Customer Reviews
850125 Review for Wachtel's Comtemp Lit Class 
2007-04-30
To start off, I didn't like this book. My thoughts aside, I thought this book was very well written and I can feel for Ms. Dudman. Ms. Dudman's personal narrative is heart felt and really showed her feelings on the subject of out of control teens. The fact that it was a true story really hits home.
There are a few negatives of the book. One is that it seems a little bit over the top. Although don't know anyone like Augusta, and I bet there are some out there, the fact that she was so out of control is doesn't seem possible to me. In my experience, there are people that are rebellious, but not to the extent of Augusta. Another negative of the book was that it got to be repetitive. At the beginning of the book, Martha's feelings and problems with Augusta are interesting, but when you reach the middle of the book, Ms. Dudman is still talking about her problems with Augusta, and it just gets boring.
A positive of the book is the writing style. When you're reading the book, the way Ms. Dudman writes makes you feel like you're in her head, thinking what she is thinking. Her descriptions of her feelings are very good, and you can imagine how she is feeling.
In conclusion, this book is a good pick if you enjoy reading about teen drama. Personally, this book was boring and I could not connect to the characters. This has been a review of Augusta, Gone by Martha Todd Dudman.
DPHS 720234 Review For Wachtel 
2007-04-30
Let me start off with this statement: I did not particularly enjoy this book. That is mostly due to my own tastes in books. Having said that, I found it to be a very well written book. I could definitly feel for Ms. Dudman and her trials and hardships through all of this.
For those of you who have not read the book yet, it is a true story about a mother (Martha Tod Dudman), once a free, rebellious spirit, gone corporate mother of two. The story follows her as she tries to fix her relationship with her daughter, while trying to be a good mother and repair her shattered life. It not only shows her attempts with her daughter, but also her own personal growth and healing during the process.
The book has quite a few social commentaries about families, especially motherhood, substance abuse, and social responsibility. Dudman uses her own experiences to relay these lessons, mostly through her explanations of Augusta's life. She explains all the consequences and the problems that happened in her own life, and how they seemed to be occurring in Augusta's as well, though at a much more dramatic level.
Like I had said earlier, it was a very well written book, with a lot of lessons for life, however it did not strike a very good chord in my heart. I just couldn't find it as consuming as most of the books I read, however I would definitely recommend reading it once, just for the lessons and messages sent across.
Breakdown-
Entertainment:**
Perspective:****
Depth:*****
Overall:****
Augusta, Gone 2007-01-13
Augusta, Gone by Martha Tod Dudman is the tragic story of a teenage girl's struggle with smoking, drugs, a wild teenage experience and her attempted recovery in the end. The book is a true story written years later by Augusta's mother as she looked back on the desolation of Augusta's teenage years. Martha worries about her children as any maternal figure would, but is unable to control them as a single mother. Augusta goes out late at night, spends days at friend's houses and does not go to school. She smokes cigarettes, marijuana, does cocaine, speed, acid, and just about anything else she can get her hands on. As Augusta becomes more and more unruly, Martha becomes desperate to help Augusta by some means. Martha hears from a friend about a program in Montana that helps children like Augusta dry out and improve their behavior. After the summer program, Augusta is sent to a school that also deals with these problems and is meant to guide the children in their new life. While there are many twists and turns in the end of the story, the main fact of the matter is that Augusta can not break away from her wild lifestyle until she is ready to, and she is able to receive support from her family.
This book is an excellent read and something that many teenagers would enjoy reading. Some scenes were shocking and almost disturbing that one girl could be so substandard. When Augusta is at the school and must tell her parents everything that she has done, she has a list of fifteen-plus "confessions" that she makes and for me, this was a very rude awakening. It is scary that this is actually a true story and many teens have these problems with drug abuse, eating disorders and suicide attempts. This is a very meaningful book because it shows a great deal of truth in many frightening situations. People can learn from this book the consequences of poor choices made as teenagers.
Augusta, Gone is very similar to the book Go Ask Alice (by an anonymous author). Both are true stories of teenage girls and their struggles with drug abuse and their attempt to put an end to their addictions. In Go Ask Alice, the main character runs away from home to be on her own in a new city with a new life, but constantly slips into her old ways because she does not have support from her family. In Augusta, Gone, Augusta is actually sent away by her mother to recover but as her program ends, she also slips into her old ways. Both girls in the stories return home when they are ready and want to start over with a new life. Augusta was much more fortunate because she is about to begin a new school that she will fit in to. Unfortunately for the girl in Go Ask Alice, she lets go of her diary when she returns home and we find out she died of a drug overdose just two weeks later. Again, books like these have a very important meaning and show us what not to do in this dangerous world we live in.
Heart-wrenching, truthful tale of a daughter "gone," in many senses of the word. 
2006-05-16
This book is so honest and the writer is so adept at expressing her emotions and her despair, that, you, as a reader, feel it too. I could hardly put the book down, although the ending didn't provide much closure to the harrowing stories and escapes, etc. I believe it really resonates with a lot of similar teenagers. My own daughter finds it resonates with her and she is 14. Some of her friends are somewhat like Augusta, although not quite as extreme. This is so riveting, it's hard to stop reading. Dudman is wonderful with feelings and sentiments of depression and despair. Highly recommended for the right audiences, particularly teenage girls and their Mothers.
Lacking the crucial element of honesty 
2006-04-06
This author is a good writer, as many reviewers have noted. However, this story lacks the crucial element of honesty. This story tells the reader all about Who What When Where but not WHY. The main reason I read any story like this is to gain an understanding of what would cause a child to behave in such a self-destructive way. There is almost no effort to answer this question. Reading between the lines, however, the reader might suspect that the mother spent too much time at her job, with her boyfriends, taking her twice-daily solo hikes and reading her books to spend the necessary time with her children as they were growing up. This mother freely catalogs her daughter's transgressions, but shies away from taking an honest look at her own mistakes. One shocking but telling incident is oddly inserted into the story without any effort at explanation or understanding: at age 2, the daughter developed a habit during naptime of smearing herself and her surroundings with her own feces. The mother writes that this went on for about a year. HUH??? Again, reading between the lines, the reader learns that the toddler was put put down awake in her crib in a hot room and left for several hours (so that Mom could have her precious alone time?). After this had happened once, twice, WHY did Mom continue to leave the child alone, awake and unsupervised at naptime for a year? The most common of sense would tell a parent to revise their approach!
If a parent is going to write on a subject like this, they should be ready to be honest with themselves and their readers so that the book can truly be of help to others. This author should spare us her crocodile tears.
So good 2008-06-20
My brother actually went to the same school she went to, witch is actually really different than described in the book, but it's so so good! And so is the movie.
Much ado about nothing 2007-11-15
During the course of this story 15- and 16-year-old Agusta refers to her mother alternately as "Martha" or "Mommy." Eeeewe.... Some middle ground, please? How about "Mom"? At age 16 aren't you a little old for "Mommy" and the stuffed animals you receive as gifts from Mom and Dad at reform school?
I felt bilious reading how this adolescent tormented her mother and other family members by running away from a $50,000 reform school in Oregon (twice) because she "wanted to go to a mall, see a cat, dye her hair, have a boyfriend, and smoke a cigarette." What a glorious "indomitable spirit," as Momnmy perceives it. I understand Augusta had a some chemical imbalance plus adolescence angst, but didn't most of us?
Ms. Dodd builds the tension towards the end of the story when she receives an emergency call from the reform school. But alas, another student, not Augusta, has committed suicide. OK, I'm evil, but I was kinda hoping Augusta had offed herself. At least then I would have known Augusta was tormented enough to deserve pity.
Otherwise this is just the obsessive musings of a self-obsessed mother with a self-obsessed daughter who let's hope becomes a reasonably balanced adult.
Truly, I wish Augusta and "Mommy" all the best. But y'all sure weren't worth a story.
By the way, Martha, cut down on the hiking before you develop chondromalacia, tarsal tunnel syndrome, or some other nasty over-exercise syndrome. More exercise is not necessarily better.
A Troubled Teen, and a Mother Facing her Past 2007-10-28
I read this book when it first came out, but I'm writing the review now with some insight that I gained as a teacher (and verbal punching bag for out-of-control kids and their parents). Dudman did the right thing in writing this book; there are many familes where the kids get in trouble and rebel, and there is no "right" way to approach it. When Dudman daughter Augusta starts smoking and skipping class, she's torn between "putting her foot down" and tolerating it because she was also rebellious as a teen.
Sending her daughter to a wilderness school was a bad choice, as these schools, along with tough-love boot camps, have a 90% failure rate. But I could feel a sense of desperation in Dudman as I read through the book. What do you do when your daughter is skipping school, hanging out with older boys, running away, and refuses to listen? How do you make it clear that she has to share your attention with her siblings and not be selfish? How do you make her see that you can't let your work suffer?
Augusta does change for the better in the end. Perhaps her little "adventure" is no longer fun. Perhaps she realises that freedom comes with a price?
My Worst Nightmares 2007-08-22
This book was wrenching to read. It is the story of a kid's life gone wrong, from a loving, caring, frustrated parent's point of view.
As a parent of young children, I wanted to see something like "If I had or had not done (fill in the blank), my kid would never have gotten into trouble"
But it's not that easy. I think the sad point to this book is that, well, stuff happens sometimes (as the edited forrest gump said on TNT the other night).
The family is split, and the mom does work a lot. But that's common. The mom tries to instill good values (be non-judgmental, hard working, honest) into her children. But somehow, it doesn't take with her daughter. Her daughter, simply put, goes down a dark path.
There is not a real happy ending. There is some closure. But for a mom of young kids, this is a horror story.
(*)>
Interesting 2007-05-07
I remember watching this movie on tv. I really enjoyed reading the book. Helped me to understand my own family member's addiction.
