Book Review 1

Title: Cut
Author: Patricia McCormick

Summary:
Callie, a 15 year old teenager, cuts herself occasionally but never too deep, never enough to die. But enough to feel the pain, to let her inner self scream and let go for a moment. She’s at Sea Pines, a ‘residential treatment center’ filled with girls struggling with problems of their own. She doesn’t want to have anything to do with anyone, so she won’t speak. She found a sharp object to keep so that she can cut when she feels uncomfortable. Until one night, she cut herself and she no longer feels the rush, relief and satisfaction. Then her voice surprises her when the counselor asked her questions.

Reflection:
This is Patricia McCormick’s first novel and she spent three years researching and writing this book. It reflects certain teenager’s troubled mind, where they use cutting to relief themselves. The first impression of the book’s title to me was, not of the horror and not of the weird mystery type that can scare me, just right for me and because it is linked to us, teenagers. I like the way she describes the inner conflict of a 15 yr old girl, trying to cooperate with the ‘treatment center’ after she felt the pain of the cut. Callie display no actions but she could still easily describe what is inside her mind and her emotions. After she speak during one of the group sessions, her group counted her in for everything that they do and I actually felt happy for her because it was thought that she gives the cold shoulder to others when actually she has no courage to communicate. About her brother’s asthma attack, she is not in fault, but she thinks she sparked off her brother’s (Sam) suffering because everywhere that her brother goes, it has to be free of dust mites, pollens and others that could give him an asthma attack. Her hopeless situation that she was in was like accidentally banging into her brother with a knife at the back.

She confides in the counselor, who helped her answer most questions that she has where the answers are simple, just that she thinks too complicated taking every possible blame on herself. When she run away from Sea Pines to a donut shop, she called her Dad, it needed a lot of courage. The warm feeling that the waitress gave her, the two cups of hot chocolate that she needed let her think about her parents, about whether she wants to recover.

Callie’s Dad respected her decision and sent her back to Sea Pines. She thought – Tomorrow, I’m going down to your office first thing in the morning and tell you everything.
I can sense the urge that she wants to recover soon to help her family out.

Juliana