This book is a traumatic memoir from a person who went through the Troubled Teen Industry. If you are interested in the TTI, this is a great book to give you an insider's experience. You need to be very aware that there are some extreme instances of abuse of children recounted in this book, and if that is something that you are not in a place to read about...choose something else.

I saw another review that really rubbed me the wrong way for several reasons. One of the reasons was that this reviewer made sure to negate every experience that the author of this book had. Nobody has the right to tell someone that their experiences are exaggerated or that they did not happen. Memories are the person's own. They lived the experience, you did not. Memories can be flawed, perhaps the time frames or who did what could be wrong, but if you did not experience an event...hush. There are countless witnesses' statements and people living who have had experiences that are shockingly similar across decades, across states, and across unaffiliated "schools" that this type of abuse absolutely did and does occur. People have testified in front of all levels of government for years about this. This is not new information, and negating the people that had these experiences is disgusting. Also, people that say they attended these schools and do not remember this...we are all very glad that you did not experience it (or you have trauma blocked it out) but just because you did not, does not mean thousands of other kids were so lucky.

I really wanted to review this book in order of events, but I do not want to spoil it for those reading it. The staff members at this location are disgusting creatures. They all need to vanish to the bottom of a river. There seems to be no end to what staff in places like this will do to a child. I recently watched a Netflix doc that was created by a girl who had went to one of these schools. The staff there gaslit these kids, they abused these kids, and then they left all the files and CCTV videos of their abuse. This was in the 2010s. This is still happening. These schools charge fees and prey on parents who want to get rid of their kids for any number of reasons, including doing something as trivial as drinking a Mike's Hard Lemonade or not liking a stepparent. They destroy families, they destroy lives, and the impact of their cult-like tactics on these kids lasts a lifetime. There are so many stories of suicide and drug abuse amongst kids who got out of these schools. There are instances of kids dying at these places. It is FOUL that people are still buying into this nonsense and PAYING to have people abuse their kids.

The author made a comment in this book that Indigenous people were subjected to much the same treatment in residential schools, people who were remanded to orphanages or religious boarding schools fared no better. There is another book called We Carry Their Bones about "bad kids" dying at a facility in Florida who suffered much the same abuse. This is not a new game. People have ignored children's pleas for years. Justice is slow to come, if it comes at all. Celebrity children, like Paris Hilton, also found themselves in schools in Provo and other places. Thankfully, Paris was able to use her celebrity for good to bring light to this issue and help other survivors of this industry, because an industry of raking in money, power plays, and plenty of victims to abuse, is what this is. It is a shame that voices are so often ignored unless a famous name is attached, but I appreciate her using it for something that the US really needs-trying to find a way to stop this. I am so proud of every kid who made it out of these places, who is there for other kids, who fights for this cause, and who made it another day. I hope every kid trapped in a situation like this is able to get out.

I would also like to mention that some reviews I have read about this book have criticized the book for saying it was a memoir about healing when the author clearly hasn't healed. I think that is a little bit bold. There is no time limit on healing. Healing can be a life-long process. You do not get to judge the way a person chooses to process their trauma or how long it takes them to heal. Do I personally agree with the author stalking these former staff members? No. Would I do that? I cannot say, as I have never been in that situation. I can say that I would be interested in following them to see if they were ever brought to justice. I can say that I would also be working tirelessly to do anything I could to ruin them in a court of law the way they ruined me. I can also say that I would have absolutely NEVER laid eyes on my parents again after they treated me such a way and sent me to a place like that and then had the audacity to tell me to stop looking at the past and grow up and be an adult and so on. Parents who are unwilling to listen to their children's experiences and admit they were duped, lied to, used, and manipulated...that they wronged their child, are unfit to be called parents any longer. There is nooooo way I would have ever spoken to them again.

Also "Dr" Phil can fuck all the way off for feeding this machine and feeding off people.

This book and the work on the ground that has been done by this author and others is tremendously vital to the understanding of the Troubled Teen Industry. I am glad that I started searching for books about this after watching that Netflix documentary and reading Paris Hiltons book.