What would you do if everything you loved was suddenly taken away from you by the thoughtless actions of another person? Would you seek revenge? Would you wallow in self-pity? Or, would you summon the courage to forgive and move forward?
After his fiancé, Vicky, is killed in a hit-and-run car accident, Monty Miller, a recovering alcoholic with only a year of sobriety, embarks on a mission to punish the person responsible: HIMSELF.
In his warped thinking, Monty believes the accident would've never happened had he not suckered Vicky into a codependent relationship. So, with a kitchen full of liquor and a medicine cabinet full of anti-depressants, he begins to drink himself to death alone in his apartment.
But his family intervenes and has him committed to Sanctuary, a rehabilitation facility high in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. There, he meets Dave Bell, a former all-American track star turned narcissistic crack addict, and the driver responsible for the death of Vicky.
Can Monty forgive Dave for his unspeakable atrocity and finally find the courage to forgive himself? Or, will he follow his addiction to its inevitable conclusion, using self-pity and blame as excuses to give up on life?
Based on the author's own personal experience with substance abuse and twelve-step programs, SOME ARE SICKER THAN OTHERS, transcends the clichés of the typical recovery story by exploring the insidiousness of addiction and the thin, blurred line between true love and codependence.
With the harsh realism of Hubert Selby Jr. and the dark, confrontational humor of Chuck Palahniuk, Mr. Seaward takes the reader deep inside the psyche of the addict and portrays, in very explicit details, the psychological and physiological effects of withdrawal and the various stages of recovery.
As Grady Harp of POETS & ARTISTS magazine put it: "What sets Andrew's novel apart from other recovery stories is his deep understanding of the physiochemical aspects of substance abuse/addiction. He offers deeper insights and relates more factual information about the disease of addiction than any other writer to date."