"Hodgson's magnificently illustrated history of the granddaddy of illicit drugs is masterfully done, very informative."
--Mike Tribby, Booklist, American Library Association

"A smoothly guided tour through the history of this often glamorized narcotic."
--Publisher's Weekly

"Hodgson brings this fascinating and frightening substance vividly to life."
--Joel Cairo, Detour

"A useful guide to what the French poet Charles Baudelaire once called 'an old and terrible friend.' "
--Alex Varty, The Georgia Straight

"Full of fascinating and wonderfully illustrated minutia about this alluring potion . . . [It's] intoxicating in itself."
--Lee Bacchus, The Province

"Hodgson's lovely book is likely to appeal to the artist or degenerate in all of us."
--Andrew Pyper, Quill & Quire

"A stunning little book."--The Book Bulletin

"Hodgson chronicles the effects the narcotic had, both positive and negative, on many of the artistic lights of the 19th century."
--Carolyn T. Hughes, The New York Times Book Review