Cut by Patricia McCormick

Callie, a fifteen year old, who doesn’t speak to anyone including her therapist, is sent to a treatment facility named Sea Pines, after both her parents and doctor learn she’s been cutting. As the book goes on, Callie is hesitant but she then becomes involved with the other people or so called, “guests” at Sea Pines or as they like to call it, “Sick Minds.” Callie confronts her trauma or fear of talking and what caused her behavior to start and change.

I would give the book, Cut by Patricia McCormick, a four-star rating because I really liked the book but I did not like that the events in the story went too quickly. I liked the book because McCormick uses the technique of first person narrator as well as her use of similes. For example when the author is helping to picture Callie’s tired, mom she writes, “Or about telling you that she looked tired, like the before people in the Before and After pictures.”(14) An example to show the first person narrator technique is when Callie is at Sea Pines for the first couple of days and she is getting to know people so she starts to describe them. McCormick writes, “Ruth is this very shy girl with bad skin and a way of ducking her chin inside her turtleneck.”(13) Here in the book Callie is not actually saying it but thinking it. The reason I did not like this book is because it is challenging. The reader has to be able to understand when she changing the story because she makes it difficult to read and understand at what point she changed it and where is now in the story. An example is when Callie still has a few more minutes until her appointment with her therapist is over but then the story jumps to her waiting outside the door. “The clock says we still have fifteen minutes left. But you’ve already capped your pen and closed your notebook. I keep my hand on your doorknob a minute, standing in the waiting area outside your office.”(43)

I liked the book other than the author jumping so much in the events and I would recommend this book to anyone. This book is one you will not be able to put down because you want to know what will happen next. It is a must read type of book.