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Content Ratings

Mild Romance

Arctor has a sexual relationship with a woman in the drug community; the relationship is depicted with emotional closeness but not graphic physical detail.

Intense Themes

The entire novel is a sustained portrait of addiction's neurological and psychological destruction, undercover identity dissolution, the surveillance state's complicity in the drug war, and grief for those lost to substance use.

Mild Violence

Drug-related violence and the physical and psychological degradation of addicts are depicted; harm is primarily the slow self-destruction of addiction rather than direct violent action.

Synopsis

Undercover narc Bob Arctor is assigned to surveil a group of drug usersâ€”including himselfâ€”while becoming so addicted to Substance D that his two identities begin to dissociate as his brain deteriorates. Semi-autobiographical and deeply personal, the novel is a tragedy about addiction, surveillance, and the slow destruction of a human being. Dick's most emotionally raw and painful work, dedicated to friends lost to drugs.