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Shadow People: How Meth-Driven Crime Is Eating at the Heart of Rural America
In April of 2010, award-winning journalist Scott Thomas Anderson received grant funding to study the relationship between methamphetamine addiction and crimes against the innocent. He spent 18 months - between May of 2010 and October of 2011 - working as an embedded reporter with law enforcement agencies, partnering with officers on night patrols, accompanying detectives on warrant searches and probation sweeps, observing SWAT operations and spending hundreds of hours with attorneys and victims' advocates in small-town courtrooms. The result is "Shadow People," a stark and sometimes brutal exploration of America's modern methamphetamine crisis.
- GenresNonfictionCrime
191 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2012
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135 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
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June 12, 2012Scott Thomas Anderson is a fine investigative journalist. "Shadow People" shines a hard unforgiving light upon what is growing in numbers unlike anything in the past in too many of our rural communities. Anderson is opening up to the population that has yet to realize that this is a epidemic in rural counties including Amador where Mr. Anderson is employed by the Ledger Dispatch.
You have only to walk among the people in Amador County to notice the mess these people are. I see them at the gas stations,the casino, grocery stores, living in the woods behind my house. They are called "tweakers". Some skate but an alarming number enter our court system, our jails, our social service agencies, protective services and safe houses. The cost of dealing with these people is staggering. The damage these people do to themselves, the county, and worst of all to their own children scares the hell out of me. There is no silver lining for the children who have been the true victims of this drug. It seems that methamphetamine can take out entire generations...families of addicts getting by often by burglary, robbery, larceny, financial elder abuse, physical elder abuse, identity theft, fraud, mail theft....to pull off just about any crime to continue living in this sub-culture. Scott has successfully opened up to the reading public a real life crisis that even the best of the best in law enforcement, social service, churches - you name it....are coming to the terms of questioning if these counties can survive. It is too risky to guess long term outcome for not just these addicts but the entire communities. Will there ever be a "chance" to get back to a traditional life? I have read this book several times....every time I have more questions than answers. This is serious book for serious people. I can say to any future reader Scott Thomas Anderson is superlative in his depiction of a narcotics like noneother as it exists in Amador County and other rural areas all over America.
You have only to walk among the people in Amador County to notice the mess these people are. I see them at the gas stations,the casino, grocery stores, living in the woods behind my house. They are called "tweakers". Some skate but an alarming number enter our court system, our jails, our social service agencies, protective services and safe houses. The cost of dealing with these people is staggering. The damage these people do to themselves, the county, and worst of all to their own children scares the hell out of me. There is no silver lining for the children who have been the true victims of this drug. It seems that methamphetamine can take out entire generations...families of addicts getting by often by burglary, robbery, larceny, financial elder abuse, physical elder abuse, identity theft, fraud, mail theft....to pull off just about any crime to continue living in this sub-culture. Scott has successfully opened up to the reading public a real life crisis that even the best of the best in law enforcement, social service, churches - you name it....are coming to the terms of questioning if these counties can survive. It is too risky to guess long term outcome for not just these addicts but the entire communities. Will there ever be a "chance" to get back to a traditional life? I have read this book several times....every time I have more questions than answers. This is serious book for serious people. I can say to any future reader Scott Thomas Anderson is superlative in his depiction of a narcotics like noneother as it exists in Amador County and other rural areas all over America.
August 28, 2022
This has been on my to read pile for a long while, but unfortunately it doesn't live up to expectations.
It wasn't until I got to the author's note at the end that I realised who's work I was unfairly comparing this to. In the note the author talks about David Simon and of course that was who lurked in the back of my mind. "Homicide" and "The Corner" are near perfect examples of crime journalism; this is not in the same league.
In places it is overwritten:
"It’s the adagio of the former prairie; a dance of sorrel breeze bending that appears to shudder, almost imperceptively,on the edge of the faint, honey-glazed dusk."
Sun and wind.
It also drags in places which given how short it is, and given that it deals with extreme criminality is pretty awful. It lacks an overarching narrative, and none of the characters are really brought to life. Too much time discussing sun and wind, not enough on people and their motivations.
Writing articles and writing a book require different skillsets;this is an illustration of that.
It wasn't until I got to the author's note at the end that I realised who's work I was unfairly comparing this to. In the note the author talks about David Simon and of course that was who lurked in the back of my mind. "Homicide" and "The Corner" are near perfect examples of crime journalism; this is not in the same league.
In places it is overwritten:
"It’s the adagio of the former prairie; a dance of sorrel breeze bending that appears to shudder, almost imperceptively,on the edge of the faint, honey-glazed dusk."
Sun and wind.
It also drags in places which given how short it is, and given that it deals with extreme criminality is pretty awful. It lacks an overarching narrative, and none of the characters are really brought to life. Too much time discussing sun and wind, not enough on people and their motivations.
Writing articles and writing a book require different skillsets;this is an illustration of that.
September 24, 2024
It was written well, but not the writing style for me. I loved reading about the chapters that covered my home county and surrounding areas. But I definitely struggled to get through it. The writer is a great writer, just not a storyteller in my opinion. But I also know that the book wasn’t meant to be a story but to show the hard truths surrounding the country. It’s just not the right style for me. I finished it, but it took way longer than I would have liked
October 12, 2017
This book was very detailed on the meth epidemic that faces midwest america. This drug destroys people and those around them. Communities are also harmed in the process. I would recommend this book to everyone as it hits close to home as my son lost a good friend to this drug.
July 3, 2021
A departure from my usual genres of choice, but very good.
March 3, 2021
A little hard to get into. Although, I appreciate the chance to read it. I think being more aware of the meth world helps with feeling more compassion for addicts and those that suffer around them.
July 14, 2013
Thia book was put out by the Coalition of Investigative Journalism, and I think the author did a very good job in writing about his experiences when he rode along with the police in several juris-dictions to deal with methamphetamine problems. It is a rather nasty drug because it ages a person before their time, and if people don't sleep or eat, they run the risk of hallucinating and acquring malnutrition. Also, this drug seems to be tied to violence in a lot of people - perhaps the limbic system or amygdala being affected? - but not everyone. People neglect and abuse their children, they don't use the sense God gave them when doing the most simple tasks, and the stuff is basically pure poison. Sodium hydroxide (lye) is one of the components. Now I don't know about you, but I would never want to put Drano into my blooostream, lungs or nose, not to mention the other chemicals used. That's why the smarter "cookers" wear HazMat suits when they deal with the junk. There was a case in Shasta County last year, where the mother of a baby was charged with murder, because she was breast feeding her baby while doing this drug.and the baby died. I know of several cases where people don't come back from their psychoses when they use this, and I've known people who had fatal heart attacks at age 20. The geographical places mentioned in this book included the Gold Country in CA - Jackson, Angels Camp, and Murphys where my great aunt lived all her 103 years. Atlanta, Georgia was also mentioned, the state of Montana and states in the Midwest. The sad truth is the Mexican drug cartels are providing most of it now and it is no doubt in every state in the Union, in addition to other countries of thw world. A Swiss chemist developed it in the late 1800s, and the Japanese Kamikaze pilots, as well as Adolf Hitler and his henchmen used it quite frequently. Since the body is the temple of the soul, I would think that in most people, this drug ia the equivalent of selling one's soul to the devil. One thing I do think: Much more study needs to be done on amphetamines to see why the reactions vary so widely? Caffeine doesn't seem to have the same strong reactions. A very interesting and educational book......
January 11, 2014
Scott Thomas Anderson gives the reader a terrifying look into the world of what must surely be the most insidious drug known to man in this detailed and powerful book that is as hard to read as it is to put down. Here are the rural communities—many of them in my own beloved California—places I have visited and enjoyed—that are being hollowed out by what Anderson terms ‘Shadow People’, many of them multi-generational meth users.
Those of us that feel it’s the individual’s right to put whatever they want into their body will most likely feel differently after reading Shadow People. Meth is not a pleasure drug where the user sits in a corner on an opiated high, harmless as long as the doses are measured and the needles clean. By its very nature meth causes the user to stay awake for days, become unbelievably violent and psychotic to boot. What a combo. In some rural communities, where often only one law enforcement person is available after sundown, an entire underworld thrives, committing up to half the burglaries and taxing the welfare system beyond capacity. The irony of the government restricting ephedrine—one of the core ingredients to making meth—is that the drug cartels and criminal gangs have now taken over what was once a cottage industry and the problem has become logarithmically worse. One tale of a meth-fueled bar fight gone out of control and the lone officer attempting to break it up are only one example. No one would testify against the biker in this case, and who could blame them?
The worst stories are those of the children, raised in the ‘homes’ of meth families. Many follow the same cycle of self-destruction where relapsing for those who attempt sobriety is as high as ninety per cent.
Fortunately, Anderson ends the book on a somewhat positive note, high-lighting the programs that have worked (none used in California oddly, where the meth problem is the worst in the nation) and the selfless law enforcement people who battle meth on a daily and nightly basis. But it’s small comfort. This is much more harrowing that any fiction Steven King could turn out.
An insightful and well-written book. Read at your peril.
Those of us that feel it’s the individual’s right to put whatever they want into their body will most likely feel differently after reading Shadow People. Meth is not a pleasure drug where the user sits in a corner on an opiated high, harmless as long as the doses are measured and the needles clean. By its very nature meth causes the user to stay awake for days, become unbelievably violent and psychotic to boot. What a combo. In some rural communities, where often only one law enforcement person is available after sundown, an entire underworld thrives, committing up to half the burglaries and taxing the welfare system beyond capacity. The irony of the government restricting ephedrine—one of the core ingredients to making meth—is that the drug cartels and criminal gangs have now taken over what was once a cottage industry and the problem has become logarithmically worse. One tale of a meth-fueled bar fight gone out of control and the lone officer attempting to break it up are only one example. No one would testify against the biker in this case, and who could blame them?
The worst stories are those of the children, raised in the ‘homes’ of meth families. Many follow the same cycle of self-destruction where relapsing for those who attempt sobriety is as high as ninety per cent.
Fortunately, Anderson ends the book on a somewhat positive note, high-lighting the programs that have worked (none used in California oddly, where the meth problem is the worst in the nation) and the selfless law enforcement people who battle meth on a daily and nightly basis. But it’s small comfort. This is much more harrowing that any fiction Steven King could turn out.
An insightful and well-written book. Read at your peril.
April 29, 2016
Excellent depiction of crime related to Meth addiction
Very descriptive and raw portrayal of Meth addiction and the crimes these addicts commit. Anyone who has known an addict - known a friend, family member, neighbor, etc. knows it all to be true. We hear about these crimes on the news, and then the headline just goes away sometimes. Many of these horrid crimes we hear about are drug/meth related. Meth is a despicable drug that completely changes the user and destroys families and even communities and the environment. All teens in HS should read this book about dangers of Meth. NA members, family members, too.
Very descriptive and raw portrayal of Meth addiction and the crimes these addicts commit. Anyone who has known an addict - known a friend, family member, neighbor, etc. knows it all to be true. We hear about these crimes on the news, and then the headline just goes away sometimes. Many of these horrid crimes we hear about are drug/meth related. Meth is a despicable drug that completely changes the user and destroys families and even communities and the environment. All teens in HS should read this book about dangers of Meth. NA members, family members, too.
February 6, 2013
Very alarming read for someone contemplating retiring to the "peaceful countryside". From the way this book describes it, many rural communities are crawling with meth addicts who are not only psychotic when on meth but are also working at their "full time job" of stealing to support their habits. Most alarmingly, since the supply of meth has been taken over by the Mexican drug cartels, and since neither control of supply nor of demand seem possible, there is no end in sight. Very scary.
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September 1, 2013(Nonfiction 2012) It is hard to say I "liked" this book, but certainly found it riveting. It was certainly a wake-up call to me, to read the extent to which local people have become involved in meth. It is one of the scariest works I have ever read. I was not aware how easily one can become addicted, and to what lengths people will go to feed the habit, at the cost of all that was ever valued before. I really, really hope it is overstated, but fear it is not.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 2, 2013
It was a gripping novel and an eye opener to me. I live in Calaveras county, walked the streets of sutter creek, jackson and had swimming meets in Ione. My parents and I drive through Ione on our way to our grandmothers house. I never knew this was a huge problem in my hometown. This book made me want to make a stand and help. Though the book left me rather hopeless.
November 25, 2013
This was a horrific experience. Can't say I enjoyed it, as it was so depressing, but that was its intent, so it did its job. Well-written literary journalistic examination of the meth crisis. As a result of reading this book, I don't know if I'd venture back to the California "Gold Country" for a relaxing get away! Anderson is a real pro, and an informative presenter as well.
February 2, 2013
Very interesting, very descriptive, captivating read that makes your heart hurt for these people (especially their kids). If you're interested in the socioeconomic effects of drug use then definitely read this book!
May 7, 2014
I was recommended this book, I found it fascinating. I see it everyday but to see the Police side of meth and the impact it is having on the country.
I told myself I have to increase my nonfiction reading and this was a very good book.
I told myself I have to increase my nonfiction reading and this was a very good book.
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October 25, 2018Shadow People
This book was detailed on how meth affects the rural side of countries. It was a sad depressing book to read, because of all the horrifying things’ meth will make someone do. Methamphetamine is a drug that destroys you, your family, and as we read communities throughout your environment. It is a major addictive drug. Also, it causes so many side effects for someone - for instant you are at a higher risk to have a heart attack, strokes, and seizures. That is not close to all of them either. I think the writer Anderson did a wonderful job gathering as much information about the cause and effects of meth. Anderson spent about eighteen months recording information about what goes on in police world trying to bust people from it. I would recommend this book to someone who knows people who does meth, or lost someone from methamphetamine. It’s frightening to think states we visit often are undergoing such tragic incidents dealing with meth, as Scott Thomas Anderson said California is considered the “Gold Country”. I would have to rate this book ⅘ stars due to the intense research that was done to even write this book. I believe many people who undergo meth could use this book to their benefit.
This book was detailed on how meth affects the rural side of countries. It was a sad depressing book to read, because of all the horrifying things’ meth will make someone do. Methamphetamine is a drug that destroys you, your family, and as we read communities throughout your environment. It is a major addictive drug. Also, it causes so many side effects for someone - for instant you are at a higher risk to have a heart attack, strokes, and seizures. That is not close to all of them either. I think the writer Anderson did a wonderful job gathering as much information about the cause and effects of meth. Anderson spent about eighteen months recording information about what goes on in police world trying to bust people from it. I would recommend this book to someone who knows people who does meth, or lost someone from methamphetamine. It’s frightening to think states we visit often are undergoing such tragic incidents dealing with meth, as Scott Thomas Anderson said California is considered the “Gold Country”. I would have to rate this book ⅘ stars due to the intense research that was done to even write this book. I believe many people who undergo meth could use this book to their benefit.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews