Customer Reviews

Unglued & Tattooed: How to Save Your Teen from Raves, Ritalin, Goth, Body Carving, Ghb, Sex, and 12 Other Emerging Threats

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I am the mother of a 12 year old girl and stumbled across this book at the library. After the first couple of chapters I suspected it was a "Christian" book, but figured I'd see what, if any, information of value I could glean from the book. The one thing I did get was that it is a good idea for Dads to spend one-on-one time with their teen daughters and be involved in their lives. That "good" male attention can help immensely with a girl's self-esteem and give her positive expectations of male/female relationships.

Other than that, the book is HORRID. It is, as other reviewers have mentioned, EXTREMELY sensationalistic. While I would prefer my daughter not get involved in the rave scene, I sincereley doubt that one exposure is going to result in her becoming gang raped and running off and being a prostitute.

Chapter 5, about the Goths, warns that dabbling in wearing black clothers, black eyeliner and black lipstick will cause your child to be posessed by the devil. Least you think they are exagerating, the author warns, David Berkowitz (aka Son of Sam) is presented not as a sick individual who CLAIMS that he was possessed by the devil and thus committed his atrocious acts, but as someone who had ACTUALLY been posessed by the devil.

Do they REALLY think that giving your teen Christian Contemporary Music CDs would work on a kid who's preference is Marylin Manson?

I'm still reading the book ... I am slightly halfway along and am reading it more for the "I cannot believe they actually think this way" value than anything else.

There are much better, more realistic, saner books out there on dealing with your teen and his or her issues.

Read this one just for its curiosity factor ... if you try any of their "Discussion Starters" on your actual teen I guarantee they'll never regard you with a straight face again.

I have to say that this is possibly the most sensationalist misinformed piece of tripe I have ever come across. I agree fully with all of the other reviews and their comments. Not only is this the worst type of religious scaremongering (before you bible bashers start I am a good Catholic boy, educated by priests anyone) I have seen in a long time, it's just plain offensive to anyone who indulges in the odd piuercing or enjoys dance music and raves or God forbid...dresses in black (catholic priests). I think this books sales rank speaks volumes for it. The author must be quite worried about the state of the world today when books about bestiality are selling more than their guide to emerging threats. In brief...if you want to completely distance yourself from your children, if you do not want to understand their problems in the most important years of their lives, if you are fundamentalist, sensationalist or just ignorant to other cultures and lifestyles then this book is for you. If on the other hand you are a normal sane human the only good this book will serve will be to scare you away from organised religion and it's draconian beliefs forever.

I have read this book not long ago, and I found it offensive and untrue. I was one of the 'goths' in high school and in college, and I was friends with all of the 'rave' people. The majority of the so called 'weirdos' were among the most innocent of the majority.Like the other person said, I witnessed more of the SO CALLED Christian types doing the drugs, having the keg parties, and especially not practicing abstinance, and then heading off to church Sunday morning to preach to eachother the opposite. Things arren't always as they seem, but it seems people still insist on living with narrow minds.

I don't own this book; I filped through it at a bookstore once, and then fell to the ground laughing, mostly about the part w/ Goths.
I, being somewhat Gothic, found the whole thing funny. I listen to some Chrisitan music, for heavens sake, and Goth has nothing to do with the devil.
Manson is shock rock, not Goth and the term Spooky Kid is used by me and a lot of other goths to describe people who listen to Manson, cut themselves to be Goth, drink blood and so forth.
Goth is basically about beauty, and it has nothing to do with Devil Worship. It's not a religion, and I'm Christian and Goth, and I have never meant any devil worshipers or people that are possessed.
Don't get this, unless you have a *very* good sense of humor and know the basics of what this book is talking about.

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Not only is this woman preaching hysterical and wildly inaccurate attitudes towards what most of us parents consider to be a pretty important aspect of our lives (the growth of our kids into decent adults) the ridiculously over the top diatribes and fundamentalist doctrines she spouts, if taken seriously, could easily blind a parent to the real issues their teen is going through.

Frankly I think the attitudes expressed are dangerous and could be highly detrimental to a growing teen if taken seriously.

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As usual, a "Christian" book is disguising itself as an authority on something about which it obviously knows little. This epistle twists everything around to make it look like every goth kid is doomed to a life of debauchery and decadence. I grew up a goth kid and I dare say a good share of them are the Hello Kitty crowd and wouldn't hurt a flea. I admit some are lost in this world, but that just makes them intelligent and without an outlet for change. Is that such an awful thing? I think you could read pure fiction and get more out of it than this book. Don't waste your money. Sara Trollinger is a frightening woman who I wouldn't let within a million miles of my child (no matter what their problems). And since when is a tattoo an inherently evil thing? A butterfly, a heart? Jeb Bush and the Campus Crusade for Christ may think she's great, but beware of this one. I think she's nuts! Why do they all come from Florida?

First of all, I only read the first chapter, so I can only comment on that. It's free to read on Regnery's website, and is about the dangers of the rave culture to teens. The book appears to be targeted to parents who suspect their child of being involved in unseemly activities, and want to know what to do about it.

There's a lot of sensationalistic hype in the first part of the book reminiscent of tabloid-style TV "news" reporting. But there may be some truth in the things they write about, at least for some people. I agree that raves should be limited to those over 18, though probably a lot of younger ones slip in. And no doubt raves contain a lot of mixed-up characters, just as you would also find in schools or public places.

The problem is that the authors assume that everyone who attend raves will get "sucked in" to a decadent or dangerous lifestyle, which is a gross overgeneralization to make. I can see why they do this, however: as youth counselors, their source of rave culture is troubled teens, most likely those who would be screwed up whether they went to raves or not. The authors would not know anything about the knowledge I or others like me have of raves, since I have never been to a youth counselor, never got "sucked in" to this lifestyle, and have nothing of interest to tell them about my experience (no drugs, no sex, just dancing).

So I began to feel that they were missing the real point, when the chapter started getting into the larger issue, asking parents, "what is your relationship with your child, and how can you strengthen it?" This is really what it's all about, spending time with your child, talking to him, giving her confidence in herself and her abilities. Then you won't freak out when your child comes home one day with a tattoo or a piercing, because you know your child and can trust in his judgement.

So parts of this book could be useful to parents, but with a caution: skip the authors' sensationalistic comments on youth culture, and stick to their advice on talking with and spending time with your kids. Instead of lecturing your kids on how dangerous raves are, ask them questions about their knowledge of and experience with them and how you feel about this environment (which the authors recommend). I have personal experience with one of my parents doing the former and not the latter with me, and I can tell you that this approach doesn't work. Besides, their knowledge of raves, goth culture, etc. is based on second-hand accounts anyway.

This book left me uneasy at how people still judge others that they dont' understand. All kids that go to raves do drugs; its not even a majority. Same goes for the goth scene. This book is EXACTLY the same as saying " How to save your teen from Blacks, Hispanics and other social pests of the world ". It's simply discrimination against groups Ms. Trollinger and Mr. Yorkey don't understand. Personally I have found that the Christian types are ones who are much more apt to threats of drugs, sex and alcohol than the rave kids, the goth scene or any other group.

I have one thing to say to this crap. Jesus save my tattooed old school goth behind from your followers. What a silly, hysterical woman. I am more concerned about saving my daughter from people like her.

I bought this book because I thought it would be humorous (and it was only $[...]), however once I started reading it my mouth dropped open and with each sentence...I'm not sure if I was more shocked or pissed off to be reading such garbage. This is by far the worst book to have ever been written, full of inaccurate information from uneducated little kids. I am sure these kids were "specially" selected to have their quotes put in this book to make the author(s) seem like they had some-what of an idea about what they are writing about. I am speechless...I have no words to describe how upsetting it is, to know that this book has been published and already clueless parents have their minds filled with more propaganda. I feel horrible for the mindless "sheep-le" that read this thinking they were really reading something profound. I don't understand how this book was even aloud to be published because the first chapter alone, had enough false information to make your head spin. They couldn't even accurately tell the history of raves or the name of the music genre in itself! People at raves listen to electronic music, not Techno...Techno is one of the numerous sub-genres of electronic music (i.e. Techno, House, Drum N' Bass, Dubstep, Hardstyle, Trance, Hardcore, Electro, the list goes on and on.) It's also pretty sad that the goth kids are lumped into one category with kids that are into Satanism, Vampirism, joining cults, and/or going on killing sprees. Seriously? The author probably has no idea what Satanism even is, as a brainwashed individual, the stereo-typical "worshiping of Satan" definition is probably what she was referring to. Rather than the actual meaning of Satanism, which is basically the worshiping of yourself and the belief that what you do in life and the choices you make are the best decisions to better yourself and your life. Depending on what kind of a person you are, this could be a really bad thing or a good thing, but that's a whole different topic. Anyway, it is apparent that no educational material was used in the writing of this book at all. It seemed like they used Wikipedia for all of their information and was like, "Hey, we should write a parenting book!" The best part is how the founder of the `House of Hope,' lady interjects and makes comments in the book, like she has any idea what it's like to be a raver or have taken drugs of any kind or been a goth kid or have had an eating disorder...basically have had any other experience with these situations and/or lifestyles, other than from an outsiders point of view. Just because you're a counselor, does not give you free reign to be an expert of everyone's lifestyle choices. Sure there are addicts and people with problems that need help, but just because these addicts or whatever came from some stereotypical group, like the raver kids, goth kids, or thug kids, this does not mean that the entire group is bad, like this author is making it out to seem. Every "group" or "scene" has drugs in it, whether you're a redneck cowboy from the country or a preppy jock on the football team, drugs can find there way in anywhere and anyone can make the decision to try them or not. This woman is by far the biggest moron on this planet and I hope she is embarrassed by writing such a piece of crap book that might as well be fiction. Either these kids that she is helping at the `House of Hope,' are just looking for something to blame their bad decisions on or this woman got a bright idea she thought would sell. Placing blame on different types of cultures is such a cop out; no one these days knows how to take responsibility for their actions. I really pity the fool that used and/or uses this book as a parenting resource.