The Issue With the Troubled Teen Industry

THE ELISSAS: Three Girls, One Fate, and the Deadly Secrets of Suburbia, written by Samantha Leach, tells the story of three young women who face a similar fate as those in the Greek mythologies. The story of these girls, Elissa, Alyssa, and Alissa, falls under the archetype of young rebellious rich girls whose problems seem to be solvable by their privileged and wealthy backgrounds. Leach presents the heartbreaking story of the three girls as a narrative of a nation that is doomed by drugs, similar to the last battles in Sparta.

Elissa, Alyssa, and Alissa are young and troubled women who exhibit co-dependency on one another as they experiment with drugs, alcohol, and boys in their high school life. Leach does an excellent job of highlighting the archetype of an addict’s friend, who is a para-alcoholic, enabling, and always fearful, suffering a similar fate as the addict, in this case, Elissa.

As the story progresses, Leach widens her scope to include Alyssa and Alissa’s stories, two of Elissa’s friends she met at Ponca Pines, a therapeutic boarding school in Nebraska. The troubled teen industry is a network of private residential programs meant to solve teenagers’ behavioral problems. The school boasts a veneer of respectability, which a stint in rehab cannot afford. Unfortunately, after spending most of their adolescences in and out of various facilities, the three Elissas enter the real world ill-prepared for the opioid epidemic. The three girls eventually graduate but succumb to drug addiction, with Leach acknowledging the inevitable tragic ending of the story, leaving loved ones like herself to pick up the pieces.

Domenica Ruta is the author of the memoir “With or Without You” and, most recently, the novel “Last Day.”

THE ELISSAS: Three Girls, One Fate, and the Deadly Secrets of Suburbia is a riveting read written by Samantha Leach. It’s available at a price tag that makes even the upper-middle-class blanch. The 244-page book is published by Legacy Lit.