This book discusses the ongoing issues of teen behavioral schools. To relay her message, she told the story of her friend, Elissa, who was sent to these schools. She also spoke of the experiences of Elissa's two friends, Alissa & Alyssa, who were placed in the same school as Elissa. Yes, all three share the same name. These schools did not focus on treating their issues but making money. Girls were abused and traumatized by their "teachers". No one bothered to evaluate the schools or the administrators, so these "schools" stay in business today. The girls turned to drugs and alcohol to cope with the trauma they suffered at these schools eventually leading to their deaths. It is a hard story to get through, but their stories need to be heard.

Oof, this was a heavy one. The story of 3 girls who are failed by the system and how the system routinely fails "troubled" teens.

Insightful, disturbing, and just so sad.

Thank you Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing, Legacy Lit for the ARC.

👭🧍‍♀️Book Review:
Title: The Elissas
Author: Samantha Leach
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/3 stars

I was originally drawn to this book as it's based on a true account of a group of teenage girls, and I have a 17 year old daughter. Secondly, I work in a public school with grades K-12, and I was interested in situations that these young students may be dealing with. Times could get crazy when I was in school, but it's a completely different world now.
I'm not sure if I missed it, but I am curious as to what years this story took place.

Three young ladies develop a friendship when they meet at a boarding school, Ponca Pines Academy, for troubled teens. This story is about Elissa, Alyssa, and Alissa but told by Samantha, who was a childhood friend of Elissa. Unfortunately, Elissa, Alyssa, and Alissa have since passed away. It's disturbing to read about these young ladies' experiences in some of the most important years of maturity and development.

Published: June 6th, 2023

Thank you, @netgalley and @grandcentralpub, for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Timely and engaging. A recommended purchase for collections where true crime and suburban noir is popular.

Such an important book! I've read more about the troubled teen industry lately and really appreciate the author writing about it. I learned a lot and really felt for the girls involved.

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

A very quick read. I thought I was getting a boarding school, reveal all, type book that investigates shady circumstances behind their deaths. This is not at all what the book is about. It’s about the girls' battle with addiction, and how society shut them out.

The author at times comes across as a bit judgy (rich white girls doing drugs?) This was really representative of what it was like to be a girl in the 2000's, but the conclusions and research could have been a bit tighter/more cohesive.

this was well written, a page turner and, as a female who grew up in the early 2000s, felt like an extremely accurate portayal of my experience and many of those around me. I really appreciated these stories being told.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback. A really compelling look at the troubled teen industry through the lens of three specific young women.

Did not love this. Was really looking forward to it but found it too indulgent and frankly kind of boring.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Elissas by Samantha Leach.

I was surprised to learn that this really was a true story about three teen girls, all with the same name, and their experience with the troubled teen system. Unfortunately, it didn't take long until the story started to lose shape, and I felt like I was listening to a travelogue. It also would have been helpful if, for the sake of keeping everyone straight, they were given more distinctive name, other than Elissa (insert initial). I got a small sense of the horrors of the terrible camps where we send troubled teenagers, but mostly, I was just trying to keep everyone straight!

Omg, love it. So culturally relevant and timely. With Paris Hilton's recent expressions of her abuse in the troubled teen industry, now is the time for a reckoning within this industry. Hearing about the connection of three girls within this system, girls with the same types of backgrounds and privilege, serves as a real eye opener. I feel like this is an eye opener for people who work with teens, especially, and something to think about when you think about behavior and how kids receive consequences.

This book is an insightful and in-depth look into the cult of the troubled teen industry. At times touching, other times disturbing, but definitely worth the read as so many were and are affected.

One of my New Years resolutions this year was to read more non=fiction. I didn't realize when I made that resolution that THIS was the kind of non-fiction I wanted to read but this particular one really scratched the itch I was looking for when I decided to broaden my literary horizons. I feel like I learned so much while reading this book and I feel like Leach did a lot of wonderful research while writing about the lived experiences of her friend and her friend's friends. While heartbreaking, this book was eye-opening and made me thankful that my problematic youthful behavior never resulted in being sent to an institution within the troubled teen industry.

I will say that this book could use a whole lot of editing. Many grammar errors, incomplete sentences, and the flow/pacing often fell off but you could tell that Leach wrote with the emotion of someone who's been personally affected by this horrible industry. I will definitely recommend this one to anyone - I walked away with a new understanding of something that interested me but I knew nothing about. A perfect balance of educational and interesting in the most respectful way.

"The Elissas" by Samantha Leach offers a captivating exploration of the lives of three suburban girls who meet at a boarding school for troubled teens, only to meet tragic ends eight years later. Leach, drawing from her personal connection with one of the girls, delves into their shared experiences and the circumstances that led them down different paths. While the book raises important questions and provides a chilling account of the secret lives of young suburban women, it falls short in certain aspects, earning a rating of 3.5 stars.

Leach's personal connection with Elissa lends an intimate tone to the narrative, allowing readers to empathize with her grief and understand her desire to unravel the events leading to Elissa's untimely death. The author's meticulous research is evident as she pieces together the girls' lives through interviews with mutual friends and social media exploration. This investigative approach adds depth to the story, painting a vivid picture of the struggles faced by troubled teens and the detrimental impact of unregulated reform programs.

However, despite the intriguing premise, the book occasionally lacks a clear focus. While the author seeks to understand why the girls met a shared tragic fate, the narrative meanders at times, making it challenging to grasp the central thesis. The transitions between present-day investigations and past events can feel disjointed, interrupting the flow of the story and detracting from the overall impact.

The portrayal of the girls' lives within the troubled teen industry is undoubtedly eye-opening. Leach sheds light on the harrowing experiences of wealthy youth who enter these unregulated programs, where drugs and alcohol become a norm. The exploration of the matching Save Our Souls tattoo that binds the girls together adds an eerie element to the narrative, intensifying the mystery surrounding their interconnected lives.

Despite its flaws, "The Elissas" offers a chilling account of the consequences faced by young women in unregulated reform programs and is worth a read for those interested in delving into the hidden struggles of troubled teens.

I have been on a nonfiction kick recently and this one stood out for many reasons. I loved the honesty and emotion. I felt like I was in the moment with the author and I felt like the articulation of the circumstances were easy to understand which I appreciated with such a complex issue.

I received Elissas by Samantha Leach from Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing. This book is a non-fiction book about three girls who meet in therapeutic boarding school and how drugs affects their lives and leads to their premature deaths. This is the first I’ve read of the Trouble Teen Industry and how it prays on rich kids. I flew threw this book and learned a great deal.

I am trying super hard to delve further into nonfiction and the troubled youth industry has been super intriguing to me. The Elissas tackled this head on through legitimate experience in this program. It was a hard read at times, and rightfully so. I want so much more for these children.

I usually don't go for nonfiction books but this one looked super interesting.

It's about 3 upper-middle class teenage girls who are put into reformation schools, of sorts.
Each has been a disruption in school and are into drugs and alcohol. Their parents don't know what to do with them so they send them to these boarding schools hoping to get them on the straight and narrow. These "boarding schools" are part of a network of the Troubled Teen Industry, which is something I had never heard of.
Each girl eventually tries to get better but each falls back into their old ways and each die at a young age.

Reading this was somewhat triggering because it just shows what money can do in this country.
I have lived in urban areas my whole life, where if a child was considered "troubled" they were put on the school-to-prison pipeline (so you guessed it, most of my classmates were black).

It was annoying because it sometimes felt like the author wanted us to feel bad for these girls but they had a bunch of opportunities afforded to them, being from upper-middle class neighborhoods with great schools and their pick of colleges (if they applied themselves).

This wasn't necessarily for me but it was still an interesting read.

An interesting look at the troubled teen industry and its role in the deaths of three young women who were forced into its programs by their parents.

These horrifying scared straight style programs are having another moment in the spotlight right now thanks to Paris Hilton’s memoir, and it’s never been more apparent just how dangerous and damaging such programs are on teens.

The author seems to insinuate that these young women, despite the troubles they had before being enrolled in such programs, might be alive today had they not been subject to them. I’m inclined to agree with her, and there’s a lot of hard data to support that viewpoint.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the author herself or her role in this. She comes off much more as someone who has always thrived on cadging off the drama of her comparatively more troubled friends than as the rescuer she envisions herself to be.

Still, I think she has the right of the real issue her, which is that predatory programs like this not only
don’t “fix” teens the way that they claim to they actually make their problems far worse.

The Troubled Teen Industry has fascinated me even before there was a formal name for it. In South Florida in the 1970’s, there was a controversial program called The Seed where many of my older siblings’ friend were sent. If you got caught smoking weed or drinking, off you went. It seemed like a horrific punishment for normal adolescent behavior, and in fact The Seed’s techniques were modeled after Syananon and were later compared to North Korean brainwashing techniques.⁣
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The author was childhood friends with the Elissa of the title, and struggled to make sense of her old friend Elissa’s untimely death as well as of two other women, Alissa and Alyssa. The author and Elissa grew up during the era of Paris Hilton and The Simple Life, but Elissa was the one who engaged in wild partying and questionable sexual behavior. While Ms. Leach went on to graduate high school, Elissa was shipped off to the first of the boarding schools that promised to “reform” her behavior.⁣
⁣
Elissa later met and befriended Alissa and Alyssa who were also typically rebellious teenagers. Once the three of them were absorbed into the unregulated Troubled Teen Industry, they were doomed. We now know that this industry has resulted in many troubling disappearances and deaths. ⁣
⁣
The author uses research and statistics to illustrate how dangerous this system is. There are some who do claim to have been helped by these troubling practices, but overall this is a cautionary tale about a system that tragically, needs to be brought into the limelight and held accountable. ⁣
⁣
(𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.)