I think this book is best suited for professional hockey fans.

Generally, on the plus side, the writing is very good and never gets in the way of the story; the book is a quick and easy read; Boogaard is a completely sympathetic figure; and the book gets better as it goes along. More specifically it did a very good job of putting the spotlight on the appalling over-prescribing of prescription drugs to professional hockey players and the league's indifference to the enforcement of its drug abuse policies; and it highlighted professional hockey's shameful resistance to reducing or eliminating fighting.

The problem is that the story is occasionally monotonous. I may have imagined it but some passages appeared to be repeated verbatim throughout the book. (Maybe the multitudinous accounts of brawling. How many different ways can you say one guy absolutely beat the shit out of the other guy?) The early section on Boogaard's youth is okay but it doesn't resonate. Additionally there seems to be something missing in the storytelling in that Boogaard comes across as very one-dimensional.

The book ultimately addresses the issues of concussions, sub-concussive head injuries and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) but its handling pales in comparison to the very good League of Denial (by Mark Fainaru-Wada & Steve Fainaru). (League of Denial is a far better book and I would recommend it to anyone regardless of whether they're a sports fan or not.)