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The Elissas : three girls, one fate, and the deadly secrets of suburbia / Samantha Leach.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : Legacy Lit, [2023]Edition: First editionDescription: x, 244 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780306826917
  • 0306826917
Subject(s): Summary: "In the tradition of Three Women, Bustle editor and writer Samantha Leach traces the lives of a trio of girls who met in the Troubled Teen Industry and went on to share the same tragic fate. Samantha and her best friend Elissa were typical privileged, rebellious, suburban girls. But after Elissa was kicked out of their private school, she soon disappeared. At fifteen years old, her parents quietly flew her from Providence, Rhode Island to a $10,000/month therapeutic boarding school in Nebraska. Ponca Pines Academy was part of the Troubled Teen Industry, a network of programs meant to reform wealthy, wayward teens. There she met two girls uncannily named Alissa and Alyssa, who had similar backgrounds and similar vices. In The Elissas, Samantha channels her personal grief and utilizes years of immersive research combined with her biting prose to reveal the cultural forces and systemic failings that contributed to the deaths of all three girls. In 2011, less than a year after graduating from Ponca Pines Academy, Elissa died of encephalitis. Four years later, Alyssa died of a heroin overdose. Another four years after that, Alissa died while battling an opioid addiction. Samantha endeavors to tell each of their stories, expanding on what shaped these young women before, during, and after their time in the Troubled Teen Industry. Based on interviews with other survivors, friends and family of the girls, educators, experts, and comprehensive reporting, The Elissas will challenge what you know about the opioid epidemic and the Troubled Teen Industry - and in doing so, will ultimately offer a window into the secret lives of young suburban women"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 362.732 L434 Available 33111011284524
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Amazon's Best Nonfiction Book of the Month for June 2023

Nylon's "June 2023's Must-Read Book Releases"

Pure Wow's "11 Books We Can't Wait to Read in June"

The Skimm's "17 of Our Favorite Books Coming Out This Summer"

Glamour's "15 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023, So Far"

Bustle's "Most Anticipated Books Of Spring & Summer 2023"

Harper's Bazaar's "23 Best Summer Beach Reads of 2023"

Zibby Mag's "Most Anticipated Spring and Summer Books"

A New York Post Best Books of the Week selection



Three suburban girls meet at a boarding school for troubled teens.

Eight years later, they were dead.



Bustle editor Samantha Leach and her childhood best friend, Elissa, met as infants in the suburbs of Providence, Rhode Island, where they attended nursery, elementary school, and temple together. As seventh graders, they would steal drinks from bar mitzvahs and have boys over in Samantha's basement--innocent, early acts of rebellion. But after one of their shared acts, Samantha was given a disciplinary warning by their private school while Elissa was dismissed altogether, and later sent away. Samantha did not know then, but Elissa had just become one of the fifty-thousand-plus kids per year who enter the Troubled Teen Industry: a network of unregulated programs meant to reform wealthy, wayward youth.



Less than a year after graduation from Ponca Pines Academy, Elissa died at eighteen years old. In Samantha's grief, she fixated on Elissa's last years at the therapeutic boarding school, eager to understand why their paths diverged. As she spoke to mutual friends and scoured social media pages, Samantha learned of Alyssa and Alissa, Elissa's closest friends at the school who shared both her name and penchant for partying, where drugs and alcohol became their norm. The matching Save Our Souls tattoo all three girls also had further fueled Samantha's fixation, as she watched their lives play out online. Four years after Elissa's death, Alyssa died, then Alissa at twenty-six.



In The Elissas, Samantha endeavors to understand why they ultimately met a shared, tragic fate that she was spared, in turn, offering a chilling account of the secret lives of young suburban women.

"In the tradition of Three Women, Bustle editor and writer Samantha Leach traces the lives of a trio of girls who met in the Troubled Teen Industry and went on to share the same tragic fate. Samantha and her best friend Elissa were typical privileged, rebellious, suburban girls. But after Elissa was kicked out of their private school, she soon disappeared. At fifteen years old, her parents quietly flew her from Providence, Rhode Island to a $10,000/month therapeutic boarding school in Nebraska. Ponca Pines Academy was part of the Troubled Teen Industry, a network of programs meant to reform wealthy, wayward teens. There she met two girls uncannily named Alissa and Alyssa, who had similar backgrounds and similar vices. In The Elissas, Samantha channels her personal grief and utilizes years of immersive research combined with her biting prose to reveal the cultural forces and systemic failings that contributed to the deaths of all three girls. In 2011, less than a year after graduating from Ponca Pines Academy, Elissa died of encephalitis. Four years later, Alyssa died of a heroin overdose. Another four years after that, Alissa died while battling an opioid addiction. Samantha endeavors to tell each of their stories, expanding on what shaped these young women before, during, and after their time in the Troubled Teen Industry. Based on interviews with other survivors, friends and family of the girls, educators, experts, and comprehensive reporting, The Elissas will challenge what you know about the opioid epidemic and the Troubled Teen Industry - and in doing so, will ultimately offer a window into the secret lives of young suburban women"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-244).

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