Girl In Pieces

Girl in Pieces is a poignant story of a seventeen year old’s stumbling journey towards healing. You see, Charlotte (Charlie) Davis is anything but an average teenager. Charlie cuts herself, the physical pain helps replaces the mental pain. It is what she does when things become overwhelming for

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her. She should be enjoying youth, life and looking forward to college but is sadly deprived of all this by circumstances beyond her control. Her father committed suicide when she was a young girl and was raised by an abusive mother. She never fit in at school and then her best friend commits suicide. Who else is left to help prop you?

A marvelously written story. There is no sugar coating the topic of self-harm, Glasgow throws it out there from the very beginning and strives to show the reader the depth of Charlie’s pain. Hats off to Glasgow, she did an outstanding job. As Charlie’s story unravels you are willing swept away with her on this painful journey.

I received a free copy of Girl in Pieces in exchange for my honest review.

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As this novel opens, seventeen-year-old Charlotte (“Charlie”) Davis is waking up in the self-harm unit of a hospital, and thereafter gets transferred to a psychiatric facility.

Charlie is a girl who cuts herself, because, as her doctor says, she has internalized abuse and blames and punishes

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herself for the painfulness of her life. Such hurt can come from many things, such as sexual, physical, verbal, or emotional mistreatment. When the bad feelings build so much a person can’t deal with them, he or she starts cutting. But the “treatment” unfortunately spirals into more bad feelings. As Charlie herself understands:

“…the fucked-up part is once you start self-harming, you can never not be a creepy freak, because your whole body is now a scarred and charred battlefield and nobody likes that on a girl, nobody will love that, and so all of us, every one, is screwed, inside and out. Wash, rinse, fucking repeat.”

Charlie initially cut herself to make herself and her bad thoughts disappear:

“OUT. CUT IT ALL OUT. Cut out my father. Cut out my mother. Cut out missing Ellis. Cut out the man in the underpass, cut out Fucking Frank, the men downstairs; the people on the street with too many people inside them, cut out hungry, and sad and tired, and being nobody and unpretty and unloved, just cut it all out, get smaller and smaller until I was nothing.”

She explains, “I need release, I need to hurt myself more than the world can hurt me, and then I can comfort myself.” It hurts, she says, but “when the blood comes, everything is warmer, and calmer.”

Eventually, because she has no money, she is discharged from the safety of the psychiatric center. Her mother doesn’t want her, but gives her money for a bus to Tucson, where Charlie’s friend Mikey lives. There is much more pain ahead for her in Tucson, but also friendship, redemption, and hope. But it’s never easy. Charlie has to work hard to stay ahead of old comfortable ways of dealing with pain and setbacks. And sometimes she slips.

You may be thinking, I can’t read this, it would be too hard. But oddly enough, this is an uplifting book, and not because of any easy out. The author herself was a cutter, and she knows, and conveys, that there will always be struggling, and recovering. But Charlie is a character you can’t help rooting for, who has a survival instinct that helps her keep pushing forward.

In an Afterword, the author writes about the real world of cutting. As she has one of the characters argue, “People should know about us. Girls who write their pain on their bodies.” She reports:

“It’s estimated that one in every two hundred girls between the ages of thirteen and nineteen self-harms. Over 70 percent of those are cutters. It’s important to remember, though, that these statistics only come from what’s reported, and they don’t account for the increasing percentage of boys who self-harm. It’s my guess that you know someone, right now, who self-harms.”

She emphasizes that self-harm is not a grab for attention. Nor does it mean you are suicidal. It is a coping mechanism: “It means that you occupy a small space in the very real and very large canyon of people who suffer from depression or mental illness.”

The author says to any self-harmers reading her book:

“You are not alone. Charlie Davis’s story is the story of over two million young women in the United States. And those young women will grow up, like I did, bearing the truth of our past on our bodies.”

Charlie finds a way to reconstruct herself in this book, just as the author did. This is a gritty story, but inspirational and very worth reading.

Evaluation: This could be considered a “coming of age” book about a girl who struggles with finding a sense of self-worth after feeling lost and as if she is underwater. Somehow, she has to figure out a way to make it to the surface, and stay there. This poignant and affecting story is highly recommended.

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Interesting...
Charlotte Davis is not your average teenager. She practices self harm in the form of cutting. Glasgow gives us an intimate look into the life of this lonely and distraught teenager who is torn to pieces in more ways than one.
I personally think this book should come with a gigantic

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trigger warning. But I guess if the cover and title doesn't do that in itself then you're just fooling yourself. Although this book was very well written and obviously carefully thought out, I think that it was a bit too long for the subject matter. It got very tedious and boring in the second half.
This book was very personal for me. It triggered a lot of emotion and memory out of me. Without going into too much detail, I can relate very much to the protagonist in this book. But I think we all can in our own ways if we can remember what it's like to be a teenager and even imagine what it's like to be a teenager in Charlotte's life.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is curious about mental illness and self-harm.

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I checked this out from my library about two weeks ago and I totally forgot about it until last night. It was due back the next day and I debated starting it as I was not sure if I would finish it that quickly. I am glad I gave this a chance. I did end up finishing this in only one sitting.

Like

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some others mentioned, I had a little trouble with the beginning of the story. I was not sure if I would DNF, but the plot was interesting so I decided to keep going. I think it really picked up once Charlie gets out of treatment. If you are reading this and feeling the same, I recommend to keep going as I really ended up enjoying this.

This story does have triggers for self harm, suicide, abuse, drugs and alcohol, and mental health. There were times I wanted to scream at Charlie for the choices she was making, especially when it comes to Riley.

Overall, this was really good and I enjoyed it.

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This was a hard-hitting, heart-wrenching book to read but, my goodness, was it slow and depressing, and there were times I really struggled to finish it. However, I can see "Girl in Pieces" being quite a popular book because it deals with the topic of self-harm which many teenagers can relate to.

This is a tough book to read at times, as it chronicles the journey of a girl who self-harms. It opens with Charlie in a treatment center, and slowly it is revealed that Charlie comes from an unstable family, has suffered from abuse, and was homeless for a time. Once Charlie leaves the treatment

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center, the story picks up significantly, as she struggles to form a life of her own. Charlie has experiences more than a few bumps on the road - especially in the form of a boyfriend named Riley - but she also discovers a talent for art. While getting through this book was difficult, I also found a lot of hope in the story.

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What a hard book to read. Train wreck is right. Perfect for my students who love tragedy.

In keeping with my current run of sad and depressing books, this one fits perfectly. I did not realize that Kathleen Glasgow was the author of another book I’ve recently read, “How to Make Friends with the Dark”, and it was just as well done. The portrayal of a young girl with major issues is

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not so uncommon these days. Cutting themselves, suicide, all kinds of self harm… It seems to be more normal than not. I definitely feel the author gave the characters a good shot at becoming a better person without that stigma. That can be so hard though when the scars of what you’ve done are so obvious on your skin.
How sad that this has become the norm.

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SPOILERS AND TRIGGER WARNING! This book is not for the faint of heart! This book for those who are triggered by self harm, alcoholism, and sexual abuse!!

"I cut because I can't deal. It's as simple as that. The world becomes an ocean, the ocean washes over me, the sound of the water is deafening,

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the water drowns my heart, my panic becomes as large as planets. I need release, I need to hurt myself more than the world can hurt me, and then I can comfort myself." pg. 42

This book moved something deep down inside of me, something that I did not even know was there. I have never felt every emotion along side a character as much as I did Charlie. Kathleen Glasgow has done the impossible, and actually gave us a sliver of an idea what people with depression, mental illness, etc. go through every single day. This book has opened my eyes to things that I did not even notice I could not see. This book does not hold back, she has given us the bad, the ugly, and the worse possible outcome of self-harm. At the same time, she gave me hope! She gave me hope that people can overcome! This book definitely put a whole new perspective on making sure the people around you are ok, make sure they are not fighting their demons on their own! This book is a incredible read, and I could not put it down! I have never been so absorbed in a character in a long time! I found myself hurting for her, crying with her, getting mad with her, and celebrating her triumphs as well! This is definitely a book that everyone should read at least once in their life!

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This is the story of a 17-year-old girl who self-harms; she cuts her arms and legs. As the story opens, she is in a treatment centre, and it follows her release as she tries to make a life for herself. Charlie Davis was a victim of physical abuse by her mother, sexual assault and homelessness. Her

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father committed suicide and her best/only friend has become brain-damaged through self-harm. She makes some good choices when she strikes out on her own, but even more bad ones, especially getting involved in a relationship with her co-worker Riley. There is a lot of darkness in this story, but also a lot of hope.

I think the author did an excellent job of portraying the everyday struggles of those with addictions or mental illness. It's not only the major hurdles that defeat you, it can be any number of details and smaller choices. This book is well written and I felt strongly for Charlie.

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