"The description of her descent into this hell over several chapters is a unique insight into what life was like for many kids in Ballymun at the time. The towers were known as 'The Devil's Playground', with gangs of feral kids in abandoned flats shooting up.
But her book is also a revealing insight into the mind of the addict. You realise that her family was not as uncaring as she thinks.
They made endless attempts to help her, even as she turned their lives into a nightmare -- lying, robbing, bringing her grandparents to the edge of a complete breakdown.
The extraordinary efforts by the extended family to help her included bringing her abroad three times for treatment. But she frustrated all efforts, relapsing again and again in a messy cycle of detox and overdose that went on for years and must have been heartbreaking for those around her.
And all the time she blamed her internal hurt and despair on being abandoned by her mother. All the time She saw the world through the skewed, self- centred, self-pitying vision of the junkie.
The reality is that her mother was not perfect, but it was not all her fault and she was there for Rachael in the end. It is to Rachael's credit that she shows this clearly in the book."
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