SuitabookAuthority and consent
Garrett is sent away and held until he admits mistakes and conforms to imposed standards of behaviour.
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Book details
Todd Strasser - Author
A tense story about a teenager subjected to coercive discipline, humiliation and violence, with resistance and escape driving the narrative. Its central concern is what happens when authority removes a young person’s ability to refuse.
After ignoring several warnings to stop dating his teacher, Garrett is sent to Lake Harmony, a boot camp that uses unorthodox and brutal methods to train students to obey their parents. In the middle of the night Garrett is taken from his home to Harmony Lake, a boot camp for troubled teens. Maybe some kids deserve to be sent there, but Garrett knows he doesn't. Subjected to brutal physical and psychological abuse, he tries to fight back, but the battle is futile. He won't be allowed to leave until he's admitted his "mistakes" and conformed to Harmony Lake's standards of behavior. And there's no way to fake it. Beaten, humiliated, and stripped of his pride, Garrett's spirit is slowly ebbing away. Then he hears whispers of an escape plot. It's incredibly risky -- if he's caught, the consequences will be unthinkable -- but it may be his only way out. In this tense, riveting novel, award-winning YA author Todd Strasser reveals what really goes on in highly secretive -- and notoriously dangerous -- boot camps, a stealth prison system where any teenager under the age of eighteen can be imprisoned at his parents' whim.
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Sign in for personalised guidanceA tense story about a teenager subjected to coercive discipline, humiliation and violence, with resistance and escape driving the narrative. Its central concern is what happens when authority removes a young person’s ability to refuse.
Garrett is sent away and held until he admits mistakes and conforms to imposed standards of behaviour.
Garrett tries to fight back, then hears about an escape plot that may be his only route out.
Consider whether a reader who finds powerlessness or harsh institutional treatment difficult may prefer support or pauses.
This is a grounded book brief while Suitabook strengthens the analysis: the current material supports only a cautious reading; another book-specific source is still needed.
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