Patricia McCormick

While confined to a mental hospital, thirteen-year-old Callie slowly comes to understand some of the reasons behind her self-mutilation, and gradually starts to get better.

Patricia Mccormick

Micah

This story always reminds me of why I want to be a psychologist. An all-time favorite, for sure.

Rachel Evans

(1.75/5) 1 hour 12 minutes - I didn't think this was a very good representation of self-harm at all. It presented everything as too cut and dry, 'oh this is why you started', etc. The main character had no personality at all, and while I understand that to a certain degree, that's the idea - to show how mental illness can break you until you can become a shell of a person, it just made the character seem lazily written and hard to emphasise with. I wish characters like Amanda had been expanded upon, it would have made the story a bit more interesting to engage with. The ending of the story seemed very forced as well - it was 'dramatic' (not really) for the sake of it, just to provide an end for the story. I think it would have perhaps been better to have just ended the way it began, with very little plot or direction, as then this would have perhaps been seen as intentional rather than empty.

Emelie

This book is about a very serious topic, selfharm and being in an institution. And unfortunately i feel the book could literally have been named after me! The whole situation was the same thing i've been through! Struggling and fighting, just like Callie does!

Tasha Dykstra

From the eyes of a psychologist major I didn't really like this book maybe if I would've read it earlier in my life my opinion would be different.

Caroline Lewicki

It took me a really long time to finally pick this book up. When I was a kid, I bought it thinking it was interesting, but having suffered from anxiety, I was kind of afraid to read it.

I'm glad I finally did.

Callie learns to find her voice again and genuinely want to get better and overcome her addiction to self-harm. It's an uplifting story, almost like a novella in its length and how neatly it wraps up. I really enjoyed it. My only wish is that it was longer or provided a follow up so you could see Callie on the other side of her time at Sea Pines.

ashley hopkins

I went into this book not really knowing anything about. I saw it on the shelf at HPB, and the cover kind of drew me in, along with the title. A little weird I know, but if you knew my background when I was younger. I don't think it would be so weird. (Trust me my poetry is proof) I went into the book thinking it would be good (not in like a happy sort of way), but more of an emotional way. I wanted to like it, but it just didn't have the connection with the characters I was looking for I guess. 

Callie is the main MC who gets sent to this "rehab" center called Sea Pines, or in the words of the girls that go there "Sick Minds" (I thought this was kind of cute) because of her addiction to cutting. While she's there she doesn't really seem to wanna make any attempts to get better. She doesn't talk to anybody there, not the girls, counselors, or in group. In that way it's kind of hard to follow because you have mostly her thoughts on the girls, the counselor, and others at the place. No actual interaction until almost the end. At the end like I said is when she started to actually open up to people, and started telling her story as to why she was there, and the guilt she had from her brother being sick, and her mom having to deal with her brother, and then her dad's business.

The other characters in it Debbie, the over-weight girl, Becca and Tara the anorexic girls, and Sydney and Tiffany who are addicted to drugs. Then a new girl named Amanda shows up later whose also a cutter. Honestly I couldn't make myself like any of them except maybe Amanda when she showed up just because she seemed like she didn't care. She had that smart-ellic attitude.

So I'm kind of torn between how I feel about the book. I think it could have been more thought provoking for readers had it more details I guess you could say. This is one of those type books where it's hard to write about because I don't really know how to put it into words. It was apparently a banned book too although I didn't see the explicitness of it. That is just me though. *shrugs*

I would have to say maybe 2.5 stars. 

Still remember though just because it didn't work for me. It still may work for you and it really is a short read. :)

Brandie States

I really enjoyed this book. Its short and too the point. What I like most about it, is it felt very real. Callie coming to terms with not only herself and her feelings, but also the struggle to open up and accept help is very relatable. This book remains one I pick up from time to time, just to give myself a shorter story to read.

Cut

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