Review: "The Elissas" by Samantha Leach

The Elissas by Samantha Leach
Published June 2023 via Legacy Lit
★★★★

Elissa, Alyssa, Alissa: One by one they were sent to "therapeutic" boarding schools, where they crossed paths and became friends. One by one they left those programs. And one by one they died.

For as long as I knew Elissa, her life was defined by her desire to burn the brightest. A hunger to experience it all, despite the consequences, that made her destined to burn fast, and then burn out. (loc. 2150*)

In The Elissas, Leach traces what happened to her childhood best friend—Elissa—and then, too, what happened to Alyssa and Alissa. And what's there is disturbing: all the messiness of the troubled teen industry, which seems largely designed to empty wealthy parents' bank accounts and keep teens under as strict a control as possible, with little regard for the consequences.

I've read a lot of troubled teen industry books—a number have come out recently, including Paris Hilton's memoir (that one I have not read, and Leach does not reference it, but she does talk about the recent documentary about Paris Hilton, which to my understanding covers some of the same material). What this reminds me of most, though, is The Forgotten Girls (Monica Potts), which is similarly by a woman who "got out" and is tracing the life of one who didn't. Where The Forgotten Girls is about small-town poverty, though, The Elissas is set against a backdrop of wealth and privilege—the kind that keeps girls in boarding schools rather than jail cells, but not a kind that can save them from addiction and trauma.

Leach was not immune to the things that pulled Elissa under, but while Elissa sunk deeper and deeper, Leach managed to tread water. She doesn't ask as many of the hard questions as Potts does, and the more memoir (vs. researched) sections about her own life don't draw as sharp a contrast or make so strong a point, but it's clear that this book was a labor of love—something to memorialize three girls who would otherwise by forgotten by history.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*I read an ARC, so quotes may not be final.