Cut

Reason Book Chosen

This book is an ALA Quick Pick for YA Readers. It had great reviews from Voice of Youth Advocates, Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, New York Times Book Review, School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and other sources. Also, I had heard it referred to as “a cult classic.”

Bibliographic Information

Author: Patricia McCormick

Publisher: Seven Stories Press

ISBN: 0439324599

Copyright Date: 2000

Genre

Fiction, Realistic

About the Author

Patricia McCormick was a National Book Award Finalist in 2006 and Booklist 2006 Editor's Choice Award winner.

Reader’s Annotation

The words Callie hides behind tell a story louder than the scars she bares.

Plot Summary

Fifteen-year-old Callie is at Sea Pines, a suburban residential treatment center, for cutting herself. She refuses to talk in either group therapy or during individual sessions with her individual therapist, and for a good portion of the book, Callie says nothing at all. She just observes, as the reader hears her thoughts, the things she wants to say, and the things she has stuffed inside. The other girls call her S.T., which stands for silent treatment, and generally disregard her. Callie watches all of the other teen girls around her, in treatment for eating disorders or drug use. She watches as a new girl, Amanda, also a cutter, arrives and this triggers different responses in her. Callie thinks about her family, her sad and tired mother, her distant and busy father, and her sick little brother. And she thinks about cutting. In silence, Callie builds relationships with people, and when something drives her to speak, these relationships unfold, and so does Callie.

Critical Analysis

The plot in this book is nothing original. Girl goes to residential treatment center, builds relationships, and eventually moves towards recovery. There are books with characters whom are cutters, but not very many in which the main character is a cutter. Also, it is the writing, the way that McCormick captures Callie’s psychological world, that is so poignant. The reader will feel how shut up Callie is, will be begging for Callie to speak, yet empathizing with her for not doing so. The silent world McCormick creates is complicated, layered, and intense. McCormick builds a world that feels void and then gives us the release, essentially how Callie feels when she cuts. The characters are real, the dialogue is real, and raw emotion pours through the pages, eventually. Anyone who struggles with perfection, anger, guilt, loneliness, alienation, or feeling out of control due to situations they clearly can’t control, will feel heard. That’s just about every teen, isn’t it?

Themes/Tags/Issues

Cutting, Self-mutilation, Anger, Perfection, Family Issues, Therapy, Selective Mutism, Psychiatric Hospital,

Curriculum Tie Ins

Health - Self Harm

Psychology

Reading Level

11+

Interest Level

14-17