Review: The Dead Inside by Cyndy Drew Etler

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Title: The Dead Inside
Author: Cyndy Etler
Published: April 4, 2017
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Pages: 321
Genre: YA
Review: hardback from author
Buy link: Amazon


 
I never was a badass. Or a slut, a junkie, a stoner, like they told me I was. I was just a kid looking for something good, something that felt like love. I was a wannabe in a Levi's jean jacket. Anybody could see that. Except my mother. And the professionals at Straight.
From the outside, Straight Inc. was a drug rehab. But on the inside it was...well, it was something else.
All Cyndy wanted was to be loved and accepted. By age fourteen, she had escaped from her violent home, only to be reported as a runaway and sent to a "drug rehabilitation" facility that changed her world.
To the public, Straight Inc. was a place of recovery. But behind closed doors, the program used bizarre and intimidating methods to "treat" its patients. In her raw and fearless memoir, Cyndy Etler recounts her sixteen months in the living nightmare that Straight Inc. considered "healing."
I received this book to give an honest review.
The Dead Inside wow! Just hearing about how kids were treated while being in the program Straight Inc. is scary, how did these parents not know what was happening. I am glad this author found the courage to speak up and expose this place and what she went through. What is scary about these kinds of programs is what happens behind the scenes when no one is watching. Another scary thing is how they can change their program name and no one catches on right away. My question is the people who treated the kids this way why did they find it acceptable? Something is mentally wrong with people to be okay this behavior. It takes a lot of courage to speak out about your past and for this author to do that is huge. 
This program is suppose to reform kids who are problem children but what if they are truly not a problem or have an addiction? This program didn't care whatever you did once it made you an addict and they would break you.
Though my question for the author is how is her relationship with her mother? Does she truly forgive her mother for putting her in this program or is there some hard feelings?






A modern-day Cinderella, Cyndy Etler was homeless at fourteen, summa cum laude at thirty. Currently a young adult author and teen life coach, Etler spent sixteen years teaching troubled teens in schools across America.
Before she was paid for teaching Etler did it for free, volunteering at public schools and facilities for runaway teens. Today she speaks at fundraisers, schools and libraries, convincing teens that books work better than drugs.
After years of hopscotching, Etler now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband and dogs. Find her at http://www.cyndyetler.com
Cyndy Drew Etler

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