1 of 4 copies available
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.
Includes an Author's Note read by the Author
"Equal parts keen-eyed empathy, stark candor, and terrible beauty. This book is why we read stories: to experience what it's like to survive the unsurvivable; to find light in the darkest night."-Jeff Zentner, author of The Serpent King
"Raw, visceral, and starkly beautiful, with writing that is at times transcendent in its brilliance. . . . An unforgettable story of trauma and resilience."—Kerry Kletter, author of The First Time She Drowned
"A breathtakingly written book about pain and hard-won healing . . . I want every girl to read Girl In Pieces."-Kara Thomas, author of The Darkest Corners
“A Girl, Interrupted for a new generation….The story of the mad girl is ultimately a story about being a girl in a mad world, how it breaks us into pieces and how we glue ourselves back together."—Melissa Febos, author of Whip Smart and Abandon Me
“Dark, frank, and tender, Girl in Pieces keeps the reader electrified for its entire journey. You’re so uncertain if Charlie will heal, so fully immersed in hoping she does.”—Michelle Wildgen, author of Bread and Butter and You’re Not You
"Girl in Pieces has the breath of life; every character in it is fully alive. Charlie Davis' complexities are drawn with great understanding and subtlety."-Charles Baxter, author of National Book Award finalist The Feast of Love
"Charlie Davis has been damaged and abused after several years of living on the streets, but she is fiercely resilient. Though it will appeal to readers of Ellen Foster, Speak, and Girl, Interrupted, Girl in Pieces is an entirely original work, compulsively readable and deeply human."-Julie Schumacher, author the New York Times bestseller Dear Committee Members
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
August 30, 2016 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780735209138
- File size: 308672 KB
- Duration: 10:43:03
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Languages
- English
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Levels
- Lexile® Measure: 740
- Text Difficulty: 3-4
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Reviews
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June 6, 2016
Nearly broken by a suicide attempt and a spate of personal losses, 17-year-old Charlotte “Charlie” Davis finds solace in the broken shards of a mason jar and, later, through art, in debut author Glasgow’s visceral novel of self-harm. On the streets of the Twin Cities after her father died and her mother simply stopped caring, Charlie “cut all her words out heart was too full of them.” Bandaged and silent, she ends up in a psych unit for self-harmers. Although Charlie sees herself in the other girls, it’s her friend Ellis she craves the most. But the Ellis she knew is gone, stuck in the limbo of cutting deep enough to cause significant blood loss but not enough to die. When Charlie is discharged abruptly, she leaves for Tucson, following Mikey, a boy she liked but who always loved Ellis more. Glasgow skillfully juggles multiple difficult topics (homelessness, self-harm, etc.) without dipping into melodrama. Charlie’s intimate first-person narration places readers deep within her experience while maintaining awareness of the outside world and the people in it. Ages 14–up. Agent: Julie Stevenson, Waxman Leavell Literary. -
Narrator Julia Whelan's initial portrayal of Charlie reveals her unwillingness to speak--as well as her pain, fear, and fury. Charlie has responded to years of abuse, grief, and homelessness by cutting herself and attempting to take her own life. Gradually, Whelan recounts the changes Charlie experiences in a treatment center as she reaches out and hopes for healing. On release, Whelan contrasts the safety Charlie has come to know with her mother's coldness and desertion, but Charlie's grit is impressive as she makes faltering steps to support herself financially, artistically, and emotionally. Whelan's portrayals of minor characters aid the realism of the optimistic ending. The author's afterword tells of her personal trials and offers resources. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
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