Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow is about a girl that suffers from self-harm and her recovery from it. It is a book generally for young adults and the book is mainly about finding meaning and healing. The main character, Charlie, grew up in a broken household with an absent father and an abusive mother. The book starts off with her in a mental hospital when her friends saw her with cuts. She made some connections with the other girls there, but she mainly stayed quiet, observing everything. While she is in the hospital, the workers help comfort her and find ways to stop her from self-harming. After some time in the mental hospital, she moves to another state when an old friend offered her a place to stay. When she arrived, she had to adapt to life there quickly, needing to find a job and another place to stay. Before going to the mental hospital she would have self-harmed in some way because of all the stress being put on her so suddenly, but she wanted to better her life so she tried staying away from it at all costs. She meets people new people that help her get used to living alone. She learns how important friendships can be to keep you sane. Charlie has never been in a real relationship before, so whenever she gets attention she assumes it is love. This leads her to experience another feeling, heartbreak. Overall, the book deals with many deep feelings that the reader could relate to. This book talks about how after one problem, many other problems and losses follow until you break. These problems can make you go back to old habits. I found the book memorable because the diction really shows what she feels whether it's happiness, anger, or confusion. The book handles with many heavy topics that involve addiction, poverty, and mental health which could be triggering to some readers. But it can also give the reader the feeling that they are not alone and other people understand what they go through.
Danielle L.
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