Suburban Junky Audiobook By Jude Hassan cover art

Suburban Junky

From Honor Roll to Heroin Addict (Tenth Anniversary)

Virtual Voice Sample
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Suburban Junky

By: Jude Hassan
Narrated by: Virtual Voice
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This title uses virtual voice narration

Virtual voice is computer-generated narration for audiobooks.

About this listen

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

True Story

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

Wonderful story of healing and family values.

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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!!!

Good book, terrible AI narrator.

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