Dead, Insane, or in Jail: Overwritten

CEDU Memoir #2

by Zack Bonnie, Anne M Carley (Editor), Jonathan Weiner (Illustrator)

As OVERWRITTEN begins, the bounty hunter and an armed sheriff escort Zack back to Rocky Mountain Academy, six weeks after his escape. This time, Zack changes his tactics and stops overtly opposing the authoritarian program. Some kids crumble under the pressure. Others become "look-goods" who'll do anything for approval. And young Zack may be kidding himself that he can remain immune to the coercive persuasion and thought control that permeate the place. With coarse, brutal dialog and authentic source materials, book two in this nonfiction memoir series takes the reader deeper into the vortex.

370 pages, Paperback

Published February 27, 2018

About the author

Actor and multi- media artist. Author of book series:

Dead, Insane, or in Jail: A CEDU Memoir. (2015) by Zack Bonnie
Dead, Insane, or in Jail: Overwritten! (2018) Publisher: Not With the Program

The anticipated series continues! Accurate, harrowing, suspenseful first-hand narrative, with plenty of juicy dialogue.

Dead, Insane, or in Jail: A CEDU Memoir
Published 8/2015.
Dead, Insane, or in Jail: Overwritten!
Public release: 3/2018

Reviews

[Kayla]

A rare detailed, first-person account of what it's like in a "therapeutic" boarding school—a type of brainwashing camp for teenagers. I'd like to see everyone who is considering sending a child to this sort of facility read it.

My favorite part of the book is the extensive quotations. You get to read how the narrator's parents justified to themselves their decision to imprison him, as well as gaining some of the theoretical background in cult studies that helps the reader to understand what happened to Zack.

You can read about how the narrator's therapists and teachers, blinding themselves with jargon, came to see him as an illness more than a person.

Issues related to trust, compliance, ability to sustain attention to task, persistent need for re-focus and direction, and Zack's variable affective state were evaluation considerations that required attention.

In other words, Zack wouldn't do what I said. Especially poignant is the quotation from a report authored by the narrator's father advocating human rights for those in Soviet mental hospitals.

Richard Bonnie urged that patients be "granted more rights and opportunities to engage in normal activities. There should be fewer deprivations and restrictions, such as restriction of access to writing materials, censorship of mail, close supervision of visits, and the absence of personal possessions...patients should be informed of their rights...grievance procedures should be instituted..."

How in the world can a person simultaneously argue for rights for strangers and pay handsomely to deny rights to his own near-adult son?

[Coquille Fleur]

This book leaves off right where the first one ends, which is awesome. I am continually amazed at the author's ability to remember in so much detail what he went through at CEDU even as he is becoming more and more brainwashed. A lot of kids who went through these programs have serious memory issues because they were pushed to their mental limits, but Zack has a strong mind--that secret red binder he kept in his brain despite the rest of him accepting the program. Because of this, he is able to tell in vivid detail how this place messed with his still-forming teenage mind and left him so uncertain about the world. A great and important story. I can't wait to read about his life after CEDU!