Stolen

Starred review from June 28, 2021
Actor and producer Gilpin debuts with a searing indictment of the billion-dollar “Troubled Teen Industry” and the boarding school that upended her life. She relates how in high school, she was a successful student who also battled depression and rage. After months of clashing with her parents, she was taken to an “educational consultant” who recommended she be sent to a behavioral modification program. Following the program’s protocol, professional escorts pulled 15-year-old Gilpin from her bed one night and took her deep into the Appalachian Mountains, where she was forced to live in the wilderness and partake in humiliating group therapy sessions. Three months later, she was sent to Carlbrook, a boarding school in Virginia that touted a therapeutic curriculum but in reality applied a shame-based “one-size-fits-all treatment plan” to students who suffered from everything from opioid addiction to “playing too many video games.” Gilpin is a captivating writer, made even more impressive by the fact that her formal education at Carlbrook wasn’t just abysmal, but involved psychological torture—such as having a flashlight beam shot into her eyes nightly as she attempted to sleep—until she graduated at age 17. By confronting the ugliness of a system that almost killed her, Gilpin emerges victorious in a narrative that radiates with humanity. This unflinching account is impossible to put down. Agent: Richard Abate, 3 Arts Entertainment.

July 21, 2021
At 15, Gilpin was a star athlete and honor student but suffered from undiagnosed depression that displayed as anger and was complicated by alcohol use. Believing she's headed down a dangerous path, her parents enroll her in a behavior-modification program, which began with Gilpin being "stolen" from her bed in the middle of the night. She spends three months hiking hours each day through dense Appalachian forest, eating dry ramen, rice, and beans, and getting generally berated by the staff. But none of it compares to the place she is sent after. Billed as a therapeutic boarding school, Carlbrook functions more like a prison, based on the teachings of the cult group Synanon. Gilpin and her fellow students are emotionally and psychologically abused by the staff, routinely humiliated [isn't ""routinely humiliated"" part of emotional and psychological abuse? delete?], and pitted against each other. The relentless abuse makes for difficult reading, and only a small portion of the book is dedicated to Gilpin's life after graduation and her eventual recovery from the trauma. So, while not exactly hopeful, Stolen is definitely eye-opening and memorable.

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