Review Detail

Reader reviewed by TheBookworm

A Powerful Book About A Teenage Cutter

Willow
By Julia Hoban
Pub. Date: April 2009
5 out of 5 stars
PG-13 Sexual Content, Sensuality, Brief Profanity, and Violence (cutting)
Recommended

Seven months after the accident that claimed Willows parents lives, she is no longer suffering emotional pain. Instead, she is inflicting physical wounds upon her own body with the help of a razor. She knows it would cause her brother and his young family even more pain to learn of her secret cutting, so she keeps her scars hidden. But when a boy at her new school discovers her revolting addiction, her secret becomes at risk. He wont let her destroy herself. Maybe this guy, who seems just as sensitive as Willow, can save her from her lonely, guilt filled world of pain. As conflicting emotions battle, the pleasant numbing sensation of the blade is always at hand. How can Willow possibly stop cutting if its the only thing holding her together?

Willow was a powerful book that was entirely phenomenal at expressing the perspective of a teenage cutter.

The main character, Willow, was a chaotically layered mess of colors. Her naked canvas of pain was hidden under many layers of conflicted feelings. She then misinterpreted feelings and words by twisting them to look like vile consequences of her killing her parents. She viewed everything this way because of her warped sense of guilt. The intensity of her guilt and hope were remarkable and extremely well wrought by the author. Willow was an extraordinarily real person.

This book was told in the form of third person (as in he she it), yet the main character was somehow the narrator. The books style was set up in tune with Willow emotionally and physically& from the outside looking in. Be it an accident or planned by the author, the books set up in relation to the main characters views collaborate perfectly. This effectively made the book and characters all the more cogent.

One fact bothered me considerably though. How could Guy and Willow both get each other and understand each others most intimate thoughts, but are somehow unable to say I love you? Willow admitted to loving Guy a few times in her thoughts but neither of them ever stated it out loud. When they had sex it made their relationship superficial. The moment when Willow finally breaks down and they both truly get each other would have been all the more pure, real, earnest, and beautiful if they would have simply said, I love you instead of having sex.

Willow could be looked at as a book of pain, but more accurately a book of healing.

I recommend this book, but because of its disturbing topic I suggest it be read by older teen readers.