Sisters in Sanity » (Reprint)

Gayle Forman is an award-winning author and journalist whose articles have appeared in such publications as Jane, Seventeen, Glamour, Elle, and The New York Times Magazine, to name just a few. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.

"Where are they taking me?"

"It's for your own good, Brit," Dad said.

I was shoved into a small, stuffy room, and the door was locked behind me.

I waited for my dad to realize he'd made a terrible mistake and come get me.

But he didn't

FOR SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD Brit Hemphill, it's hard to know who she can trust. Convinved she's out of control, her father has sentenced her to Red Rock: a center for supposedly rebellious teens, where the therapy consists of name-calling and the girls who get privileges are the ones who rat out their peers.

But then Brit meets V, Bebe, Martha, and Cassie four girls who keep her from going over the edge. Together, they'll hold on to their sanity and their sisterhood despite the bleak Red Rock reality.

VOYA

Sixteen-year-old Brit Hemphill's mother disappeared six years earlier after slowly going crazy, a reality with which Brit must deal. Brit lives with her father and stepmother and plays guitar in a band until her dad drops her off at Red Rock, a school for unmanageable girls that intimidates the attendees and rewards them for telling on each other. Group therapy consists of forming a circle around a girl and screaming insults at her. Treated like a prisoner, Brit earns privileges by working her way through levels imposed by the instructors. She feels isolated until she becomes friends with a group of girls who dub themselves "Sisters in Sanity." The girls meet secretly late at night to plot shutting down the entire institution. As they devise a plan that will work, each must face her biggest fear. The chapters are short and the plot gripping. Although the situation seems unreal, the book is based on the author's research and interviews with girls who attended behavior modification camps like the fictional Red Rock. Reading the book is like gazing at an accident and being glad not to be the one there. Readers can understand why parents might believe these camps are a good idea, but they can also see that they cause more damage than help. Some of the action is heavy-handed, with a clear message, but readers will care enough about the characters to want to know what happens to them. Reviewer: Cindy Faughnan