Breaking Good

A Memoir

De: Nikki Mammano

Narrado por: Cassidy Brown

An evocative, insightful, and unflinchingly raw odyssey of addiction, recovery, and the criminal underworld of Waikiki.

When the drug habit Nikki thought she'd kicked ends her brief stint at the University of Hawaii, she starts flipping her stash to make ends meet. Before she knows it, she's an up-and-coming player in Waikiki's drug trade, the new "it girl" on the scene who can always get you what you need to keep the party going.

But every party winds down eventually, and Nikki soon finds herself face to face with the consequences, her life threatened by her "colleagues," and her freedom threatened by law enforcement. With nowhere left to run, her past finally catches up with her, forcing her to confront the trauma that set her down this road so many years ago.

From the suburbs of New Jersey to Hawaii's tropical shores and back again, Breaking Good takes a frank, insightful, and darkly funny look at addiction, the trauma at its core, and the long, winding road to healing and redemption.

©2026 Nikki Mammano (P)2026 Tantor Media

Places I didn’t know I could go

This memoir took me deftly into lives I’ve never known, I hope the author keeps healing, but I hope she doesn’t stop writing.

This book has given me more empathy.

Before reading this book, I honestly had never thought about life from the perspective of drug dealers. It is a scene so far removed from my life that I had never even considered it. This book has shown me the struggles and the trauma that leads people into the world of drugs, and I’m now more sympathetic for those who end up addicted. This book also shows that it really is possible to turn one’s life around for the good, and that it may be worth giving people second chances.

So fake

Just not realistic AT ALL. I couldn’t finish it - I’d have hurt myself rolling my eyes.