Cut

Citation: McCormick, P. (2000) Cut. New York, NY : Push Books

Grade Level: 14 years and up

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Themes: cutting, therapy, group homes, anorexia, bulumia, overeating, drug use, frienship

Main Characters: Callie, Therapist, Callie's mother, father, and brother, Sydney, Debbie, Becca, Tiffany, Tara, and Amanda


Plot Summary

Callie is a young girl who is in a group home for girls with a variety of mental health issues. Callie cuts herself. Throughout the book the reader is introduced to Callie's family and the girls who Callie deals with on a regular basis at the group home. Eventually the reader learns the reasons behind Callie's destructive behavior and you go through her many ups and downs of her life at Sea Pines. The reader is also introduced to Callie's therapist who Callie slowly warms up to throughout the book. The reader experiences with Callie an awakening as she realizes what are the roots of her problems and that she can allow her friends "in" to help her through her healing process.

Writing Style:

The story is told through the eyes of Callie. She writes as if she is writing a journal to her therapist. You see the world as Callie would see it, at first scary and suffocating. Eventually as bright and optimistic. The relationship between Callie and her therapist grows slowly throughout the book and with it the reader's relationship with the characters grows as well.

Assessment of quality and utility:

Cut is a very emotionally driven and gut wrenching book. As each character deals with her own demons the reader can not help but feel empathy towards them. The writing of this book is well researched and touches upon several sensitive subjects. The author does a superb job at dealing with these subjects in a heartfelt and knowlegable way.

This book would be very useful for a therapist to use with his or her patient. The feelings that the characters experience in this book are real. The story is real and does not try to sugar coat anything. The reader struggles along with the characters and it could show a young reader that they are not alone in their struggles to make sense out of the emotions they are feeling. This book would also be a wonderful book for a parent with a child who cuts themselves to read. It would help that parent to better understand what might be going through their child's mind that would provoke them to take such actions against their bodies. Cut is also a great book to introduce the idea that one cannot blame oneself for the choices that other people make.