Blog Contributor: Rhiana BoutotGirl In Pieces, by Kathleen Glasgow, tells us about the life of Charlie Davis, a seventeen year old girl who has already gone through more trauma and loss than a person should. The story picks up right after Charlie is admitted into a mental institution, and proceeds to follow her even out of the institution and out into the real world, where she is alone.
Glasgow's story is a heartbreaking tale of what it's like to grow up surrounded by loss, drugs, abuse, homelessness, rape, suicide, depression and self-harm. So before I continue on, I want to advise anyone who is easily triggered by any of these topics to avoid reading this book. I know some of these scenes were very heavy and hard to read personally, especially when most of the book is surrounding these topics and some scenes can go into graphic details.
Now that I've gotten any trigger warnings out of the way, I want to talk about how emotional this book made me. I don't want to spoil too much, but some scenes had me sobbing and texting my best friends to remind them that I loved them. The relationships between Charlie and the other characters are so realistic and raw, and I think that's what made me so sad. For example, the relationship between her and another character, Riley West, was so toxic and abusive; you knew what was happening before Charlie did. The entire relationship between those two was absolutely tragic and heartbreaking to read. I was really able to put myself into Charlie's shoes, even if I hadn't actually experienced what she was going through, and that made me appreciate the life I have more and more.
Also, I was NOT able to put this book down. Seriously, I finished all 398 pages in the span of a few hours. Though the story is not very suspenseful (like most of the books I read), I was still very captivated. As somebody who loves a happy ending, I had to read the entire book in one sitting to feel, not exactly satisfied, but content with the story. I felt like, if I stopped in the middle of the story, something worse would happen to Charlie (which I know is irrational, the book already had a set ending). The way Glasgow wrote this story was excellent, I was so invested in Charlie's story.
I would recommend this book to anyone! Unless you believe you might feel uncomfortable or triggered by some of the topics mentioned above, of course. The bottom line is this: Girl In Pieces was a depressing story, but it's a very important read to expand your worldview and remind you to appreciate the good things in life.
I loved this book for the reason of the message I thought it was telling. I believe the book is telling us, the audience that we never know what somebody is going through. Also, I also couldn’t put this book down for the same reason. I needed to be there to listen to her story and make sure she was going to be ok.
ReplyDeleteJust by reading about how the book was, I can say some people can learn a lot from it only because of what the characters are going through and how they face it. Even though I never read this book before, I wouldn't mind reading it.
ReplyDeleteThis book is on deck for me for sure. It sounds like it is really heart wrenching and gets the message across to the reader. You never know what anyone is going through even if they look fine. If I read this book I'm gonna get attached to the characters and I'm so ready.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a very emotional person, but I always feel strong empathy towards characters in stories. I would always cry (or just get sad) during an emotional moment, or get really tense and scared during a scary moment. By description alone I can already tell that this story will no doubt bring me on an emotional journey; it'll be stuck in my mind for weeks.
ReplyDeletethis book is very relatable cause i was homeless once in my life. this book made me feel very emotional i would like to read it in the future.
ReplyDeletethis book is very relatable cause i was homeless once in my life. this book made me feel very emotional i would like to read it in the future.
ReplyDelete-isaiah griffin
From what I can tell, "Girl In Pieces" is a book that is trying to make us more aware of our peers. We never know what may be happening in a person's personal life, and everything we say or do will affect them in some way. Sometimes, the happiest people on the outside might be the saddest person on the inside. This is definitely a book that I'd like to read.
ReplyDeleteEven though this book deals with a lot of things, it's telling us what happened in her life and how she's going through it. It can be very emotional to some people because no one should be dealing with that, but I'd read this book because maybe her life gets better in the future and I wanna know how.
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