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erat's review
4.0
Back when I was in high school 30+ years ago, a fellow student was removed from school mid-term by his parents and sent to some kind of troubled-teen program to be "straightened out." We didn't know each other well, but I knew enough about him to understand that he was not unusual in any way as far as rebellion, drugs, grades, etc were concerned. This was in northern Virginia, an area stuffed to the brim with government and military families, so we all just assumed he was normal but his parents were rigid, overbearing assholes.
We were kids, what did we know?
He was gone for about half of the school year before reports reached our school that he'd escaped. With that news, he became an overnight hero. When he was found/caught/whatever I guess he wasn't sent back because not long after escaping he was back in northern Virginia. In that regard, he had it better than Zack Bonnie, author of this book. I'm not sure what kind of facility or program my classmate was sent to, but if it's anything like RMA or SUWS, I can see why he escaped. Holy crapola.
No doubt about it, this book is damning in the highest degree. As much as I can see intense therapies like the ones in the book helping some people (I confess, mid-way through I found myself getting some accidental therapy just from reading about the "raps"), the methods that are employed are tricky and dangerous and seem like really, really bad ideas in general. And the lack of autonomy and respect for the kids...talk about being treated like a prisoner. Horrible, just horrible.
Yeah, this book was good. Zack puts you in RMA, sprays you with Darlayne's spit, dehydrates you in the middle of nowhere with no water in sight, banishes you to solitary confinement, starves you, doesn't let you pee, and yells at you for doing the wrong thing no matter what it is you do (Marathon Man, anyone? "Is it safe?"). This book is brutal. Other than a bit of excess sentimentality in the early pages, it's a 293-page-long raw nerve.
That said, it's also entertaining. Zack knows how to tell a story. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue reading the series (more of the same? I don't know if I can take it), but I'm damn glad I read this part of it. It's a hell of a story, and even if my high school classmate went somewhere other than RMA or SUWS, I feel like I got a taste of what he went through. I appreciate that. Folks need to know what these programs were (and in some areas, still are) all about.
(Full disclosure: I received this book from Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for an honest review. And I respect our military. That too.)
We were kids, what did we know?
He was gone for about half of the school year before reports reached our school that he'd escaped. With that news, he became an overnight hero. When he was found/caught/whatever I guess he wasn't sent back because not long after escaping he was back in northern Virginia. In that regard, he had it better than Zack Bonnie, author of this book. I'm not sure what kind of facility or program my classmate was sent to, but if it's anything like RMA or SUWS, I can see why he escaped. Holy crapola.
No doubt about it, this book is damning in the highest degree. As much as I can see intense therapies like the ones in the book helping some people (I confess, mid-way through I found myself getting some accidental therapy just from reading about the "raps"), the methods that are employed are tricky and dangerous and seem like really, really bad ideas in general. And the lack of autonomy and respect for the kids...talk about being treated like a prisoner. Horrible, just horrible.
Yeah, this book was good. Zack puts you in RMA, sprays you with Darlayne's spit, dehydrates you in the middle of nowhere with no water in sight, banishes you to solitary confinement, starves you, doesn't let you pee, and yells at you for doing the wrong thing no matter what it is you do (Marathon Man, anyone? "Is it safe?"). This book is brutal. Other than a bit of excess sentimentality in the early pages, it's a 293-page-long raw nerve.
That said, it's also entertaining. Zack knows how to tell a story. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue reading the series (more of the same? I don't know if I can take it), but I'm damn glad I read this part of it. It's a hell of a story, and even if my high school classmate went somewhere other than RMA or SUWS, I feel like I got a taste of what he went through. I appreciate that. Folks need to know what these programs were (and in some areas, still are) all about.
(Full disclosure: I received this book from Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for an honest review. And I respect our military. That too.)
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