Written by: Patricia McCormick
APA citation: McCormick, P. (2000). Cut. Asheville NC: Front Street.
Cover image: http://www.amazon.com/Cut-Patricia-McCormick/dp/0545290791
My summary of the plot: Callie is a 15 year old girl that has been sent to a psychiatric hospital because she has been cutting herself. Her therapy is stalled because she refuses to speak to her therapist or anyone else.
Keywords: Cutting, mental illness, psychiatric hospitals
My assessment: This book helps me understand just a little bit about cutting. I would definitely recommend it to someone who wants to understand what their friend or student is going through.
“Sometimes when we’re in situations where we feel we’re not in control, we do things, especially things that take a lot of energy, as a way of making ourselves feel we have some power”(N.P.).
Audio review: The audio book is well performed by Clea Lewis. She is very believable as a teen.
Citation for audio book: McCormick, P. (2003). Cut. [Audio Recording]. New York: Listening Library.
Review from a library journal:
Gr 8 Up –Callie’s first-person account of her stay at Sea Pines, a mental-health facility, is poignant and compelling reading. Through flashbacks and anecdotal accounts, the teen describes group therapy, her anger and fear, and, after digging deeply, the circumstances that contributed to her need to cut herself. Callie closets herself with silence and cover-up clothing. Her astute observations resonate with reality: the lack of privacy; “guest” control; the constant smell of vomit; and the other teen residents’ anger, sadness; and fear. Personalities and addictions are woven subtly into the story: anorexic Becca and Tara; Debbie, eating everything, unable to control her smothering maternal instinct; Tiffany and :Sydney, addicted to tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, railing at incarceration, but afraid to go back to the streets. Then Callie’s Group has a new guest: Amanda, scarred from self-abusive cutting. Exposure of her own behavior is Callie’s first step in breaking free of her mental bonds, but first she has to face her fear and guilt, real or imagined. McCormick’s first novel is powerfully written. Not for the squeamish, the young women’s stories avoid pathos and stereotypes. Shelley Stoehr’s Crosses (Bantam, 1991) and Steven Levenkron’s Luckiest Girl in the Worm (Viking, 1998) dealt with cutting, but Cut takes the issue one step further-to helping teens find solutions to problems.
Citation for book review: Richmond, G. (2000). Cut (Book Review). School Library Journal, 46(12), 146.
Recommendations for library or classroom use: This would be an excellent book for both a book club and I would also recommend it for individual reading.
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