Cut

Rating:
Summary: Cut
Review: This debut novel by Patricia McCormick confronts the readers with the direct title of the book: Cut. The cover of the book is a piece of text from page eleven which clearly indicates that the book deals with the mental illness of cutting. McCormick's purpose in writing this book is to inform people about this illness and to make us familiar with it. Both teenagers and adults should be informed with this serious contemporary problem. Many people are confronted with this issue, either in their family and friends, or they are experienceing it themselves. This book makes us able to understand people that deal with cutting or experience it their enviroment.The book clearly explains why someone would feel reliefed after they have cut themselves. Patricia McCormick is able to describe the character and the situations in much detail that the reader is able to visualize and understand the thoughts of this fifteen year old girl, Callie.
Callie was sent for help after her parents and docter discovered that she cuts herself. Callie who is the narrator of the story speaks as if she is talking to her counselor from Sea Pines, which is a treatment facility for young girls who each struggle with their own personal and unique problems. The system of counseling at Sea Pines is done in groups, where everyone talks about their experiences and feelings. However, Callie hates groups she thinks that "... people always end up saying things that make them look pathetic." Therefore, Callie never speaks in groups, neither to her therapist. She prefers watching silently. Yet, she feels frustrated that noone is able to help her with her problems. Everyday is a new day of counseling.The therapist puts a new date on the fresh page of his notebook. Nevertheless, at the end of the counseling, nothing is written on the page because Callie never reveals her mystery. If she would talk, people might proof that she is crazy. However, when Callie gets drawn into the group, she finds the courage the speak up and gradually she reveals the family trauma, of her brother's illness, which developed into her self-destructive behavior.
The author's style is informal, therefore it suits all audiences. If it would be written formaly, it would lose the quality of the narattor. The ideas of McCormick are richly developed and all areas are coverd, to make us understand the character.
It is fascinating how the character mentions every detail around her. She obserbes a fly that sits on a table and considers how she is the only person that cares about that fly. This could have a double meaning. For example, she is the only person that knows about her own problem, but nobody seems to care about it. Moreover, deep inside of her soul, Callie cries for attention.Yet people are not able to see her pain. On the other hand, when someone asks Callie why she hurts herself, she responds:"I don't know...It just happens. I can't help it."It is difficult to understand people who deal with these issues, therefore I would recommand anyone who is interessted on this topic to read Cut, because it will give you a clear view of how people like Callie feel, think and see things.I think this book will be a support and inspiration for people that deal with this mental illness.

Rating:
Summary: Cut
Review: "Then I placed the blade next to the skin on my palm. A tingle arced across my scalp. The floor tipped up at me and my body spiraled away. Then I was on the ceiling looking down, waiting to see what would happen next..." thinks teenage Callie as her therapist babbles on about how she became the "self mutilator" she is today. Callie lives in the Sea Pines residential treatment facility with 5 other girls with problems close to hers- eating disorders, drug addictions, and others. This novel is part psychological mystery story and part adolescent drama. The problem in this story can and does take place throughout the world.
This book was one of the best books I've ever read relating to this topic. It's very descriptive and teaches you what can happen if you get attached to something that harms you. I recommend this book to anyone who likes reading about people their own age that have the same problems.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and disturbing
Review: I loved this book, despite its bizarre content and subject matter. Having picked it up, not really fully understanding what it was all about, I wasn't prepared for what takes place.

But the author has a remarkable way of telling the story. This is definitely one of the most unusual books out there.

Also recommended: McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD

Rating:
Summary: An intense read
Review: Recently I read the book Cut. The main character of Cut is a teenage girl named Callie. The plot of this book is sometimes happy, sometimes sad and sometimes just confusing.
In this book Callie cuts herself and goes to a treatment center called Sea Pines. Callie calls it Sick Minds. She doesn't speak for a long time until someone with the same problem comes to Sea Pines. Everyone is shocked when Callie speaks, once she starts speaking she finds out that she really likes the girls she lives with.
As I said before Callie cuts herself, never enough to die, just enough to feel the pain. Callie is most likely cutting herself because she is feeling angry or depressed.
I recommend this book to people that like realistic fiction that are in the seventh grade or older and aren't looking for a flowery book.
If I had to rate this book on a scale of one to five, I would give it a four out of ten because it could have been longer. It left me hanging a little bit.

Rating:
Summary: Superficial treatment of a deep subject.
Review: I had expected more from this book when i bought it. After reading the summary on the back cover, i was hoping to read a serious novel that truly confronted the issue of self-injury (SI). Instead, i found the book to be lacking in depth and using SI as a gimmick to establish the lead character, Callie, in the setting of the book.
"Cut" is not a novel about the issue of cutting. It is a novel about a girl in an adolescent psychiatric ward. As written, the book is a very diluted version of "Girl, Interrupted," describing Callie's stay in the ward and some experiences with her therapist and with the other patients. With very little effort, this book could be rewritten as a story of a girl with an eating disorder or a substance abuse problem--the type of mental-health issue is unimportant to the plot.
If you are looking for a story about life in a psychiatric ward, written at a middle school level, this book is perfect and very readable. If, however, you are looking for a book for older teens or adults, or for a book specifically confronting the issue of self-injury, you will likely find "Cut" very disapppointing.

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant story of a girl who needs help
Review: Teri Ho
5-15-04
B-7
Book Review
Cut by Patricia McCormick was an excellent read. Callie is a normal teenage girl starring on the track team, with lots of friends. When everything around her starts to pile up, she decides to slit her wrists as a way of relieving the pain bottled up inside her. Her mother finds out and sends her to Sea Pines, a correctional facility. This book leads you through her route of self discovery there. You feel like you are there and you just want to help her but you can't, and you can almost hear Callie's voice trying to break through. It's happy but sad at the same time and this book helped me realize a lot of things about my own life. I think the author was trying to send a message to mainly teenage girls about the consequences of slitting or the hardships of self destruction. This book was written really well and it kept you guessing and hoping for more and it teaches you a great lesson so that is why I enjoyed it.

Rating:
Summary: online book review
Review: The book I have recently finished is called Cut. It is about a girl named Callie who is placed in a treatment center called Sea Pines. The girls in treatment have realized that Callie hasn't been talking ever since she got there. She won't talk to them she won't even talk to her own parents. Her case is that she is a cutter. Until Sydney her roomate starts to talk to her about how she doesn't want to see her cutting herself or hurting herself in any form or way. When Callie decides to talk for the first time everybody is in shock. The other girls who are in for treatment have problems such as anorexia, cutting and obisity. When a new girl Amanda come's in Callie finds out that she is in for cutting her wrists aswell. Then she comes to the conculsion of why she is cutting herself.
Overall I enjoyed this book because I like reading about books that are real and what people are really going through in the "real" world.
People who would enjoy this book would be if you don't like to read about the same old book's about love that you already know the ending too.

Rating:
Summary: Callie the Cutter
Review: In this novel, Callie is one of those people who cuts herself. She puts out all of her frustration from her life into her own body. She is then sent to a residential treatment facility. There are other girls there who have eating disorders and drug problems, but Callie is sent there because she cuts herself. At one point she just stops talking. She just wouldn't talk to anyone about anything. In this novel, Callie learns how to deal with the problems in her life and learns to communicate, since she's obviously having some trouble in that area of her life. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone matrure enough to read about this subject. You don't have to have the problems that the characters do to be able to identify with them and see how they live the way they do. The fact that all you hear from the main character for a while is only her thoughts and not her voice makes this book unique. Cut has a very good story.

Rating:
Summary: Cut excedes expectations
Review: I felt like I was in the book and I was going through all of the things that Callie was going through with her. I couldn't put it down. "Cut" deals with a series fo real-life problems like eating disorders and self-mutilation. Callie cut herself to relieve pain and stress. It helped me understand other people do this and I can stop if I put some effort into it and get help. This is the best book I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing BOOK!!
Review: i have read this book over and over again. I own it and i love it! I am a cutter myself and being able to relate to a story like this is great. I wish more books were writen in this way! I recomend you reading this you won't be dissapointed