By Abigail Vona

When the author—the daughter of wealthy, dysfunctionally divorced parents—was 15, she was a wild child who acted out by drinking, dating a drug dealer, running away from home and slicking Vaseline on the stairs to trip her stepmom. Sent to a Tennessee rehab institution when she thought she was heading off to summer camp, she eventually spent 328 days in hellish lock-down among anorexics, prostitutes and other lost souls.

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Now, at 19, Vona is the author of Bad Girl, a compelling memoir that’s remarkable on several levels. First, because she suffers from severe dyslexia and crafted her story by dictating it. And more importantly, because it offers a raw, revealing look at the world of rehab.

Interspersing her tart narrative with notes from her shrinks, Vona documents her odyssey as she delivers scathing portraits of the head cases around her. Smart and willful, she’s a strangely sympathetic character—one whose appeal is based on her bravery, as well as on the vulnerability that led her down such a dangerous road in the first place.