Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Girl In Pieces ~ A Heart Wrenching Masterpiece of a Contemporary


Girl In Pieces
Kathleen Glasgow
  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Delacorte Press 

For fans of Girl, Interrupted, Thirteen Reasons Why, and All the Bright Places comes a novel Nicola Yoon, author of Everything, Everything, calls "a haunting, beautiful, and necessary book that will stay with you long after you've read the last page."
 
   Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people do in a lifetime. But she’s learned how to forget. The broken glass washes away the sorrow until there is nothing but calm. You don’t have to think about your father and the river. Your best friend, who is gone forever. Or your mother, who has nothing left to give you. 
   Every new scar hardens Charlie’s heart just a little more, yet it still hurts so much. It hurts enough to not care anymore, which is sometimes what has to happen before you can find your way back from the edge. 
  A deeply moving portrait of a girl in a world that owes her nothing, and has taken so much, and the journey she undergoes to put herself back together. Kathleen Glasgow's debut is heartbreakingly real and unflinchingly honest. It’s a story you won’t be able to look away from.

"A haunting, beautiful, and necessary book that will stay with you long after you've read the last page." —Nicola Yoon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything



My Thoughts: 

A bold and emotional tale of a young girl suffering from a mental illness, Girl In Pieces, is a tale like no other.  From the beginning of the book, Charlotte Davis is at rock bottom, where a lot of us have been before or are at in the current moment.  The setting of the book is mainly at a mental institution, where through a long and trying journey, Charlotte, or Charlie, strives to fight her illness and regain her sense of independence.  

The empathy I felt for Charlie is what really drove me into reading this story so quickly.  One may not be able to connect with the character instantly if they haven't undergone anything similar to Charlie's story; however, if one keeps reading, the experiences this girl is coping with are almost unimaginable.  To read of a 17 year old girl going through such trauma, is heart breaking and devastating.  I admit I cried more than once while reading.  Kathleen Glasgow, has such a uniquely intense and blunt style of writing that draws the reader in and puts them right there in situation with her character.  I truly felt like I was walking in those halls with Charlie.  I could almost feel the pain on my own arms and my heart, well quite frankly, it's been a very long time since I've read something that was so real and truly authentic.  

The topics Glasgow covers are legitimate real life issues, such as drugs, sex, violence and discrimination from health care to patients on any type of state funding , making this a perfect crossover book for adults too.  I myself am 30 and was utterly and completely captivated by this novel.  

Charlie is a very complex character fighting to overcome a mental illness but at 17 years old is still trying to find her own identity as well. I truly appreciated that this novel didn't focus too much on a romance, considering Charlie's state.  I think the book community needs more of young men and women pulling themselves up, saving themselves from real life situations.  Glasgow portrayed exactly this.  I was mesmerized, and completely enveloped by this story and would recommend this to all.

  

No comments:

Post a Comment

Shadowcast by Crystal D. Grant Spotlight & Excerpt

Welcome to the Blog Tour for Shadowcast by Crystal D. Grant, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours ! About the Book Title: Shadowcast Series...