Girl in Pieces

Amazon's Review 
Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people do in a lifetime. But she’s learned how to forget. The broken glass washes away the sorrow until there is nothing but calm. You don’t have to think about your father and the river. Your best friend, who is gone forever. Or your mother, who has nothing left to give you. 

Every new scar hardens Charlie’s heart just a little more, yet it still hurts so much. It hurts enough to not care anymore, which is sometimes what has to happen before you can find your way back from the edge. 

A deeply moving portrait of a girl in a world that owes her nothing, and has taken so much, and the journey she undergoes to put herself back together. Kathleen Glasgow's debut is heartbreakingly real and unflinchingly honest. It’s a story you won’t be able to look away from.


"A haunting, beautiful, and necessary book that will stay with you long after you've read the last page."—Nicola Yoon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything

“Girl, Interrupted meets Speak.”—Refinery29.com

“A dark yet powerful read.”—PasteMagazine.com

“One of the most affecting novels we have read.”—Goop.com

“Breathtaking and beautifully written.”—Bustle

“Intimate and gritty.”—The Irish Times

Miss J's Review
What to say, what to say? This book is a hard read--not for the language nor the sentence structure--but for the content. Meet Charlotte, a shattered young woman struggling to gain her voice after a failed attempt at suicide. As she strives to rebuild the pieces of her broken life, it's hard to watch because she makes horrible decision after horrible decision, spiraling and spiraling deeper into unhappiness. Some of her bad decisions include engaging a relationship with an older man who is also broken, smuggling drugs for said man, and covering for him at their shared place of work. 

While the story unfolds, readers learn about Char's past and the reasons for her pain. One thing to note about this novel is the short chapters. There are over 100 chapters, so the book can feel frantic and choppy, which makes sense given Char's state-of-mind throughout the novel. The story feels so real because Kathleen Glasgow, the author, also suffered from depression and self-harm. Even though Char manages to stop cutting after leaving the facility, she finds other ways to hurt herself. Ultimately, the end of the novel is worth the struggle and pain that you experience with Char. I highly recommend this book to take a peek inside the mind of anyone struggling with depression or low self-esteem.

A Note from the Author:  Kathleen Glasgow
I was inspired to write Charlie Davis’s story because of a girl I saw on the bus with fresh scars on her arms. I never talked to her. I never said, “Hey, I’m just like you; you aren’t alone.” I should have, and I didn’t. I had three goals in writing Girl in Pieces: to talk about how hard it is to be a girl in a world that doesn’t value your intelligence or dreams, only your body type; to write about a girl who doesn’t get better because she meets a boy, but gets to a better place because she works hard to find her voice and live her dreams; and to write the hell out of this story. I think it worked!

Recommended Reads:  I'll Give You the Sun; Girl, Interrupted, Thirteen Reasons Why, and All the Bright Places

Stats:  432 pages