“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. Convinced 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.–From Goodreads

Sisters in Sanity was Gayle Forman’s YA lit debut, though it gained popularity after the release of her second YA book, If I Stay. While I felt that Forman really hit her stride with If I Stay, I found her earlier book to be an enjoyable look at a rarely discussed topic: teen rehabilitation centers. The book was based on an article that Forman wrote for Seventeen Magazine. While researching for the article, Forman found that parents often sent their teens to treatment centers, thinking that they would receive top-notch care, only to find out that the teens were often abused and treated by illegitimate counselors. Forman’s book portrays the harsh labor, intense hunger, and verbal harassment that are all too common in some of these teen treatment centers. Throughout the book, Brit must band together with other teens in order to escape Red Rock.

Tags: coming of age, fathers and daughters, friendship, incarceration, self-confidence
Filed under: Book Review