Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow
You certainly know someone like Charlotte Davis, who may not have gone through as much turmoil and suffering in life, perhaps not as much as herself, but someone who has her history and pain recorded in her own body through self-mutilation. Cuts, burns, scratches … Ways to deal with emotional disorders. Warriors who do not know how to face the days in a world like this, without going through such catharsis.
Kathleen Glasglow’s novel is narrated by Charlie who tells her story as a 17-year-old teenager who had her health insurance expired in a psychiatric treatment clinic, as a result of experiences of reality full of fears and disappointments.
That we all go through ups and downs, often pushing us to the limit, is nothing new to anyone, but have you ever wondered how far someone can go to sacrifice and try hard not to give up? The writer made a story here that exceeded my expectations, in addition to her pioneering spirit employing quick and simple words to show a reality of at least one in 200 girls between the ages of 13 and 19 and because of this, making the story so necessary.
People should know about us. Girls who write the pain they feel in their bodies
I’ve always missed more genuine fiction. Fiction about real people, with conflicts and that highlight characters more intimately. Usually, people like the characters in Girl in Pieces are portrayed so erroneously, animalized, or objectified. Without showing how incredible and strong they end up being with their problems.
Charlotte Davis is a fighter who has never had an easy life. Her father and her best friend died, she suffered massive bullying at her old school and the list goes on. A tortuous whirlwind until she saw no other way out but to take her own life. She decides to cut herself until she almost dies, but is found and taken to a hospital with her body covered in blood, after a few days she is sent to the Creeley Center, a rehabilitation clinic for young people who also “practice cutting”. With the sequence of confusing days in a new space, she takes a while to get used to and open up to others. When her treatment shows progress and more confidence, unfortunately, she will have to leave the clinic, use her wings to go ahead on your own. The girl decides to move to Tucson, Arizona and start looking just long enough to stay as stable as possible, but still full of fears. Afraid of failing, and afraid of going back to that old reality of hers, after all the fall is usually more disastrous than the journey to the top. Finally, she gathers her strength and creates new bonds and finds her own love, expressing herself strongly in her drawings and her art, she learns to live, instead of surviving.
The book was very striking for me with an aspect that I highlighted from the author that prevents the romanticization of delicate subjects and at the same time recognizes that they must be presented in the story. The way these presentations are made leaves nothing to be desired and they are not at all exaggerated, I would say even impeccable and careful, with profound descriptions, both to let the reader’s own imagination and understanding development and to avoid idealizations, making use of metaphors recurrently.
With famous productions like 13 Reasons Why, I feared that the superficiality of Jay Asher’s work would be repeated, although true and direct, brought many judgments. After all, it is easy for a spectator to make empty promises or assumptions that do not correspond to the truth, watching from outside the chaos being formed contributing to criticisms such as the “Reasons Why” did. In Girl in Pieces, however, it shows the mind of what happens with the character of the focus of the story exclusively, but without forgetting to pay attention to what happens to those around Davis who is very observant. A prime example of how people should behave better in society; Help rather than criticize. And this evident characteristic since the beginning of the story left me enchanted by the writing and how everything flowed. It is possible to carefully monitor the crises that the main character goes through, how she got there, and how she got up.
The secondary characters are also another fragment that holds you to reading. Starting with Charlie’s colleagues at Creeley who contribute to the “resurrected” Charlie. Her family, her nightmare, which is Misty, her mother, because she was a big influence on what led her to get lost in her path. Even without hope after losing her father and best friend, Ellis.
In Tucson, after leaving the clinic she finds Riley West who awakens, both in her and in him, a need for each other to balance together, since they both felt broken and full of suffering to perhaps be happy together.
The book may make you think, just as it made me think, how chaotic and lonely it must be to live in fear of showing who you are to the world, fear of being yourself, fear of asking for help, fear of judgment and how to face every minute with a mental illness. Actions that tend to retaliate in more problems and more aversion to these people (coming from others and themselves) — retaliation like that of about 800 thousand people who commit suicide.
One thing that makes it very clear, although unsettling, is a reflection that accompanies you and changes your point of view.No person should feel alone, no one really is, there will always be someone to understand and listen to you, it is always worth remembering that. Nobody wants to die, wants the nightmare to end. This feeling does not make anyone weak, in short, because it is scary to be so close to the border.
The book brings very important lessons. However, it is still delicate, heavy, yet necessary. Above all, real and certainly one of my favourite books so far due to all this. It is an incredible and exciting story, I strongly recommend it to everyone who has the willpower to understand the plots experienced and suffered daily in this world.
NOT RECOMMENDED IF YOU FELT SENSIBLE OR TRIGGERED WITH ANY CONTENT HERE.
