Overview

"Ages 12 to 17 years Etler's intense, unforgettable memoir uncovers the lies behind Straight, Inc., a teen rehab facility that was supposed to give teens help. Instead, it gave them hell. All Cyndy wanted was to be loved and accepted. But by age fourteen, she had fought off her stepfather's sexual advances and escaped from her violent home, only to be reported as a runaway and sent to a drug rehab facility that changed her world. To the public, Straight, Inc. was a place of recovery. But behind closed doors, it was something else entirely, relying on bizarre and unethical methods to ""treat"" its patients. In her gritty and unflinching memoir, Cyndy recounts the horrific sixteen months she spent suffering sleep deprivation, physical abuse, and brainwashing as she was ""healed"" in this true account of a living nightmare. A modern-day Cinderella, CYNDY DREW ETLER was homeless at fourteen and Summa Cum Laude at thirty. Today she works at an alternative high school, cheerfully teaching ex-convicts that books work better than drugs."

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9781492635734

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Reviews

Etler channels her younger self's voice with pitch-perfect verisimilitude as Cyndy goes from wide-eyed disbelief to acquiescence, having finally found a place where she feels like she belongs. An epilogue offers a redemptive conclusion, and an author's note provides chilling context for Straight's history and Cyndy's story. Raw and absorbing, Etler's voice captivates. - <strong><em> Kirkus</em> </strong>

-[An] unnerving and heartrending memoir... readers may be stunned that a place like Straight could exist, let alone that a parent would willingly send a child there.- -

Author Information

A modern-day Cinderella, Cyndy Etler was homeless at fourteen, summa cum laude at thirty. In her current work as a teacher and teen life coach, Etler happily teaches teens that books are better than drugs. She lives with her husband and dogs in North Carolina. Find her at CyndyEtler.com.

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