“find your people (because you need to talk), your tribe, your reason to be, and i swear to you, the other side will emerge, slowly but surely. it’s not always sunshine and roses over here, and sometimes the dark can get pretty dark, but it’s filled with people who understand, and just enough laughter to soften the edges and get you through to the next day. so: go. go be absolutely, positively, fucking angelic.”

[although that particular quote i’ve chosen to include in this review was not at all in the story itself but rather the author’s note at the end, i still find it deeply moving and it is definitely something that someone out there should hear too.]

girl in pieces hits home a little too close and to preface this book does have a vivid and intense mention of self-harm, suicidal ideations and death that may make some of you feel uncomfortable thus it is important to keep this in mind if you ever feel like picking it up. this is a book that i have took my own time with for a few years now and i’m so glad i finally took the right time to read it as i couldn’t even begin to imagine how much i would be affected by this story back then, had i read this in a time when i myself was in the total darkness of my mind.

charlotte davis, my love. oh how i related to you so badly. as someone who used to sh myself, i completely understand the struggle to recover from this sick illness. the overwhelming urge that showers us to repeat the same damaging action again and again just so we could feel a momentary “relief”. on my recent podcast episode, i had mentioned of how embarrassed i was of my scars back when i was in high school. embarassed at how ugly they were but most of all embarassed at how i did it. “what a way to show how weak i am of a person to the world” i thought at the time. but when charlie said,

“i wasn’t scared. i’d just never seen a girl with skin like mine.”

i have never felt so seen. it took me back to when i had found a friend who was suffering through it as i do back then and we both had found solace between each other and i too... had never seen a girl with a skin like mine.

to me personally, knowing the content and details that were in this book beforehand, this was a heavy one for me to pick up and i assume for some of you out there as well. but kathleen glasgow expressed my innermost feelings so well in a way that nobody else had understood before and reading of her own story and intentions in the author’s note, she has really truly succeeded in representing our voices to the world through her enchanting mastery in literary. this illness, this “habit”, isn’t an easy one to break or recover from and to express our thought process during it all feels almost impossible — or to me at least — but glasgow has done it so wonderfully while also treading lightly and for that, this book deserves the rating i’m giving and more and it’s making its way to my favourite books of the year.

the character and the atmosphere were all so fleshed out and in certain scenes, it even brought me back to susanna kaysen’s hit memoir and screen adapted, girl, interrupted. both books left me breathless and having needed to take breaks in between in order to slowly breathe and remember how strong i am and have been over the years. it’s easy to be reminded of one’s own trauma as you read through a situation that will slowly trigger the memories you have long buried within your mind. hence being wary of the trigger warnings that lies within a book helps with keeping your mental stability in check. something that i have always practiced with books that deals with topic that resonated with my own trauma.

if you have the bravery to dive into this absolute masterpiece, then i implore you to do so. if you don’t then please take your sweet sweet time with it! you don’t need to rush on this one because it is heavy if you resonate with charlie’s story and struggles. charlie’s story demands to be heard and i hope you tread lightly as you do so, dear reader.

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