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caitsidhe's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.75
a good look at the trouble teen industry through the lens of three similarly named girls. Highlights how we treat those who fail to conform. Wish it had gone a little harder in places - it pulled its punches in a lot of ways.
lindsayhotrod's review
The premise is interesting and compelling, but I just couldn’t get through how much of this book is projection and imagined conversation. Both of those elements might be ok and welcome in this kind of book, but none of it is illuminating. So close to finishing I almost did, but finally quit because it’s blocking my reading other stuff by how much I’m actively avoiding it.
emburd8's review
2.0
This had such potential but I feel like the author lacked a purpose for writing this book. Was it memorializing her friend and then two other gals that she subsequently barely knew or was it holding a lens up to the troubled teen industry? It lacked depth in both and felt like it was a way to process her friends death in a publicized way. Bummer
caseyaonso's review against another edition
2.0
this was a super fast read and well written but i'll be honest the longer i think about the concept of this book the more bizarre it feels especially considering the lack of depth you really get on any of the topics it felt like it was going to tackle. Since none of the girls spoken about in this are able to tell their own story you rely on Leach's research through speaking with family and friends (the boarding school that they all went to has also since shut down so you don't get much insight on the facility beyond hindsight observations). All the information collected is presented in that friend-telling-you-a-story-about-someone-they-know type of way which makes it really easy to get sucked into but I found myself noticing that the observations were quite surface level and there were frequent points where the book would suddenly throw itself into talking about massively general topics out of nowhere. I'm assuming it was to bridge the gap considering the author wasn't close with any of the girls during the time that she documented in the book but that's why it felt even weirder to me that the author's own reflections on how different her life was from her childhood friend were a lot more sparse than i thought they would be. I think I was just expecting either more detail on the girls' story or the author's to act as support for the lack of first hand perspective from the elissas but it kind of felt like you got a glass half full look on both ends.
maggiesasha's review against another edition
4.0
I liked the way it was written. It was a quick read. I learned a lot about the troubled teen industry. I took a star off because the author frequently weaved in her own story and it was distracting from the main plot
boxofrainreading's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.0
The memoir parts of this were great, the inclusion of research sometimes felt forced or out of place.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Dysphoria
erinbrook's review against another edition
I've only recently learned about Troubled Teen Programs, and this past month I've been reading everything I could find on it. I was so happy to not only receive the e book, but I also received a physical copy in the mail.
We follow Elissa, Alyssa, and Alissa from the perspective of Samantha--the author of The Elissa's. That's right, they all have the same name, just spelled differently. I didn't really have a hard time following, but I can't IMAGINE how this audiobook would work. In fact, I'm considering downloading it if available at my library just out of sheer curiosity.
I found this to be terribly interesting. Terribly the key word-what these girls went through is absolutely horrifying, and I love how this topic has recently been coming to light.
I think my biggest issue was the massive amount of people to keep up with. It's nonfiction, so these are real people that played a part in the girls lives, but I do wish the author had maybe chosen a few key people and left out the rest. Boyyyy was it hard to follow. At one point I finally accepted that I was gonna be confused and just quit trying.
We follow Elissa, Alyssa, and Alissa from the perspective of Samantha--the author of The Elissa's. That's right, they all have the same name, just spelled differently. I didn't really have a hard time following, but I can't IMAGINE how this audiobook would work. In fact, I'm considering downloading it if available at my library just out of sheer curiosity.
I found this to be terribly interesting. Terribly the key word-what these girls went through is absolutely horrifying, and I love how this topic has recently been coming to light.
I think my biggest issue was the massive amount of people to keep up with. It's nonfiction, so these are real people that played a part in the girls lives, but I do wish the author had maybe chosen a few key people and left out the rest. Boyyyy was it hard to follow. At one point I finally accepted that I was gonna be confused and just quit trying.