Crosses :

Rating:
Summary: This Book Changed My Life
Review: A friend told me about this book 4 years ago. At the time I was heavily into the party scene, drinking daily, using drugs whenever I could get a taste for free, contemplating suiside, and trying as hard as I could to bury all the pain. I cut myself for the first time after reading CROSSES. Not because the book glorifies the behavior (it doesn't), but because I was desperate for a way out and I thought cutting was the answer. If you've ever wanted to know what goes on in the mind of someone who self-mutilates, or how the behavior can become a way of coping, then this is the book for you. It is real, this is life, and things don't always end happily.

Rating:
Summary: I liked a lot of the book but thought the plot was poor.
Review: The book kept my attention for most of the time, but I was dissapointed in the ending. Not only did the author, in my opinion, leave it hanging, but it seemed quite surreal. All in all, I thought the book's plot and characters were a bit sketchy, although many of the feelings and thoughts expressed were somewhat believeable if not seemingly true to life. A fair book.

Rating:
Summary: re: Shelley Stoehr, author, replies to other online reviews
Review: to my readers/reviewers: just noticed amazon.com reviews of CROSSES, and I thank all who have enjoyed my work for their support. ...By the way, to all my faithful, wonderfully supportive readers, and to those who enjoyed CROSSES the first time around - BDD (my publisher) will be rereleasing CROSSES soon, with a new, fabulous cover! Again, thank you to all my readers. You may email me at [e-mail], I'd love to hear from you !

Rating:
Summary: This book totally relates to some teenagers hellish life.
Review: I totally empathize with Nancy and Katie. She is very lucky to have found a friend to relate with. This story gives an insight to teenage hell and the need to cut yourself to feel in control of your pain.

Rating:
Summary: Two girls trying to make it through adolescense
Review: When you're in highschool, and you don't fit into any crowd it's hard to make friends. But two girls do it. They meet through drugs and alcohol and find themselves at the edge of danger whenever they're together. They're realistic and not portrayed as any stereotypes. With complex feelings somehow conveyed in easy and understandable words Shelley Stoehr does an excellent job showing how difficult life can be for unnoticed girls who are just trying to grow up in today's world. The ending is enough just to remind you that not all stories end happily, but it makes one feel closer to the characters.

It's a definate must read, and I have read this book twice already. Anyone just trying to cope with highschool should read this book.

Rating:
Summary: !!! okay... !!!
Review: This book was annoying and sometimes quite unrealistic. At least on person in my middle school gets busted once a month for doing drugs, and so this book annoyed me because it made it seem as if Nancy and her friend were the only two doing it. Also, there is a part where the teacher lets the girls get away with being drunk in his class:c'mon, like THAT would happen!!! The teacher person could get FIRED for not turning a student in, for crying out loud!!! Another thing that annoyed me was the obviously fake way the author described cutting. It's not ANYTHING like that. The closest thing in the whole book on SI was the fact that the author said that there was blood. The cover made it seriously sound like the book was all about SI, but it deffinately wasn't: Stoehr found that writing about kids tripping was more fun. But I mean, C'MON, PEOPLE!!! urghhhhhhhh. Sometimes I think these crazy adults ENJOY writing things about what they don't understand as a challenge. It might be fun for them, but it's a waste of time for people who know what these situations are really like.

Rating:
Summary: Takes Me Back....
Review: I see there are some people who have legitimate claims with "Crosses"....but I remember this novel fanatically. When I was in seventh grade, almost ten years ago, "Sassy" magazine gave this book a great review. My older sister bought it on the basis of that review. I stole it from her on a whim and read it in one night. It was unlike anything I had read, and baby, I had read a lot! It was dark, disturbing, and full of anger and pain. "Crosses" then did something remarkable--it was passed along to almost every girl in my seventh grade class. We read it in hallways, during class in the back of the room, on the weekends, during lunch...any chance we got. It was literally passed from hand to hand, with a whispered "This is amazing!". It was a cult novel here in our small town. I graduated from high school five years later, with almost the same small class of 112. At our Senior Banquet, we all still remembered "Crosses". Sure, now I see that "Crosses" is an overdramatic and melodramatic look at life....it tries too hard to be dark and disturbing. But it worked then, I can promise you that. It's just what you need at 12, it has all the passion and darkness you're looking for at that age. And here's a promise, we'll be talking about it still, at my ten year class renunion.

Rating:
Summary: Silent Screams I take with me----
Review: I first came upon Crosses in my local library. It caught my eye because of it's description. When I got to the 4th line in the summary of the book, I thought someone had written a book about me. This book goes into the cutter's mind and not only gives reasons, but stories followed by them. I could not put this book down. I could feel the pain in the character as I seemed to live her life myself. I could relate to nearly all of her stories, and felt I was reading my diary from years, months, even days ago. Her feelings and thoughts seemed to intertwine with mine and felt I was going through this depressing and sometimes uplifting journy with her the whole time. Unfortunatly I continue to cut myself, and I do not intend on getting help until I feel I am ready, but for all of the other people suffering from this terrible, depressing, confusing disorder, you're not alone. I highly suggest this wonderful descriptive book to all cutters around the world. Not as an answer, a relief of any sort, but to let you all know that you are not alone

Rating:
Summary: gah
Review: I was glued to this book...however, I am a self-injurer and can honestly say that at most times in the book that self-injury was mentioned, it was in a nonrealistic way that aggrivated me. On one page, the main character mentions something about how it was always possible to stop the SI. I cannot say how incredibly wrong that statement was and how much it aggrivated me. If you SI, you will find false statements in the book that may irritate you beyond belief. False book.