It is possible that these events caused him to suffer from PTSD, as he appears to suffer from a mental breakdown when admitting what has occurred. He breaks down and says that he was, but deserved it.

When his mother comes to pick him up with an investigator, the investigator asks if he was beaten. He begins to believe in the treatment, feeling no remorse when those around him are abused.

The director announces that all campers are being demoted, based on the privilege system they use, and to blame Garrett, so he is beaten yet again by the campers. He lets his friends out on the other side of the border, and then rescues his pursuers, who bring him back to Lake Harmony, where he is beaten senseless repeatedly. They reach the Canada–US border to escape from legal recapture, and their pursuers' boat begins to sink. He escapes Lake Harmony with two friends, Pauly and Sarah, after using chemicals to start a fire. Staff members are authorized to use 'any force necessary' to alter his behaviour, including physical and psychological abuse.Īfter attempting to talk his way out with no success, he realizes escape is his only option. Garrett does not believe he belongs at Lake Harmony, but he is not allowed to leave until he has admitted his 'mistakes' and conforms to the facility's standards of behavior. Garrett is an incredibly bright and clever kid, although he tends to miss school as he thinks that he does not need to attend daily to uphold his grades. Upon his arrival, he learns that his parents have sent him to the facility because he refused to stop having intimate relationships with his former math teacher that was eight years older than him, Sabrina, along with other things including staying out too late, not being athletic enough, and occasionally smoking weed.

Boot Camp is a young adult novel by the Bavarian Author Todd Strasser about a boy who is subjected to physical and psychological abuse when his parents send him to a boot camp.Ī fifteen-year-old boy named Garrett is picked up by a pair of bounty hunters and sent to a boot camp in upstate New York called Lake Harmony.

Fallout by todd strasser summary