Karen Karbo, author of "The Stuff of Life", gave the book a positive review in "Newsday", writing: "Maia Szalavitz's brisk investigation of America's so-called "tough love" treatment programs, which bill themselves as the last hope for out-of-control, drug-taking teens, would be the stuff of a bad TV movie, if it weren't so smart, well-researched and even-handed." Mark Sauer of "The San Diego Union-Tribune" noted: "Some of the stories reveal physical and psychological abuse that rivals tales from Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison."