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Reviewed by:
  • The Dead Inside by Cyndy Etler
  • Karen Coats
Etler, Cyndy The Dead Inside. Sourcebooks Fire, 2017 [288p]
ISBN 978-1-4926-3573-4 $17.99
Reviewed from galleys         Ad Gr. 10-12

In this memoir written in present tense, following her father's death and her mother's marriage to a sexually abusive man, Cyndy Etler is looking for love wherever she could find it. Eventually, she runs away, and, despite the fact that the fourteen-year-old has only smoked pot twice and drinks only enough for show, her parents consign her to a drug rehabilitation facility run by Straight, Inc. The harsh treatment she receives there begins with a body cavity search and continues with further humiliations, sleep deprivation, and forced participation in a physically demanding and emotionally draining program that brainwashes participants into believing the protocol's brutal shaming tactics are their only hope. As appalling as it is to read about her experiences in the facility, it is even more wrenching to learn about its lasting paranoiac effects as Cindy reintegrated into her former high school after sixteen months of "treatment." That said, the quick explanation of her recovery and the Stockholm syndrome she suffered offers insufficient debriefing after such a harrowing ordeal. Especially given the fact that she was on a dangerous path before she entered Straight and recovered afterward to become a teacher of troubled teens, [End Page 409] readers may be left with a sense that the program, as abusive as it was, actually had beneficial effects, which is certainly not the takeaway she intends. However, an author's note detailing the origins, abuses, and demise of Straight, Inc., may go some way toward correcting that impression, and the message that teens can survive even the most horrific circumstances is heartening.

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