Book Review: The Dead Inside by Cyndy Etler

Hey Guys! Katie C. here with another book review: The Dead Inside by Cyndy Etler

All Cyndy wanted was to be loved and accepted.


At age fourteen, she had escaped from her violent home, only to be reported as a runaway and sent to a "drug rehabilitation" facility that changed her world.

to the public, Straight, Inc. was a place of recovery. But behind closed doors, the program used bizarre and intimidating methods to "treat" its patients. in her raw and fearless memoir, Cyndy Etler recounts her sixteen months in the living nightmare that Straight, Inc. considered healing. 

I've read so many books over the course of my life, but this one really stood out because of the fact that it's based on a true story. Reading through, it was easy to get lost in the plot and characters just like every other book i've read. However, afterward, knowing everything that I read really happened gave the book a whole new feel. Normally, I consider myself an avid fantasy reader, but I'm super glad i picked up The Dead Inside! Watching not only Cyndy grow and change throughout the book, but the world around her as well kept me glued to the pages the entire time.

One small thing I really enjoyed about the book was the chapter titles. Normally, authors either go with the name of the person of view (POV), or a title that relates to that chapter, or sometimes just a number. Instead of that, Etler took a different path and named each chapter after a rule. One thing about Straight, the "drug rehabilitation" place Cyndy goes to, is all the pointless rules they had there. The chapter titles for the book were all the different rules that straight had, such as "no getting out of seat without permission" and "host home doors and windows must be locked and alarmed". this interesting choice in chapter titles might not seem like much, but I thought they really added something to the story overall.

One more thing that I will say about The Dead Inside is that it's not a fun light read. This book is a true story about abuse, harassment, drugs, and more. This book will make you think. Even if you're like me (a person who enjoys light hearted middle school fantasy), I still recommend reading The Dead Inside. Sometimes its hard to imagine the lives of others when your so caught up in your own. And reading a book like this will not only bring you hours of intense, uninterrupted reading, but it will also leave you with a new perspective on the world that will stay with you forever.