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Home > Book Store > Fiction > Cut

Cut

Patricia McCormick

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Synopsis

Fifteen-year old Callie is so withdrawn that she's not speaking to anyone - including her therapist at Sea Pines, known to its guests as 'Sick Minds' - the residential treatment facility where her parents and doctor send her after discovering that she cuts herself. Her story unfolds primarily through dramatic monologues, gradually revealing the family turmoil that led to her self-destructive behaviour.

Amazon.com Review

Burdened with the pressure of believing she is responsible for her brother's illness, 15-year-old Callie begins a course of self-destruction that leads to her being admitted to Sea Pines, a psychiatric hospital the "guests" refer to as Sick Minds. Although initially she refuses to speak, her individual and group therapy sessions trigger memories and insights. Slowly, she begins emerging from her miserable silence, ultimately understanding the role her dysfunctional family played in her brother's health crisis.

Patricia McCormick's first novel is authentic and deeply moving. Callie suffers from a less familiar teen problem -- she cuts herself to relieve her inner frustrations and guilt. The hope and hard-won progress that comes at the conclusion of the novel is believable and heartening for any teen reader who feels alone in her (or his) angst. Along with Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak and E.L. Konigsburg's Silent to the Bone, McCormick's Cut expertly tackles an unusual response to harrowing adolescent trouble. (Ages 14 and older)
Emilie Coulter

From the Cover

You say it's up to me to do the talking. You lean forward, place a box of tissues in front of me, and your black leather chair groans like a living thing. Like the cow it used to be before somebody killed it and turned it into a chair in a shrink's office in a loony bin.

Fifteen-year old Callie isn't speaking to anybody, not even her therapist at Sea Pines, the "residential treatment facility" where her parents and doctor sent her after discovering that she cuts herself. As her story unfolds, Callie reluctantly becomes involved with the "guests" at Sea Pines -- other young women struggling with problems of their own. Although their "issues" are different from hers, Callie is drawn into the groupm finds her voice, and, gradually, confronts the family trauma that triggered her destructive behavior.

Cut is a compelling and compassionate look at a young woman's struggle to overcome the impulses that led her to inflict harm on herself.

© 2002 Ratatosk - Updated July 1., 2002

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