I read this book in high school and felt like I had a better understanding of what people were going through. I don't know if I would reccommend it for younger audiences, though.

There is a sense of clarity I get after reading this book. I have read this book many times when I was at different ages and periods in my life. I use to really like this book but once I started reading more books it became less of an interest to me. I agree with many other people that sometimes the character feels lifeless but sometimes don't we all feel that way when struggling with depression or issues. I have read the book many times but as I write this review this was the first time I listened to it on audiobook which evoked a different emotion from the way the speaker would read each's characters lines in a different voice. I see this as a work of fiction with no psychological ability to teach you why people self-harm but I think it will give the reader a perspective on a person's emotions and what they are thinking inside their head.

I was not expecting to like this book so much, but I do enjoy books that involve therapy, so I guess it makes sense that I was gripped by this conversation between a patient and her therapist. I could hardly put it down!

Short and unsatisfying.

Frankly, this book is offensive. The author said she spent 3 years doing research before writing this book, but I'm not sure what her research consisted of because it certainly wasn't talking to a person who self-harms. This book reads like it was written by a person obsessed with the grittiness and shock value of self-harm and knew it would sell well to other non-mentally ill people who want to read something graphic and shocking. From the name to the cover, this whole book is insensitive. It is unnecessarily graphic. Self-harm spreads like an epidemic and if the author knew what she was talking about, she would recognize the potential danger of a book like this ending up in the hands of a middle schooler/high schooler struggling with their mental health. I've seen cutting spread like wildfire among young girls who didn't even know what cutting was until they read it in a book/saw it in a show/ saw the marks on their friends. I do recognize the importance of talking about mental health and illness with people of all ages, and how characters who struggle with depression and the like can make people, especially children, feel seen. I recognize this book was written over 20 years ago, but if you are trying to discuss these topics with children/teens, I beg you to use a different book. This trigger-fest is not written for depressed people/people who self-harm, but for people who get off on taboo topics like this because it's "fascinating", completely disregarding the real people who struggle with this. It's 2023, do better. Read a different book.

I borrowed this from another patient in the adolescent mental health unit I was in at the time. Yeah yeah, a self harmer reading books about self harm. I'd run out of other things to read. Anyway, from the POV of a teenager living in a psych facility because of many of the same issues the main character in the book has, this was hilariously bad. Maybe it was the disconnect between US and UK facilities, or maybe the writer had zero idea of how such facilities even operate, but man... (might be a bit triggering, under spoilers)

Spoiler

attention and concern from a favourite nurse because you chicken scratched your wrist using a sofa spring is not how it goes

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I'm sure anyone who has no experience with actual hospitalisation-level self harm issues will think this book is readable if not somewhat narm-ful. I wouldn't recommend to anyone who actually has mental health issues. Triggering and unrealistic.

I thought that this was a very good book. It presents a story of addiction but retains hope at the end.