...She's no Vinyl Princess) and uses them to influence many of her top ten lists, which I actually enjoyed. Too bad this wasn't a book of Top 10 lists.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

i'm reading this purely based on the Roxy Music reference in the title.

alright so this was a bit tough. i had moments of completely sympathizing and loving the main character (and her lists) even if her whining was a little self indulgent. but who hasn't been there? however the last few chapters were just so unbelievable and weird, that i ended up being really disappointed. if i could, i would give this 2 1/2 stars.

[patrice · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m not even sure 20 year old me would have liked this. Inconsistent. Boring. Extremely problematic “cleansing” via attempted suicide after which we are led to believe she is suddenly grounded has clarity on what she has needed all along? Nah.

This character also thinks Coldplay is the greatest band known to man. So, y’know, one star.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, quick distraction: dark, yet funny debut novel.

[Jessica Gadziala]

Oh, another story about a woman in love with a man who doesn't love her back. I know, sounds overdone and cheesy and a tad bit boring. However, with Purcell's unique writing style and knack for details, this was one of the best books I have read in a long while.
We meet Tyler, an intelligent and introspective unemployed list-maker who just recently left her entire life behind to move in with a man she had fallen in love with over the internet. As it turns out, however, David is not who she expected him to be and she was left to make a decision- try to eek it out and make a life with David or cut her losses and move on.
A fast-faced novel, often amusing, often sad we are pulled into Tyler's sudden cross-country expedition to find herself, to cross off things on a list she wrote many years before - a list of things to do before she dies. Along the way she learns a lesson about smoking, how affectionate armadillos can be and that, sometimes, it really truly does come down to the right place, the right time, and the right mindset.
I highly recommend it.

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

From wrongly quoting the Saved By the Bell episode in which Jessie Spano od's on caffeine pills to the protagonist's total love of Coldplay to her complete lack of any kind of significant personal insight to the the inexplicable turnaround at the end--this book just doesn't work. It reads like a melodramatic college girl's journal. Not a precocious college student, just that boring, self-destructive girl down the hall who thought she was the first person to endure personal struggles.

I think the author is trying to be culturally relevant and to make sort of inside generation jokes, but as I said--she misses even the simplest and best known references.

What killed me most was that this supposedly die-hard rocker chick only really gushes over Coldplay. *ahem*

weak.

[Tom Hancock · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have just finished Love Is The Drug. Not a bad read. I liked the main character. And that's about all the book is about. There are plenty of lists of things. And of course lots of pop culture and music references. But the story is about the main character Tyler at twenty-four and her coming to terms with love. Or what she thinks is love. After all, she is only twenty-four.

[Rey Montaño · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read it years ago and loved it. I read it again about 4 years and many experiences later and related to it but didn't like it as much anymore. Probably because it brought back horrible memories, and because it was cheesy at times.

[Angela Soleno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chic book!! Loved it. I remember this from it, even though I read it years ago, "I was waiting for something to happen, but it didn't.' The author fills the book with relatable quotes like that that make you want to change your situation (only if its bad or going nowhere of course).

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a "chick book", I found myself identifying easily with Tyler and even more horrifyingly with David. I knew the blackness in Tyler that threatened to consume her and as soon as I put this book down, I knew that I wanted to make a movie based on it. One day, I hope to get the chance.

[christa · Rating 2 out of 5]

i accidentally read this right after reading something good. inconsistant plot and cheesy.

[Rina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beginning and end was great - smart, cute and funny. I couldn't give it more than 3 stars because the middle didn't grab me as much and I was just hoping it would get better, and it did.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny. Good. Little bit dirty.

[Kyra Leseberg (Roots & Reads) · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book was awful. nothing more to say.