The Elissas

 

                                        *free review copy* 

Title: The Elissas: Three Girls, One Fate, and the Deadly Secrets of Suburbia

Author: Samantha Leach

Publisher: Legacy Lit

Release Date: 6.6.23

Publisher’s Summary 

Three suburban girls meet at a boarding school for troubled teens.
Eight years later, they were dead.

Bustle editor Samantha Leach and her childhood best friend, Elissa, met as infants in the suburbs of Providence, Rhode Island, where they attended nursery, elementary school, and temple together. As seventh graders, they would steal drinks from bar mitzvahs and have boys over in Samantha’s basement—innocent, early acts of rebellion. But after one of their shared acts, Samantha was given a disciplinary warning by their private school while Elissa was dismissed altogether, and later sent away. Samantha did not know then, but Elissa had just become one of the fifty-thousand-plus kids per year who enter the Troubled Teen Industry: a network of unregulated programs meant to reform wealthy, wayward youth.

Less than a year after graduation from Ponca Pines Academy, Elissa died at eighteen years old. In Samantha’s grief, she fixated on Elissa’s last years at the therapeutic boarding school, eager to understand why their paths diverged. As she spoke to mutual friends and scoured social media pages, Samantha learned of Alyssa and Alissa, Elissa’s closest friends at the school who shared both her name and penchant for partying, where drugs and alcohol became their norm. The matching Save Our Souls tattoo all three girls also had further fueled Samantha’s fixation, as she watched their lives play out online. Four years after Elissa’s death, Alyssa died, then Alissa at twenty-six.

In The Elissas, Samantha endeavors to understand why they ultimately met a shared, tragic fate that she was spared, in turn, offering a chilling account of the secret lives of young suburban women.

My Review

The cover and title of this book would be right at home on the list of the latest summer thrillers, but this is definitely a case of true life being more shocking than fiction. Bustle editor Samantha Leach's exposé of the Troubled Teen Industry reads as both a warning and a regretful love letter to her lost friends. Prior to Paris Hilton recently opening up about her times at such institutions I had never given them much thought, let alone considered all the moving parts that created the industry, despite an estimated 50,000 teens being sent to troubled teen programs each year, with many coming from the suburbs. 

🚩HOW THE INDUSTRY WORKS🚩

Parents concerned about their teenagers "acting out" tend to head to their computers in search of answers, where they often make a connection to a college counselor-type consultant, unaware that these consultants "are often receiving financial kickbacks from these programs, earning a fee each time they place someone in their care." These desperate parents often agree to a short-term wilderness program for their teen. Next, it is usually suggested to parents that they have their teen stay on for another few weeks, months, etc., and then recommended that they transition to a therapeutic boarding school (a recommendation that persuades 40 to 45 percent of parents) like Ponca Pines (located in Nebraska, where teens are considered minors until the age of nineteen.) The initial short-term wilderness programs are essentially "preparation for later selling [parents] on a long-term stay at a boarding school. All of which contributes to the $1.2 billion profit the industry turns annually." 

I was outraged to learn the intricacies of this system that inflicts more damage on teens while preying on wealthy parents looking to get their rebellious teenagers in line. Hopefully, books such as this, outspoken advocates, and work done by the nonprofit Breaking Code Silence will not only expose the horrors of this unregulated industry but lead to a full reformation or dismantling.