Cut Paperback – Color, May 1, 2011

Finished it in one day. It made me feel so many emotions and I loved it. Made me feel less alone

Many people think that “Cut” was a very good book. They say that it was “very inspirational” and “helps you learn life values.” This book lets you see that everyone has hope. The author helps the girl, Callie, that cuts herself so much throughout the book. “It makes you feel like you’re really there with the characters.” One person wrote “Patricia was able to point out that not every kid who cuts isn’t completely morbid and worthless, it’s jidy kids who have a hard time dealing with their emotions.” Honestly this book really shows how little things impact other so much more that you had ever thought. It teaches you that your words have a huge impact on so many and you didn’t even notice. “Cut” really shows you that you never know how much pain a person could really be in without you even noticing they’re there. Many have said that this book helps you “look into the world of someone who cuts.” Overall this book was a really amazing and outstanding book.

This book should be called "Trigger" because that's what it is. It's an amazing book, it really is. It is just a trigger for self-harmers. I used to cut. I'm about seven months clean. It's harder than I thought it would be. The author of this book wasn't a cutter. When I read that, I was amazed. She does so well writing about a teenage cutter. At the end of the book, I felt like there was....hope? I guess. It's really hard for me not to cut. I quit smoking when I was sixteen, and starting cutting the next year. Sometimes I feel like the walls are caving in on me. Like I'm running out of air, and my lungs are clogged. They won't work again until I cut. Then when I do, the pain is gone, I can breathe, and I'm okay. Until the next time. I know I need help, and it's books like this, and authors like this who write books like this, that make me see just how much I need help. I have no support, and I'm alone, but I'm trying. That's the first step, right?

Cut is McCormick's first novel and was inspired by a 1997 New York Times article about self-mutilation. McCormick told Elizabeth Devereuax in an article in Publishers Weekly that she "keep the article for months, then I finally threw it away. I didn't know why I was saving it." Later, during an exercise for a writing workshop at the New School, "I found myself writing in the voice of a little girl, addressing her shrink in a loony bin. I thought, Where does this come from? I finally traced it back. So I closed up my computer and got hold of that article again. And from there I could not stop writing the book."She spent three years researching and writing the book. "The phenomenon of girls cutting themselves in secret," she tells in an interview on her publisher's website, [...] "both repulsed and fascinated me. . . I started out reading everything I could about cutting, although at the time there wasn't much written and there was only one young adult novel on the topic. . . After I finished the first draft of the book, I went to S.A.F.E. (Self-Abuse Finally Ends) and amazing facility that treats people who self-injure. . . to my surprise almost every detail was exactly like those I'd imagined in my book!"Cut was an ALA Quick Pick for YA Readers and a NYPL Book for the Teen Age.I really liked the book Cut and thought it was the best out of the three cutting novels that I read for this project. (The other two were Crosses by Shelley Stoehr and Tribes by Arthur Slade). Callie is a sympathetic character with a unique voice. The book doesn't get bogged down with too much psycho-babble as some problem-novel books can. Rather, the focus remains on Callie and her struggle to make peace with her emotions without resorting to self-injury.Yes, her problems may have been less severe than may others who cut because of a post-traumatic stress disorder, or sexual abuse, or physical abuse, but I think her problems are more approachable to the reader because they're not glamorous or sensationalized. Young Adults trying to carve their way through peer pressures, getting into college, and studying for SATs, can all relate to her difficulties.Reading about something does not make you do it. Reading about running a marathon doesn't make you go out and run one. Reading about bullying doesn't make you a bully. Reading about cutting does not make you cut.Or in other words, as Callie's therapist in Cut very eloquently says on page 126:"Callie. . . There are all kinds of things in the world you could use to hurt yourself. All kinds of things you can turn into weapons. Even if you wanted to give them all to me, it wouldn't be possible. You know that, don't you?"I do know that, I guess. I nod."I can't keep you safe," you say. "Only you can."

Sea Pines is reminiscent of a rehab centre, a pretentious counselor's office and adolescent high school milieu amalgamated into one sick orgy of displaced youths. The story follows the life of 15 year old Callie, who is admitted after her parents find out she has been cutting herself. McCormick is a master at bringing out Callie's voice - and the familiar voice of thousands of other youths who find themselves in Callie's shoes. This is a moving and thoroughly raw book to read if you are a survivor... Because despite Callie's seemingly stubbornness to speak out and be rehabilitated back to "normal" - evidenced from her silent treatment to her therapist - inside was a girl crying out for help. How many of us have ever experienced this before? The poignant narrative is persuasive enough for any reader to feel the loneliness and desperation Callie feels - and yet also the will and strength that Callie eventually finds with her therapist and friends to face her hopelessness and slowly heal her scars.

I am a pediatric psychiatric nurse practitioner and one of my areas of interest is non-suicidal self-injury. A colleague recommended this book after hearing a presentation of mine. The book describes what it feels like to be the person with NSSI fairly accurately. It provides good insight for those who are unfamiliar with this type of experience.

We did a group reading of this book years ago when I was in school, and it was a very detailed book, would recommend to anyone. Very happy I could get my hands on this, thank you!

Came earlier than expect, may be triggering for some, but overall a good book kept me engaged throughout, enjoyed reading

Amazing book with an amazing story. I've read it three time since buying it!

Great book, a bit shorter than I thought it would be, but was great all the same. Came in immaculate condition as well :)

good