Saving Lily: Lessons from Building the Largest Addiction Treatment Center in Sin City During the Opioid Epidemic

5 Star Review

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Editorial Book Review:

By Fabiana Simmons

Some books make addiction sound like a problem you can map out and fix. Saving Lily: Lessons from Building the Largest Addiction Treatment Center in Sin City During the Opioid Epidemic does the opposite. It throws you into a world where things break constantly, where even the people trying to help are figuring it out as they go, and where one wrong moment can undo months of effort. That messiness is exactly why it hits.

Reading it feels tense, almost frustrating at times, because you start to realize how little control anyone really has. There are moments where you expect things to turn around, and then they don’t. That back and forth creates a kind of emotional fatigue that feels intentional. It mirrors what the people in the book are living through. At the same time, there are small flashes of progress that feel earned, not handed to you, and those moments land harder because of everything that comes before them.

The book is not just about addiction. It is about how systems crack under pressure, how people get lost in those cracks, and how difficult it is to keep showing up when outcomes are uncertain. It quietly pushes you to question what “help” even means, and whether good intentions are ever enough. That tension feels relevant way beyond Las Vegas.

The writing itself feels close to the ground. David Marlon brings the weight of lived experience, while Jessica Kantor shapes it without smoothing it out too much. It does not feel overly crafted. It feels told. The shifts between personal stories and bigger reflections give it a pulse, like you are moving between what is happening and what it all means in real time.

By the end, there is no clean takeaway, and that is exactly the point. The book stays with you because it refuses to simplify anything, and in doing that, it feels more honest than most.

About the Author 

David Marlon

David Marlon, PsyD, LADC-S, CPC, is a nationally recognized interventionist, addictionologist, and CEO of Vegas Stronger, a nonprofit addressing homelessness by treating substance abuse and mental illness. He previously founded one of the country’s most successful addiction recovery centers in Southern Nevada after overcoming his own addiction. Dave serves as president of the Southern Nevada Association of Addiction Professionals and received the 2018 National Advocacy Award from NAADAC. He founded CARE Coalition and Solutions Foundation and helped establish Mission High School, the nation’s first public recovery high school. He served on the governor’s Substance Abuse Working Group and appears in A&E’s Intervention. Dave holds a Doctorate in Psychology from Walden University, a Master’s in Counseling and MBA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a Bachelor’s in Economics from the State University of New York. He lives in Las Vegas with Marine Corps veteran Carolina Marlon, and their two sons.

Jessica Kantor is an independent journalist specializing in health, human rights, and social impact. Her work can be found in Fast Company, Healthcare Quarterly, Innately Science, and others. She has been a Solutions Insights Lab interviewer since 2023. Additionally, she provides communications strategy and writing for nonprofits and INGOs who are working on the Sustainable Development Goals. She is a living kidney donor based in Los Angeles.