Katherine Ketcham devoted four decades to researching and writing about addiction—but none of that prepared her for what she would face in her relationship with her own son. The Only Life I Could Save is a raw and moving memoir of heartbreak, healing, and profound transformation. "This book is not about Ben and his addiction journey, nor is it about the ‘demon’ that I lived with in my mind for all those years," she writes. "This book is about the Big Know-It-All Who Realizes She Doesn’t Know a Damn Thing. Except this one daunting truth—the only life I can save is my own."

A fascinating indepth look into how addiction can ruin not just one life, but a whole family and make them question everything they thought they knew about the addict, themselves and their relationships.

The Only Life I Could Save by Katherine Ketcham and published by Sounds True was one of those reads that will stay with me for a very long time. Katherine Ketcham I applaud you for being able to tell your story in such a way that makes me as a reader understand everything you went through and see your courage on every page. I had no prior knowledge that the author did anything with substance abuse before reading this book but the fact that she knew so much about the topic made it easier to comprehend. You will learn about yourself, you will learn about the struggles that most families who have a family member going through something. I commend the author for sharing her struggles and hope that someone can learn something and fight there way to sobriety. Thank you to Netgalley and all involved for my arc.

This book is a tremendously moving and informative portrait of a family impacted by drug addiction. As a person who shares the same kind of family history, I can attest to the unflinching accuracy presented here. A truly worthwhile read. Highly recommended.
My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for a review. Don't want to give a thing away. Read this book. Now!! SO great! You won't be able to put it down! Loved! I'd give it 10 stars if I could!!

The Only Life I Could Save sheds an important light on addiction and how it impacts the family life. Katherine Ketcham has spent three decades writing about addiction and working with juveniles that have been using drugs and alcohol. Her son, Ben, then spirals down into the addiction hole. While I know that this memoir is primarily Katherine’s outlook on what happened and how life has come to be what it is now, I would’ve liked to see more of Ben’s perspective. After all, he is part of the lives that are being altered by drugs. We see how Katherine, her husband and her daughters feel throughout the process of recovery, but I felt that we do not see as much as an in-depth view of how Ben is looking at his addiction. I would’ve liked to see more of how Ben saw the light and the steps out of addiction and how he saved his own life.

Since Ketcham is a researcher on addiction it was interesting to see how the details of her research impacted how she handled her own child. I appreciated the points of the memoir where she self-reflected and realized some of the mis-steps she had taken with her own son.

As an author and lecturer on addiction Katherine Ketcham was astounded to find herself having to travel the heart wrenching journey herself with her Son Ben as he battled with alcohol and drugs and this book is the memoir of that and her work she carried out leading up to the revelation.
It's very insightful and shocking as she talks about her support groups and we hear young adults introduce themselves and tell their stories about how they got to where they are.
I got a bit bogged down at the beginning as we shifted from person to person very quickly and I lost interest a bit. I also think to have wrote part of the book from Bens perspective would of been good and helped us understand what goes on inside an addicts mind as that was what I was hoping for.
The author puts forward her thoughts backed up by research and as the reader you can be persuaded or not. I read the book in two chunks and although I didn't get what I wanted from it I was glad I did read it.
To lay bare your soul and open up to the outside World about such issues within your personal family that are normally kept shushed behind closed doors is no mean feat even if she is an author on the subject, its so sad that her own Son became a case study and Katherine must of felt astounded at that fact herself. I am very glad the outcome was positive for her family and if this book helps someone then that it would certainly be worth all those years research.
My thanks go to the author, publisher and Netgalley in providing an

***** I give this Book a Five Star Review. I would recommend this Book. Thanks NetGalley.

Publication date: 1 Apr 18

Katherine Ketcham is really an authority on addiction and the damage that it can wreak on the addicts' lives as well as those who love them. Now she's an authority on surviving it herself as her son's journey leads him down that same dark and terrifying path. I've worked in addictions for nearly 20 years. Have seen the anguish on parents' faces, the anger, the defiance in their children.....I have two teenagers myself, whom I pray over and sometimes preach over daily in an effort to ward off what may come. I see myself in Katherine......I see us all. She writes with clarity and fearless honesty about reality: that what we know ourselves cannot save our children. We can only hang on for dear life, live in truth, and pray for an ending that does not destroy us. This one goes on my shelf (once it's published). 

Thank you Katherine........you saved yourself and we may all find ourselves better off for it.

This review was shared on the blog listed below as well as Facebook, Librarything and Twitter on 26 Nov 17.

This book talks about addiction to drugs and alcohol and the authors own story about her son Bens battle with addiction. It is very insightful and tells a lot about the authors books and the groups she runs for addicts. Bens struggle is talked about indepth but I would have liked to hear more of the struggle from Bens perspective and to hear how he copes when days are hard. I think this would have made the book more insightful.

I'm not sure if I would recommend this book to a parent of an addicted child, as my thought was, "If an expert can't tell her child is in SERIOUS trouble and is dumb or chooses to be blind to the fact that this child's behavior was caused by MUCH more than a little pot, what hope does an inexperienced parent have?" This was more a "do as a I say, not as I do" lesson and while I understand that the author also learned that lesson herself, my hope is that she will write a new book for parents based on her experience and explain what she felt she did wrong and why, so that when non-experts read her book and feel things she felt and want to make the same mistakes she made, they will better understand why they shouldn't. Obviously no one knows what they will do until they are in the situation for themselves, but this was a VERY lucky outcome for this family and many people who take the same steps this addiction expert took (i.e. NOT kicking her son out of the house, allowing him to come home and use again and continuing to pay for his education while he was still using) are most likely going to bury their child. Plenty of parents will never be able to afford the luxury of facilities these parents could - even if they had to borrow the money - most people aren't in a position to do that - so what do they do? I'm not really sure how this book will help someone who has an addicted child but no resources or long list of specialist friends to call for advice.