Finding Tess

A Mother’s Search for Answers in a Dopesick America

By: Beth Macy

Narrated by: Beth Macy

Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's Summary

On Christmas Eve, 2017, Tess Henry was found dead in a dumpster in Las Vegas. Tess was a 28-year-old new mother, a former honor roll student, and a high school basketball player from suburban Roanoke, Virginia, a place ravaged by the national opioid crisis. The New York Times best-selling author Beth Macy chronicled Tess and her mom, Patricia, through Tess' harrowing, years-long battle to recover from heroin addiction in her award-winning book Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America. But just as Tess was on the brink of returning to a normal life with her young son, she was brutally murdered.

Finding Tess: A Mother’s Search for Answers in a Dopesick America is a psychosocial autopsy of sorts, not just a retracing of Tess’ final steps on the streets of Las Vegas but also a dissection of what went wrong during the six-year span of her opioid addiction as well as the changes inspired by her story. This exclusive audio documentary - a coda to Dopesick - features interviews with Tess, her family, and many of those who tried to help her along the way as well as the systems and the people who failed her. By tracing Tess’ final steps as she tried so hard to make her way back to Virginia - and to her son - Finding Tess illuminates a journey shared by too many of the 2.6 million Americans battling opioid addiction, offering lessons from a cast of unlikely heroes and, along with them, hope.

©2019 PaperGirl, LLC (P)2019 Audible Originals, LLC

Exhausting and heartbreaking

This story is heartbreaking for the obvious reasons. A white girl of privilege destroys her life, as well as those around her, with her descent into heroin addiction, and crystal meth, Xanax and pretty much anything else she can get her hands on. It's exhausting because both her mother (Patricia) who is featured in the story, as well as the author, go to Herculean lengths to minimize and mitigate the horrendous decisions made by Tess, over and over. Nothing is ever her fault. It's the system, the treatment providers, her friends, her son's father etc etc. Not surprisingly, the story ends badly for Tess . Based on the tone of this story, you would think she should be nominated for sainthood.

I've worked with addicts for 25 years. Yes, addiction sucks. Yes, it's demeaning, demoralizing and destructive to everyone it touches. In my opinion, a much more interesting story would be to look at why some people get sober and have success in recovery. I can say with absolute certainty, enabling them, and justifying and minimizing their disastrous decisions isn't the answer.

Too One-Sided

I feel like the author was too involved in this story to be anything resembling impartial. So much blame was placed on various people and institutions throughout the book. And Tess’s mom really, really needs therapy. She’s put Tess on a pedestal and blames everyone else, including Tess’s dad and siblings, for not being there for Tess, which is sickening. This book was at times enlightening, but overall very disappointing.

No Accountability

This story bends over backward to blame everyone / anything besides Tess for her addiction. Addiction is heartbreaking and so hard to over come but the lack of accountability is pervasive and almost pathological throughout the story.

A tough story to listen to but well worth the tim

I have read the authors book Dopesick and found it well written and informative. This audio book delving into the demise of Tess Henry is hard to listen to without feeling the deep sadness and loss for everyone involved. Addiction is a horrible disease for everyone it touches and this story is one we should all hear.

Thanks to the author and Pat for sharing their experience.

Couldn’t Finish

The addict and her mother we so entitled and so inconvenienced by the services provided to addicts. I couldn’t finish. I guess I don’t have empathy for drug addicts, especially when the blame everyone and everything for their poor decisions.

Heartbreaking and informative

First I’ll say, I would recommend reading “Dopesick” by the author before diving into this audiobook.

Once I finished Dopesick I found myself compelled by the story of Tess Henry’s addiction, the circumstances leading to her death, and the impact it had on the people around her. This audiobook really expands upon that entire ordeal and gives and even more in depth view into the toll it took on the family. And the added benefit of this being an audiobook is you get to hear interviews from family members and you can really get a gauge of their emotions first hand instead of just imagining it through print.

This book also does an amazing job illustrating the not so glamorous drug, crime, and homeless situation in Las Vegas. As someone who frequents the area 2-3 times a year I never realized how crazy things really are out there and this audiobook painted a much different picture of Las Vegas than I ever could have imagined.

Much like Dopesick this was another great work from Beth Macy. I will be reading more of her books soon.

Raw, honest, compelling - a masterpiece.

In "Finding Tess," Beth dives headlong into the teeth of opioid addiction in America.

She looks with compassion at those in the trenches battling one of the worst drug crises America has ever seen and breathes new life to all those on the fringes of society - those so often overlooked and discarded.

Beth's book challenges us to do better, to BE better. She reminds us that underneath the heroine and the pills are REAL people in need of real solutions.

Her storyline is gripping. Her interviews, raw and heartbreaking.

Above all else, we are reminded as we are immersed in this journey that every person struggling with an addiction is someone's mother, father, sister, brother, daughter, or son.

This isn't just Tess's story. It belongs to us all. How will we write the ending?

No Responsibility

Seems like everyone in the world is responsible except the mother and the addict. They complain about a free treatment service - "you mean I have to be there at a specific time? That's a hardship". It wasn't just opioids - it was meth, it was cocaine, it was pot - she was shoplifting,prostituting - someone else was at fault for EVERY bit of it. Her first pills were given to her by someone that "didn't want them" after their injury was better - why wasn't that person addicted instead of giving the pills away? I'm sure there is enough blame to go around but for crying out loud at least take a smidgen for yourself.

Gone Girl

Eyeopener on the dark descent of drug addiction to opioids. It chronicles the final years of a Roanoke lady in the throes of dopesickness and her heartbreaking and harrowing struggle to free herself from its grip. Every parent should listen to this. Well worth a listen.

Informative and Heattbreaking

I fell in love with Tess and her journey. Her story resonates as my own mother struggled with addiction before ultimately passing from the disorder

Heartbreaking Reality.

I can't believe there are people prostituting themselves to get medication against opioid addiction. It is unfortunate that health insurances or the goverment do not help them in the United States. They have been abandoned to their fate and only those who have a lot of money can pay the expensive treatments in a facility and have the opportunity to rebuild their lives. This is not fair for them and their families. Waiting lists for rehab are killing people.

This story is the story of many people struggling with addiction. All they need is support and love. It is not easy to overcome addiction and avoid relapsing but it will never happens if no one help them. Withdraw symptoms are awful and mentally destructive. Do not let the brain think clearly or make rational choices. Addiction is a chronic brain disease and it should be treated like other mental health illness.

Please we need to avoid stigma. The mayority of them, around a 75%, are addicted to opioids because of the use of prescription painkillers recomended by their doctors. No one choses to be an addict and being homeless. No one wants to die of an overdose alone in the streets. We all make mistakes in life and we all deserve a second chance.

Thank you very much to Tess family for sharing their story in this book. I hope it will help to raise awareness worldwide. You are very brave. Tess was very brave. No one deserve to die the way she did. I am very sorry for your loss and every loss that is happening DAILY. More than 170 people die everyday due addiction related causes in the United States. This is clearly an epidemic. It is killing an entire generation of loved young people and destroying families, mentally and financially. This should not be happening.