Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Who in his right mind wants to talk to a shrink? I don't want to talk about anything. I don't want to feel anything, taste anything ... or anything. The lyrics "just dying to die" run around in my brain day and night...

Fifteen-year-old Sam is in pain. He comes to the therapist's office unwillingly, angry, depressed, and filled with guilt over his own self-destructive behavior. He is being drawn deeper and deeper into a black hole of despair from which he sees no way out.

The Road Back

This is the Real-life story of Sam's Recovery, told from tapes of his therapy sessions. It tells what drove him to leave home, how he survived on the street, and why he was desperate to escape from the brutality of the gang that had become his "family" and from the torment of his own self-loathing. For every teen who has experienced the pain and loneliness of a no-way-out darkness, and for all those who love them, here is the light that can lead the way back.

Average Customer Rating:

Real life isn't like this	Customer Rating:
First of all, this book is not a true story as it claims; there's no way I can believe this is made up of transcribed therapy sessions. The things this character talks about are unrealistic for a 15 year old to say and are simplified down to triteness. I'm all for supporting easily available help and such to teenagers, but this book is a joke.

Pathetic!

Customer Rating:

As a fifteen-year-old, I found this book patronizing and insulting. Sammy, a fifteen-year-old, is amazingly dense and unable to verbalize simple thoughts and emotions. It was a class assignment to read this book in English class, and our teacher swore it was a 'real' book. It is obviously total ish. What fifteen-year-old uses words like 'gobbly goop poop', especially an ex-gangbanger? Can you imagine Tookie Williams saying that? This book is also grossly oversimplified. Sam 'claps his hands over his ears and yells, "I won't talk about him! I won't!" When Ms Sparks inquires about his father. If somebody doesn't want to talk to a psychologist, which Sam apparently doesn't, then wouldn't he just tell her exactly what she wants to hear, get the hell out of the office, and go on his merry way? And the part where the psychologist talks to him about the fact that millions of teens suffer depression, he is shocked and exclaims, "I thought I was the only one who felt like that!" Well, it all reads like one long PSA.

This book is a complete waste of time	Customer Rating:
Not to crush the authors dreams, but this book is a complete frustration! Throughout the book, the writing grabs the readers attention, however, after about 75 pages or so it really starts to drag. This kids story sounds like a real drama, but the writing style makes it feel like the author is trying to explain teenage gang violece to a four year old. I would not recommened this book.

Shameful

Customer Rating:

Beatrice Sparks is the author/editor of a serious of "anonymous" teen diaries. They are meant as "warnings" to children. In fact, they are not based on real diaries and the only one that actually was, she used about 10% of the journal entries and added a Satanic theme which horrified the family. Now I am aware that children should be taught such things as drugs are bad, teenage pregnancy is not preferable, don't kill yourself etc. However, I take offense when presented in this manner. Children learn best from the truth not extreme propaganda. I also take offense that many libraries (especially school libraries) list this book as non-fiction, when in fact it is a work of fiction.

almost lost	Customer Rating:
THis story is great,I loved how real and interesting it was although parts do get boring. The language used in conversation, like "gook" makes me question how much of it was true. It is pretty simple to read, but it is mind blowing to think of what this 15 year old kid went through! I would recommend this book to anyone, but especially teens in any type of counseling.