Justine's Thoughts: Sisters in Sanity by Gayle Foreman

Sisters in Sanity
By Gayle Foreman

Pages:
287

Book Description:

“Where are they taking me?”
“It’s for your own good, Brit,” Dad said.
I was shoved into a small, stuffy room, and the door was locked behind me. I waited for my dad to realize he’d made a terrible mistake and come get me.
But he didn’t.

---

For sixteen-year-old Brit Hemphill, it’s hard to know who she can trust. Convinced she’s out of control, her father has sentenced her to Red Rock: a center for supposedly rebellious teens, where the therapy consists of name-calling and the girls who get privileges are the ones who rat out their peers.

But then Brit meets V, Bebe, Martha, and Cassie - four girls who keep her from going over the edge. Together, they’ll hold on to their sanity and their sisterhood despite the bleak Red Rock reality.

A quote:

“It’s just that we’d like to think that craziness and sanity are on opposite ends of an ocean, but really they’re more like neighbouring islands.”

Any thoughts:

• This is the first novel by Gayle Forman I’ve ever read, and I have to say that I completely loved it from beginning to end. I’ve also heard great things from her other book If I Stay, which I still gotta read soon. And that’s a must.
• Red Rock is a horrible place. It’s supposed to positively affect the lives of young women who were sent because they were insane, queer, and suicidal or had gender issues and eating disorders (etc), which they didn’t; Red Rock just likes to over-exaggerate.
• At first, Brit struggles, just like every girl there does. But that changes when she meets four other girls. They bond to create a “club” - Sisters in Sanity - and they hold meetings at night in order to talk freely without anyone watching them. Holding on to each other through thick and thin, they strive to survive Red Rock until they plan to do something about closing down the place.
• The letters from Jed (yes! Romance!) also kept Brit from giving up and suffice it to say that she was close to giving up at times, especially in the end. That’s all I’m going to say.
• The plot really captivated me. It’s the main reason why it was difficult to stop turning the pages. I’ve never read anything like it before. It was full of things I never thought was good enough to read (I’ve always thought themes like these were “boring”. Boy, how wrong was I.). Speaking of the themes, it’s a book full of hope, fear, friendship, life, teen issues, love (!), and trust.
• I would recommend this to everyone, so you can understand what true friendship really is. And plus, it’s dedicated to “misunderstood girls everywhere”. So...why not, right? ;)