Suburban Junky

From Honor Roll to Heroin Addict (Tenth Anniversary)

By: Jude Hassan

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

From Honor Roll to Heroin: One Teen’s Descent and Determined Comeback

Jude Hassan had everything a kid could ask for—loving parents, a safe home, and a future full of promise. At fourteen, his family moved from the city to a quiet, affluent suburb outside St. Louis. Suddenly the new kid, Jude struggled to fit in—but he kept his grades up, stayed busy with sports, and did everything right. Until one night changed everything.

What started with curiosity and a hit of marijuana at a party spiraled into a fast-moving descent through prescription pills, deceit, addiction—and ultimately, heroin. By the time he was a high school sophomore, Jude’s life was unrecognizable. He lost it all: trust, opportunity, direction. Recovery was neither quick nor easy. It would take multiple stints in rehab, forced detoxes in jail, the heartbreak of his father’s cancer diagnosis, and a looming decades-long prison sentence to shake him awake.

Suburban Junky is a raw, gripping memoir of a teenager’s fall into addiction and his long, painful climb back. Honest, emotional, and unflinching, this is not just a story of survival—it’s a cautionary tale that should be read by all parents and teens.

A note from the author:

“When I first wrote Suburban Junky, the United States was in the midst of a relentless heroin epidemic. Ten years later, it pains me to say that things have only gotten worse. Heroin has taken a back seat to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid one-hundred times stronger than morphine and fifty times stronger than heroin. In 2021, drug overdose deaths topped 100,000 for the first time on record. That amounts to one overdose death every five minutes. To make matters even worse, counterfeit pills have flooded the streets. Illegal pill presses are churning out fentanyl-laced Percocets and Xanax bars at an alarming rate. In turn, these pills are then pushed to unsuspecting teens and addicts all across the country. It’s a toxic combination that has led to incredible pain and suffering and far too many deaths.

I hope that my story will help bring awareness to the perils of teenage drug use. I hope that my story saves the kid out there who might be lost, or stuck at a crossroads like I was. Finally, for those already suffering, there is life after drugs. It is beautiful and achievable.”

Wonderful story of healing and family values.

The AI voice was very annoying, but the story was captivating. I will not listen to that kind of voice again.

Someone shedding light on how heroin does not discriminate

Heroin is not racist, sexist, and does not care what part of the economical system you’re in. This story tells the truth about how withdrawal happens and how in the beginning, you’re addicted but not going through withdrawal yet. The first time you do, it’s too late. Inspiration and hope. I’m wish the stigmatism would go away so people would not feel so shamed and therefore seek out help without fear consequences. There is no way to understand what addiction (and you worse withdraw )is like until you have gone through it and I do believe every parent should be reading this type of story so that they know that their child, no matter how brilliant they are, well-behaved, or “good” will not protect them. Obviously it does not just affect children, but it is especially damages and much is harder to treat when someone starts very young as I did when I was 15. To this day, I still struggle and wish I could say that it is a battle I have won. There are times I’m able to get clean and then you go back because you think you could do it one more time and be able to control yourself, but the truth is that you were never in control! I feel this book was well written, I just wish that an actual person would have been used instead of AI to read it because it is such an important and personal story and AI cannot convey that. I will say, however, that the fact that it was the AI did not determine me from me from listening to it all pretty much in one day. This is a a great read for anyone who is dealing with this currently or somebody in their family is or God forbid. Your children are. I also recommend it for anybody who has felt and is looking for inspiration. The most important thing I take from this book and other stories like it is a quote from John Lennon, “the answer has to be love”. I don’t mean just love for your family and friends but most importantly,, love for yourself. a great book and I would definitely recommend it!!!

Good book, terrible AI narrator.

Audible let an AI read out the whole book with text-to-speech. It’s awful! It’s very monotone and it sounds like a deep voiced fully grown man although he’s talking as if he’s a high schooler… It just doesn’t work, the narrator voice doesn’t inflect for reading women’s lines and it just becomes hard to focus or grasp who is who. It’s impressive for AI but it’s not human enough for audiobooks yet in my opinion.

The book itself is pretty good though! It’s not a masterpiece or anything, it’s kind of written like a young-adult book would read, not too complicated or detailed. But the story is good and believable! Very relatable to me at least. Glad it doesn’t bash Methadone! It, combined with a 12 Step program like AA, are amazing tools for saving lives!!!

True Story

Awesome book, the only thing I don't like is the narrator is AI. That's some BS !!!

A moving and compelling story. Virtual Voice audio was terrible.

The memoir is very straightforward and the author is relatable in his flaws and stumbles. Overall a powerful story of addiction and recovery.