Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. I have attempted it on a number of occasions but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get into it.

I swapped my kindle back in 2018 and am unable to recover this title. I appriciate the opportunity that was given for review but sadly can't complete it for this title. Based on the works and promotional work on the blog tour I give this 3 Stars. Many thanks.

A very enjoyable and fascinating book that I was not sure about at first, but once I got into the characters in the story I was gripped. I am hoping that there will be more books from this Author.

We Can't Be Friends is Cyndy Etler's second book which focuses on her life after spending 16 months at Straight, Inc., a program for troubled teens. This book picks up right after she's released from Straight, but Cyndy does reflect back and wrote about her experiences at Straight in the beginning of the book for those who haven't read the first The Dead Inside. You can jump right into this one, but I would still highly recommend you read The Dead Inside first.

Cyndy struggles to adapt to the real world again after her time at Straight. It appears that everyone just automatically assumes she's healed and nobody seems to understand how difficult this is for her. She still has difficulties with her mother, who obviously has some serious psychological issues. In the book she shares experiences she has at home, with her teachers and counselors, events at school with her peers, and relationships with boys. She struggles with real life and wonders if she'd be better off back at Straight so she can feel safe again. Cyndy has an insane amount of scarring at a young age. It's to the point to where it's difficult for her to decipher from what's right and wrong, and from truth. I can't imagine how hard this must've been for her. The book was a little difficult to read at times and I felt much sympathy for her. It's like nobody is on her side and she can't catch a break. She needs to be loved and can't even get some simple support! It's good to know that she turned out to be an awesome human being who now helps counsel teens in need.

I'll admit that I wasn't as invested in this second book as I was with the first, perhaps because I learned about Straight in The Dead Inside and was so shocked by how she was treated. How had I never heard about Straight, Inc. before then? I looked forward to reading this book to find out what life was like for Cyndy after Straight and that's exactly what I got. This book was written a little differently and shares Cyndy's experiences in chronological format after Straight. I think it was a little harder to read as a lot of thoughts are shared in between, but overall, it was good and I'm glad I read it.

4****

This book is extremely important, as it gives children and teens, and especially sexual assault victims, a voice that they don't otherwise have.

I found this a difficult read as it was written from a teenage mindset, and even writing as an adult the writing was very young. I had expected a fascinating read which would allow me a great insight into the mind of a troubled teenage and the trials and tribulations of her life. Sadly the writing let the memoir down. It;s difficult to really review a book which is based on someone's actual life, as it feels harsh to form judgement. However nothing about this really gripped me, and I think it would be better suited to teenage / young adult readers.

I found this book very interesting. It gave me girl in pieces and purge vibes. It was a dark idea. Really liked it!

Although this was a good book, for me it was a hard book to read. Not due to the writing, but just all that this young lady had to go through. All of the people that should have helped her, turned their back on her. The damage that was done to Cindy in my opinion was appalling. But, she perservered. She is living a life SHE wants to lead. This is a good book for all. Many topics are touched, bullying, self-esteem, etc. Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and last but not least the author for allowing us into her world with the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

Rough, honest, painfully realistic. A good book for someone working with youth or dealing with their own or their child's rebellion. That said, I would only recommend it to youth to read with caution, perhaps for that were already in an environment similar to the author's as a lot of her experiences are explained uncomfortable detail.

I really had thought this was the first part of her story I didn't realize this was the second part so yes I was able to keep up with the basic of what the first part was and I did like the book but I think I would have got soooo much more into it with the first part and that was my fault so I will give this book a 4 stars but I need to go read the fist part!

This is Cyndy Etler's second book that is a memoir of her teenage years.
Much like the first book this is a tough read. We see Cyndy struggle through dealing with what happened at Straight and what happened to her before she was sent there. She's now home with her mom and little sister, and basically on her own dealing her sobriety and finding ways to cope with what happened. She's also now the only one in her whole school that is sober and because of that she is now the teachers favorite. We see her deal with having no friends and struggling for a purpose in life, and even dealing with food issues now as well.

This is a tough read once again as it is a memoir and Etler doesn't sugar coat anything that happened to her. She's honest about everything she dealt with how and she really did struggle and wasn't given much help by her mom. She had to figure out everything on her own, and found other adults who would help her and lead her in the right direction.

We also see her have fun and realize that she doesn't have to be super strict now all the time. She try's to do the normal teenage thing, and makes real friends for a little while and then things happen as they always do when your a teenager and you grow apart. Etler's book always leave me having learned something from her. I love how open she is about her struggles and her willingness to use them as a way to help other people. She's given a voice to those who don't get a voice very often in young adult books right now, but it's one that is very honest and helpful too so many young people.

I know this is autobiographical so I don't want to be too harsh, but it's difficult for me to imagine how someone who suffered something like this as a teenager, even as an adult seems to have the same toxic mentality (in many aspects) as an uneducated adolescent can have. I get you can be insecure and lack self-esteem, but if I recall correctly she is selfish and reckless herself. Even after everything. So I managed to read the whole thing but didn't really like it. Definitely not my cup of tea.

what.
what.
is this real life? This book is labeled a memoir, but it reads like fiction, because it blows my mind that these things happened to someone at a treatment program. I unfortunately did not get to read the first memoir documenting Cyndy's experience at the treatment center, but with the snippets in the book about that experience, I am blown away.

I went into this book having not read the predecessor and I was stunned at what came about. This story is told in unflinching clarity and truly blew me away.

Wow, reading this (as well as "The Dead Inside," Etler's first book about her life and time in Straight, Inc.) was...ROUGH. I can't imagine having to go through what she did. And yet, the way she writes about her experiences as a teenager trying to find her way in a world where everyone else is doing the same, makes it universally understandable. You may not be able to relate to her pathological fear of so-called "druggie" things, but you can see parts of yourself in her teenage awkwardness, her attempts at trying to fit in and meeting rejection. It bothered me at times how she wrote these books in a juvenile way, using weird slang words, but I get why she did it - that was who she was (a teenager, in the 80s) when this stuff happened to her, and the juxtaposition between her youthfulness and the insanity she lived through makes a big impact.

Unflinching, but very necessary.

I read these two books back to back and they left me tied in emotional knots. The first book, The Dead Inside, tells the story of Cyndy's sixteen month stay at Straight Inc. I sort of dimly knew that places like it existed. but I had no idea... When she was a young teen, Cyndy ran away from her abusive home. Her mother responded by signing her into a cult-like inpatient drug treatment facility, even though she had only briefly experimented with beer and pot. After more than a year of physical and mental abuse, she's pronounced "straight" and sent back to her old high school, terrified that just hearing the wrong "druggie music" or speaking to her "druggie friends" will send her into a downward spiral that will leave her dead on the streets. We Can't be Friends tells how Cyndy overcame the brainwashing and started to live a normal life again. Remember how when we were growing up, Go Ask Alice was supposed to scare us away from drugs? Cyndy Etler's books will leave you scared of the treatment facilities. I'd much rather my teens read The Dead Inside and We Can't be Friends, especially the author's notes at the end of the second book. I highly recommend them both, but they aren't "feel good" reads. They'll leave you upset.

what.
what.
is this real life? This book is labeled a memoir, but it reads like fiction, because it blows my mind that these things happened to someone at a treatment program. I unfortunately did not get to read the first memoir documenting Cyndy's experience at the treatment center, but with the snippets in the book about that experience, I am blown away.

When I first started this book I thought it was going to be like some books that I have read through before but it was not. I get it that sometimes things do not go as we would like but I felt that there were a lot of issues that Cyndy kept to herself even though she knew they were wrong she did not get help with the issue with her stepfather. She let people tell her what to do even when she wanted to do something else she let everyone have a say in her decisions when she shoukd have not. The fact that she got convinced that she was an addict was the part that got to me the most and the way that she got treated in rehab and her mom did nothing to stop it.

What do you do after you've been in a brainwashing program and you're released into the world again as a fifteen year old? "We Can't Be Friends" by Cyndy Etler addresses her experiences after "The Dead Inside" as she reintegrates with the general populace with Straight, Inc. still in her head.
I really appreciated that we heard more of this story. Of course, at the end of "The Dead Inside", you're left thinking, "Thank goodness she got out! It must have been all stars and rainbows." This book clears up that misconception. Swinging from one end of the pendulum to another as she vies for acceptance and love, I wept for this girl as I read. This book is heart wrenchingly beautiful and ultimately leaves you with a feeling of hope while simultaneously telling a dark, relatable story.
I highly recommend it for anyone who read "The Dead Inside". If you haven't read the first book, you may find Cyndy's second story far-fetched and perhaps even not relatable. This is definitely best experienced as a duo.