Girl in Pieces

I don’t know much about the reasons why a person may chose to self-harm, so when I ran across this book, the synopsis instantly grabbed me.

Charlotte Davis is seventeen-years-old and cuts her arms and legs in attempt to numb herself from her life. She doesn’t want to die and she’s not crying out for attention – she just doesn’t want to hurt anymore. Her whole life has been one devastating disappointment after another and cutting is the only thing that seemingly makes her feel like she has – at least a little bit of – control over herself and her life.

It is heartbreaking in it’s honesty. It is raw and emotionally taxing. But it is also hopeful. Glasgow gives her characters a chance to come out – not fixed – but mended, in the end. In the face of utter loneliness, I closed the book feeling like they had a chance to finally know happiness and after all the things we learned, I needed that sense of hope and closure.

There are several trigger warnings; specifically, triggers for self-harm / addiction / homelessness / absentee parents / death of a parent.

That may be one of the only things I didn’t like about the book. Glasgow presents so many different challenges for her characters that it felt, at times, overwhelming and almost like she was packing too much into the story. However, I didn’t find that it made the story any less believable.

The writing could be criticized as choppy and too quick, but I enjoyed the author’s style and thought it lent itself well to the mind of a lost seventeen-year-old.

After I had finished the book, I wanted that hope and happiness for I felt for Charlotte and truly prayed she had finally found a version of herself she could be kind to. She was far braver than I ever would have been if given her circumstances, I found myself cheering Charlotte on from the sidelines!