Review of The Adderall Diaries by Stephen Elliott

Stephen Elliott's memoir, The Adderall Diaries, isn't just a memoir. It's also the story of a murder.

Elliott weaves his own personal story of family problems, group homes, drug addiction, sado-masochism, and mental illess with the story of a murder that happened in northern California. He knows some of the individuals involved in the murder, so has a different perspective, I'm guessing, than other observers.

The murder story gets some attention, but I think Elliott would have done better writing two separate books. His life story merits its own book. His mother died when he was a child, leaving him with an abusive father. Elliott ended up in group homes in Chicago and made his way to college. He floated around afterwards and ended up in San Francisco, where he took Adderall, was dominated by numerous women, wrote, and drifted in and out of depression. It's clear that Elliott has had a tough life, but I also found him a bit self-indulgent on occasion, a hazard of memoirs. I think if his life story had been fleshed out more, that wouldn't have happened.

As for the murder story, we don't get all the details here, either. I would have liked to get more background on all the characters involved in it. There's a love triangle, an off-kilter computer scientist, a mail-order bride, all the makings of a great true crime story. But again, Elliott doesn't give us enough information.

I also found the jumping back and forth from his life story to the murder story to be jarring at times. Sometimes, one paragraph in a chapter would be about him and the next would be about the murder with no transition at all. This book could have used better editing in my opinion.

All in all, I felt like I got a brief glimpse of both Elliott's life and the murder story, but didn't get anything in-depth. I would have liked to.

Just One Pink gives The Adderall Diaries a 7.