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New York Times Bestseller

GIRL IN PIECES

by Kathleen Glasgow ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 30, 2016

This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.

After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.

Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.

Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION

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BOOK REVIEW

by Kathleen Glasgow & Liz Lawson

by Kathleen Glasgow

IF ONLY I HAD TOLD HER

by Laura Nowlin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024

A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.

In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me , three characters tell their sides of the story.

Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781728276229

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE

More by Laura Nowlin

by Laura Nowlin

IF HE HAD BEEN WITH ME

by Laura Nowlin ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2013

There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.

The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.

Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.

Pub Date: April 1, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5

Page Count: 336

Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

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Inside the Best-Seller List

What Inspires a Poet to Write a Novel? Ask Kathleen Glasgow.

After charmingly announcing that “Girl in Pieces” is a No. 1 best seller, the author opened up about why she wrote this book.

• Share full article

By Elisabeth Egan

On Dec. 7, Kathleen Glasgow added a happy note to the increasingly discordant chorus of Twitter. The author of four books for young adults tweeted , “OH MY GOD. #1. I don’t even know what to say so please enjoy my text to Child 1.”

This dispatch was followed by 12 weeping emojis, a picture of the young adult best-seller list with Glasgow’s 2016 novel, “Girl in Pieces,” in the No. 1 slot, and a screenshot of texts to her 14-year-old son: “Mommy’s a #1 nyt best-selling author! Mommy might be crying a little. Also how was piano?”

A few minutes later, Glasgow followed up with her son’s response: “AAAAY LES GO VERY NICE piano was fine.”

In a phone interview, Glasgow, who is no stranger to the best-seller list, said that she owes the recent success of her six-year-old book to its popularity among teens on TikTok. “We were on lockdown for two years, basically, and a lot of kids were doing remote schooling and they spent time reading books and being online and lonely,” Glasgow said. “‘Girl in Pieces’ is about feeling alone in the world even if you’re with other people, and I think that got intensified during the pandemic for younger readers.”

Glasgow’s 17-year-old protagonist battles with depression and the urge to self-harm, demons her creator also stared down as a teenager. “I gave Charlie Davis my own physical scars and my thoughts and feelings, but her story is fictional,” Glasgow said.

She wasn’t planning to write about her struggles — “No one wants to hear that story” — until one day, in her late 20s, she was on a bus from St. Paul to Minneapolis, en route to the University of Minnesota, where she was the coordinator of the M.F.A. program in creative writing for 13 years.

“I sat next to a girl who was about 15 and had fresh scars on her arm,” Glasgow, now 53, recalled. “When she saw me looking, she pulled down her sleeve and got off at the next stop. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I was the adult in that situation and I should have said, ‘You’re not alone. You can get through this.’”

At the time, Glasgow was strictly a poet. But not long after this encounter, she said, “I started writing what I consider a 400-page letter to that girl and kids like her who are struggling with scars inside and out, who don’t feel seen and can’t verbalize what’s going on with them.” She added, “I didn’t have any expectations of being published; I just wanted to write a really good story about what it’s like to feel alone. And I did.”

Elisabeth Egan is an editor at the Book Review and the author of “A Window Opens.”

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Review: Girl In Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

• September 2, 2016

Title Girl In Pieces Author Kathleen Glasgow Published August 30th, 2016 by Delacorte Press Pages 416 Pages Intended Target Audience Young Adult Genre & Keywords Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Mental Illness, Self-Harm Part of a Series? No Source & Format Received an ARC from a friend (Thanks, Ashley !), Paperback Find It On Goodreads ● Amazon.com ● Chapters ● The Book Depository

Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people lose 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 teenage girl on the verge of losing herself and the journey she must take to survive in her own skin, Kathleen Glasgow’s debut is heartbreakingly real and unflinchingly honest. It’s a story you won’t be able to look away from.

Please Note: Girl In Pieces might prove triggering for some readers with a history of self harm or suicidal ideations.

The girls here, they try to get me to talk. They want to know What’s your story, morning glory? Tell me your tale, snail. I hear their stories every day in Group, at lunch, in Crafts, at breakfast, at dinner, on and on. These words that spill from them, black memories, they can’t stop. Their stories are eating them alive, turning them inside out. They cannot stop talking. I cut all my words out. My heart was too full of them.

When seventeen-year-old Charlotte “Charlie” Davis wakes up to find herself in the self-harm unit of Creeley Centre, a psychiatric hospital, she isn’t quite sure what to think. Struggling with depression and selective mutism after a failed suicide attempt and a myriad of trauma in her personal life, Charlie is nonetheless thankful for the stability and guidance that the hospital provides. This is a far cry from the dangers and difficulties of living on the street as she has been forced to do before. It isn’t until Charlie’s health insurance runs out and she is forced to leave the safe confines of Creeley Centre that she is faced with her most difficult challenge yet as Charlie must apply all she has learned in treatment in the real world. With few remaining ties to Minnesota and a contentious relationship with her mother which makes returning home a virtual impossibility, Charlie decides to begin again in Arizona where she quickly seeks solace in the arms of Riley, an aging musician whose undeniable potential has been lost in an increasingly worse case of substance abuse. As these two broken souls become closer, however, Charlie will eventually learn that recovery can not be found in the arms of a virtual stranger, the broken shards of a mason jar, or the bottom of a bottle, but deep within oneself. Laurie Halse Anderson meets Sylvia Plath in Girl In Pieces , a poignant, sensitive and heart-wrenching examination of mental illness, self-harm and recovery in a contemporary young adult debut perfect for fans of Girl, Interrupted .

“You girls today. You make me so fucking sad. The world hurts enough. Why fucking chase it down?”

One of the most noble and extraordinary things about literature is its ability to explore the lives of those whose stories might otherwise go untold and Kathleen Glasgow’s Girl In Pieces is no exception. While novels about cutting and self-harm have been published before – Cut by Patricia McCormick, Scars by Cheryl Rainfield and Impulse by Ellen Hopkins, just to name a few – books on this subject are still a relative rarity, especially when one considers that one in two hundred girls between the ages of 13-19 self harm, and 70% of those who do are cutters (As quoted in the author’s note at the conclusion of the novel). In her 2016 debut, Glasgow offers readers a deeply empathetic portrait of a young girl valiantly attempting to heal the wounds of her past and embrace the possibility of her future. Charlie Davis is a character of few words, but for whom even the unspoken speaks volumes. Suffering from selective mutism and episodes of dissociation as a means of coping with the trauma she has experienced, there are portions of the novel in which the protagonist is left silently observing – and even actively detached – from the world around her. It is a testament to Glasgow’s incredible skill as a writer that despite this, however, these passages never prove alienating or distancing. Every stage of Charlie’s recovery is recorded in meticulous detail which forges an immediate bond between protagonist and reader and transforms ordinarily mundane activities – the finding of shelter, the procurement of food, etc – into monumental triumphs as the reader becomes increasingly invested in Charlie’s success. Because of the confessional, intimate manner in which the story is related, Glasgow transforms the perspective of the reader from voyeur to participant as the audience is made to feel as though they are not merely witnessing the events of the novel, but actively experiencing them firsthand, making them feel complicit in Charlie’s good – and bad – choices to deeply emotional, and visceral, effect.

“Everyone has that moment, I think, the moment when something so… momentous happens that it rips your very being into small pieces. And then you have to stop. For a long time, you gather your pieces. And it takes such a very long time, not to fit them back together, but to assemble them in a new way, not necessarily a better way. More, a way you can live with until you know for certain that this piece should go there , and that one there .”

Girl In Pieces is a difficult and challenging read, but never unfairly so, and should be commended on the breadth and depth of the subject matter it explores. In it, debut author Kathleen Glasgow touches upon issues of self-harm, suicide, sexual assault, substance abuse and homelessness without ever appearing proselytizing, sanctimonious or inaccessible. Rather, far from sensationalising or capitalizing upon the suffering of others for entertainment purposes, Girl In Pieces instead offers tangible coping mechanisms and strategies for readers in a situation similar to Charlie’s. This is due in large part to Glasgow’s conscious, positive portrayal of therapy and the value the novel places in artistic expression (i.e. the visual arts and music) as a means of deconstructing and expressing feelings one might otherwise struggle to vocalize. Moreover, Girl In Pieces is a novel greater than the sum of its parts as the author uses the aforementioned issues to explore universal truths about loneliness, identity, community, and belonging. These ideas are conveyed in sparse, diary-like entries reminiscent of the lyricism of poetry, which organically allow the story to dictate the narrative structure. While Girl In Pieces will undoubtedly face opposition when being proposed for circulation in public education circles due to its use of explicit language and the often graphic nature of subject matter it examines, I would not hesitate to press this book into the hand of every teen as I have no doubt there are innumerable young readers for whom Charlie’s journey will provide a great deal of visibility, comfort, and hope.

People should know about us. Girls who write their pain on their bodies.

A modern classic in the same vein as Speak and Go Ask Alice , Kathleen Glasgow’s Girl In Pieces is a haunting, visceral portrait of one young girl’s valiant journey to recovery in a novel that explores themes of hope, healing, and community. The stakes have never been higher than in this life-changing – and life-saving – debut as, for Charlie Davis, coming of age means first determining how to survive in a world that can be every bit as cruel, disinterested and destructive as it is inspiring, heartening and limitless. Glasgow captures the triumphs and failures of adolescence and the human experience in a cathartic, unvarnished but ultimately optimistic tale that reminds readers there is light at the end of even the darkest of tunnels. The world is a better and more beautiful place because this book is now in it.

PLEASE NOTE: All quotations included in this review have been taken from an advance reader copy and therefore might be subject to change.

Still not sure this is the right book for you? Why not listen to what some other bloggers had to say about it?

● Amanda @ Teen Librarian Toolbox wrote “People bend, break, leave, disappoint, hurt, die, suffer, and harm. In most cases, they also heal, change, recover, and hope in this astoundingly sad, astonishingly poignant debut.” (Read the rest of the review Here ! )

● Willa @ Willa’s Ramblings wrote “It understands what it’s like to be human, to suffer, to want to heal, to struggle to keep it together. It understands what it’s like to start over, to find new friends, to find the good in people. It is real.” (Read the rest of the review Here ! )

● Nancy @ Tales Of The Ravenous Reader wrote “This is a story of mental health that gets it right, not because the adults are so great and because the person gets what they need (they aren’t and she doesn’t), but because Charlie navigates through this period of time and comes out at the end. Sometimes that’s all you can hope for. And it’s enough.” (Read the rest of the review Here ! )

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I read this book recently and by the end I was crying because of how strong Charlie actually is, even if she didn’t show know it. I applaud the author on writing such and amazing book.

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Book Review: Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

Goodreads Synopsis: 

Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people lose 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.

My Review of Girl in Pieces:

Girl in Pieces is one of those books that I literally could not put down once I got started. Kathleen Glasgow shows us a raw and unflinching look inside the world of those who self-harm.  Girl in Pieces centers around Charlotte Davis (or Charlie as she is known).  Charlie has been through more in her short seventeen years than most of us go through our entire lives. Both her dad and her best friend have died, she has ended up homeless for a year, been exposed to drugs, alcohol, and witnessed sexual abuse while living in what was basically a sex house, and that merely scratches the surface of all that she has experienced.  Reaching the breaking point and attempting to end her life lands Charlie in a hospital where she finally gets much needed help and begins her road to recovery.  Most of the novel focuses on Charlie’s journey to recovery and all of its ups and downs.

What Did I Love?

• Charlie:   My love for this book centers directly around Charlie.  I was drawn to Charlie from the moment we meet her in the hospital, where she is so traumatized that she can’t even speak.  I felt an immediate connection with her and was just so heartbroken by the state she was in.  Once she began to speak and talk about what was going on in her mind and then especially when she is released from the hospital and subsequently handed a bus ticket to Arizona by her mom who basically washes her hands of Charlie, I just loved Charlie all the more and wanted her to succeed in her recovery efforts.  I mean how can you not feel sympathetic towards someone who is basically abandoned by their mom when they probably need them the most?

Charlie is an immensely likeable character that I think most everyone will relate to.  Either she’ll remind them of themselves or of someone they know.  Because she’s so familiar and so relatable, her journey is all the more real and all the more shocking because it makes you realize that anyone around you at any time could be going through a similarly rough time, fighting inner demons that you can only begin to imagine.

What I really liked about Charlie was her determination.  She gets off the bus in Arizona and immediately sets out to make her way in the world, taking things one step at a time, one day at a time.  Sometimes it takes everything in her to fight the fear of being alone so that she can function, but she does it. She secures a job at a coffee shop, finds herself a low budget room to rent, and slowly but surely begins to build a life for herself.  Now that’s not to say everything is sunshine and roses for Charlie just because she has a job and a place to life.  There are still plenty of ups and downs, especially once Charlie begins a relationship with a coworker named Riley, who has a drug problem and whose behavior is becoming increasingly erratic the longer Charlie knows him.  Because Riley is so caught up with his own issues, he’s not exactly the ideal support system for Charlie and her dependence on someone who cannot be relied on leads to some occasional dark moments for her.

But as I said, Charlie has a lot of determination to make it through the darkness.  She is not just a girl in pieces, as the title indicates, broken by all that has happened to her. She’s also a girl who is seeking to discover all of the pieces that make her who she is, both the good and the bad, so that she can fit them all together and better understand who she is so that she can make peace with it and move forward.  Charlie is an artist and ultimately it is through her drawings that she finally begins to find her sense of self and to feel more whole.

• The Book’s Messages:   The book is filled with important messages that really resonated with me as I was following Charlie on her journey.  Like Jennifer Niven’s All the Bright Places, it’s a book that seeks to remove the stigma that is often associated with mental illness.  If you know someone who self-harms, I think this book will allow you to come away with an idea of what the person is going through — what is driving them to harm themselves — so that you can better understand what they’re up against.

Perhaps its most important messages are for those who self harm.  Girl in Pieces lets those who self-harm know they aren’t alone – that others are going through what they’re going through.  We see it first in the hospital where Charlie encounters many other girls like her and then throughout the book, Charlie meets a few other people she would never have guessed were self-harmers until she sees their scars and realizes that it’s not just her.  Girl in Pieces also conveys the message that there are also people out there who care and who want to try to help.  Even though Charlie’s mother is no help at all, Charlie has many friends, both old and new, who genuinely care about her and want to see her succeed.

Girl in Pieces also shows that the path to recovery is a long and sometimes never-ending journey and that it will have ups and downs.  When Charlie relocates to Arizona, finds herself a job and a place to live, for example, she still brings along the kit that she uses to cut herself with, just in case she needs it.

Even if you’re doing great one moment, something could happen that triggers a relapse.  The message of the book is to realize that setbacks are normal and that they are just that – setback.  They are not failures, and they do not define you and no matter how many setbacks you have, you should never lose hope of someday reaching a point where you no longer feel the need to engage in self-harming behavior or to keep that cutting kit with you – just in case.

• The Writing.  Not only is this an important book, but it’s a beautifully crafted book as well.  The subject matter is dark, but the writing is gorgeous, almost poetic at times and as painful as Charlie’s journey is at times, the story is still so captivating that you won’t be able to put it down. I also think Glasgow does a wonderful job of handling such a sensitive subject matter with a great deal of respect, and I commend her for that.

Anything I Didn’t Like?

At first, I had Charlie’s relationship with Riley in the “Don’t Like” category.  Riley is a former musician who is very charming and charismatic, but whose life is in just as bad a place as Charlie’s is.  Because of that, their relationship is pretty toxic and I constantly wanted to scream at Charlie to just get away from him.  Ultimately, however, I came to terms with the fact that toxic relationships are quite likely to occur when someone is on the path to recovery.  Looking at it from that perspective, I think Charlie’s experiences with Riley therefore only further add to the authenticity of Glasgow’s story.  While Riley himself may initially be considered somewhat of a negative, he ultimately ends up being a very important part of Charlie’s journey and so I’m going to pull him out of the “Don’t Like” category and let’s just leave it at “It’s complicated.”

Who Would I Recommend Girl in Pieces to? 

Honestly, I think Girl in Pieces is one of those books that everyone should read.  It’s raw, honest, brave, haunting, and without a doubt, one of the most powerful books I’ve read this year.  I would temper my recommendation just to say that I’m sure some of the topics covered would be considered triggers to those who self-harm, so they’d have to determine for themselves if the book is a good fit for them.

Rating:  5 Stars

About kathleen glasgow.

Kathleen Glasgow is the author of the New York Times best-selling novel, Girl in Pieces.

She lives in Tucson, Arizona and is a researcher for The Writer’s Almanac. Girl in Pieces has been named to “best of lists by Goop, TeenVogue, BN Teen, Refinery29, EW.com, TeenReads, and more.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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I just got this on sale over the weekend and so happy to see you loved it. I will have to go into this one mentally prepared since it sounds pretty heavy though. Lovely review!

That’s exactly what I did and then I followed it up with My Lady Jane since I knew that would be such a fun and lighthearted read. I hope you enjoy Girl in Pieces as much as I did.

Great review. Good writing plus good message. Thats a winning combo

I agree. It’s always sad when an important message gets lost in poor writing. Thankfully this was not the case here.

Wow! Loved reading this review. I have seen this book around but hadn’t picked it up. It’s on my TBR list now and I will definitely be reading it this coming year. Sounds like a good and powerful read!

It’s definitely a powerful read so I hope you’ll find it as moving as I did.

This is such a good review, Suzanne. It has such a great sense of Charlie and who she is, and *she* is the book, in essence. Lovely!

Thanks! It’s a great read, albeit emotionally draining at times. If you give it a try, I definitely recommend following it up with something humorous.

This sounds like such a powerful read. I have this book, but I wasn’t sure if I actually wanted to read it. Great review!

Hi Karen, Yes it’s definitely a powerful read, emotionally draining at times, but so worth it in the end. If you end up reading it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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Girl in Pieces review: writing that makes the cut

Intimate, gritty novel offers a realistic account of self-harm – and a glimmer of hope.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that since the publication of Gillian Flynn's bestselling Gone Girl in 2012, books with "girl" in the title do well commercially. Four years and numerous novels later, a backlash is due, but hopefully not before readers get to Kathleen Glasgow's searing semiautobiographical debut, Girl in Pieces . For if any book deserves to use the word, it is this examination of a damaged young female who has experienced more trauma than most women will ever go through in their lives.

“Once my mother hit my ear so hard I heard the howling of trains for a week,” says 17-year-old Charlie Davies, in one of the book’s many crystal clear descriptions of abuse. When we meet Charlie she is resident in Creeley, a treatment centre in Minnesota for teenage girls who self-harm.

The circumstances that have led her to this point include: a depressive and beloved father who killed himself; an abusive mother who took his death out on her only child; a best friend who also attempts suicide; and the severing of ties between mother and daughter followed by a stint of homelessness that culminates with Charlie living in “Seed House”, where she’s pimped out to older men. Her drug addict friends Evan and Dump encourage her to comply.

Kathleen Glasgow: her aim was to write an uplifting personal story that would inspire hope in anyone affected by self-harm and she has achieved it.

These “friends” find Charlie unconscious and bleeding out in the attic one evening after she has cut herself too severely. They roll her up in a carpet to stem the bleeding and deliver her to hospital, and subsequently to Creeley, where the kindly Dr Casper attempts group therapy sessions with a host of ravaged young women.

These characters are divided into cutters and burners, and, in a manner reminiscent of the collective narrative of Susanna Kaysan's bestselling memoir Girl, Interrupted , they are portrayed with sympathy and honesty. An autobiographical note at the end highlights the book's central message: self-harm is not attention seeking; it is a mechanism for coping with overwhelming emotional torment .

Girl in Pieces is intimate and gritty, a crossover novel steeped in misery but with the momentum of recovery to keep the reader engaged throughout. Damaged as she is, Charlie is an astute voice. Her cutting is a way to diminish her painful existence: "I had to cut the black heat out . . . cut it all out, get smaller and smaller until I was nothing." Glasgow's style is evocative and personal, yet still achieves distance: "I remember the stars that night. They were like salt against the sky, like someone spilled the shaker against very dark cloth. That mattered to me, their accidental beauty."

After her insurance runs out, Charlie must leave Creeley. An invitation from her friend Mikey, an unrequited love, sees her head to Tucson, Arizona to start the process of gluing herself back together. Their friendship is nicely ambiguous, with Mikey wanting to help Charlie but simultaneously refusing to put his own life on hold. Instead Charlie finds board in a half-way house – a noisy and cramped space, but a room of her own nonetheless – and gets a job as a dishwasher in a grungy coffee house.

As the Texan writer Merritt Tierce's debut, Love Me Back , memorably showed earlier this year, the service industry can be a haven for messed-up individuals, addicts and those attempting recovery. Though Glasgow's writing does not rival the excellent Tierce, she depicts a similar terrain, with characters such as Chef Linus and the down-and-out musician Riley West bringing their own problems to the table. As Charlie admirably presses down the road of recovery – likened to waking from a dark place – her toxic relationship with Riley casts a shadow over her chances of success.

There are perhaps too many troubled characters in this book. From her father to her best friend, Ellis, from Ariel the artist to Linus, Charlie only meets people who’ve had tragedy in their lives. Understandably, the girls she befriends at the treatment centre, such as the complex and vivid Blue, are on this list. But the later sections about Ellis feel repetitive and readers may grow tired of this storyline, which ultimately goes nowhere. There are also one too many artist-as-mentor figures but the underlying theme of creativity as a restorative power is interesting and is skilfully explored by Glasgow.

Living in Tucson, Arizona, the author currently writes for Garrison Keillor's radio show, The Writer's Almanac . Girl in Pieces was written during arts fellowships over the past eight years. Glasgow says her aim was to write an uplifting personal story that would inspire hope in anyone affected by self-harm. She has without a doubt achieved this. "There is the person people see on the outside and then there is the person on the inside and then, even farther down, is that other, buried person, a naked and silent creature, not used to light." In her debut novel, Glasgow mines the darkness and, ultimately, offers the glimmer of recovery.

Sarah Gilmartin

Sarah Gilmartin is a contributor to The Irish Times focusing on books and the wider arts

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Girl in Pieces

Kathleen Glasgow | 4.38 | 23,504 ratings and reviews

Ranked #22 in Mental Health , Ranked #34 in Teen Girls — see more rankings .

Rankings by Category

Girl in Pieces is ranked in the following categories:

• #74 in Depression
• #38 in Speech
• #72 in Suicide
• #74 in Trigger Warning
• #82 in Young Teen

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StarTribune

Review: 'girl in pieces,' by kathleen glasgow.

I didn't want to read another story about a girl in a psych unit, a girl locked up for having emotions that don't fit, a damaged adolescent with so much pent-up rage that she self-harms, or self-medicates, or self-poisons or self-starves.

But "Girl in Pieces" hooked me. Novelist Kathleen Glasgow has an original character in Charlie Davis, a 17-year-old cutter with a fierce instinct for survival. Glasgow laces this difficult story with flashes of black humor and a clear-eyed view of her characters.

We meet Charlie in a St. Paul psychiatric facility after she almost bleeds to death in a drug house. Her best friend has almost killed herself. Her family has kicked her out. And she's seen terrible things living on the street. Unlike girls sent to treatment by wealthy families, some for indefinite stays, Charlie has nowhere else to go.

The novel's early chapters take us through the familiar rituals of treatment: The disorienting arrival. The cast of misfits. The remote therapist. The numbing routine. "Meds come after Group, then Quiet, then lunch, then Crafts, then Individual, which is where you sit with your doctor and cry some more," Charlie says.

Glasgow tells the story in short bursts, just enough to thread us through Charlie's trauma, enough that we can catch our breath, and keep going. And there are those jabs of dark humor.

"They really ask a … lot of you in this place," Charlie says, after her therapist pushes her to feel her emotions through her still-healing body.

Charlie's story takes a right turn after the facility kicks her out when administrators realize she has no insurance. With no family to return to, she ends up on a bus for Tucson, Ariz. There she falls into a job at a coffeehouse, and into a relationship with a "semifamous" musician who is battling his own demons.

Charlie's new home is one of artists and outsiders, many looking for their own safe place to land. As she slowly sheds protective layers, she learns to find alternatives to her "tender kit," the shards of glass that were her refuge when the world hurt too much.

Immediately after its release, "Girl in Pieces" landed on the New York Times young adult bestseller list. Its arc of self-healing is familiar, but Glasgow kept the story just enough off balance to hold readers' attention to the last page.

Trisha Collopy is a Star Tribune copy editor.

Girl in Pieces By: Kathleen Glasgow. Publisher: Delacorte Press, 416 pages, $18.99. Event: Glasgow will be at the Twin Cities Book Festival on Oct. 15 at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.

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Laurie Is Reading

A Book Blog Covering a Variety of Genres

Review: Girl In Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

It’s not that long ago since I’ve heard about Girl In Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow. In fact, the Dutch translation was announced not long after. However, I’ve decided to read this book in English because I wasn’t sure whether it was for me and it’s a lot cheaper in English than in Dutch. I’m not triggered that easily, but if you are, please take them into account. Trigger warnings: Self-harm, alcohol and drug addiction/abuse, suicide attempts.

About the book

• Title: Girl In Pieces
• Author: Kathleen Glasgow
• Publication date: August 30, 2016
• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• ISBN: 9781101934715
• Number of pages: 416
• Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people lose 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.

Expectations

Final thoughts.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I’ve heard from many people that they found this a tough read because of the triggers and the emotions. On the other hand, it’s already an older YA novel which was very popular as well. Booktok let this popularity revive and therefore it’s being translated 7 years later I guess. I’m not always the best match with hypes, but I want to divversify my reading as much as possible and that also means reading books centered around mental health. I decided to get into this reading experience with as little expectations as possible.

Charlotte “Charlie” Davis is a girl in pieces. She didn’t have the best youth and she lived practically on the streets. After self-harming, she is admitted to a pshychiatric hospital. Here she has to stay for a while before getting back into the outside world. She ends up on the road to Tucson, Arizona, where one of her friends lives. Here she meets Riley West, a charming guy who has his own secrets. This new environment isn’t as healthy as it seems, even though there are also good people out there. The majority of the characters in this book have been or still are struggling with addiction. They all have their own story and they are all not your average boys or girls. At the start of this novel, Charlie is very distant, but when time passes, she opens up more to other people and life itself. In the aknowledgements, Glasgow states that Charlie is a character based on her own experiences and that’s clearly visible.

I had some difficulties here, especially at the start. Charlie is going thrugh a tough time and keeps her distance. In this part of the book, the chapters are really short, they feel like little fragments. When Charlie is on the road to recovery, the writing develops as well. The chapters are longer and the story became more logic to me. There was actual prose and this works way better for me. However, the writing adapts to Charlies mental health, because whe she’s spiralling again, the writing does that too. Therefore, I didn’t feel involved in this reading experience, I just couldn’t connect to the story. This is by no means an attack to anyone struggling with their mental health. It’s just, I don’t – thanfkully – have experiences with this and this made me struggle with this book.

Unfortunately, this plot was not really investing to me either. I know this book is character driven, but sometimes it felt to me like everyone had an addiction which became a bit too much for me. I can’t deny it provides us readers a good glimpse of how difficult the road to recovery is. As I stated before, the writing didn’t help me getting intrigued by this novel either. However, the ups and downs that come with recovery get a significant role here which is pretty logic. It would be unrealistic whenever Charlie’s mental health was only going uphill and a relapse was never lurking around the corner. This plot actually supported Charlie and the other characters in their journey.

Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow was a tough book to read, but even a tougher book to review. I felt a distance to Charlie and her story, because I just couldn’t connect to any of the characters. Furthermore, the writing was not particularly for me. I never got really intrigued by this novel although the middle part was the easiest for me to read. However, it provides a good glimpse in the journey to recovery and the difficulties one can face.

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Jill’s Journal

Book Review: Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

“Cutting is a fence you build upon your own body to keep people out but then you cry to be touched. But the fence is barbed. What then?” ~Kathleen Glasgow

Kathleen Glasgow's Girl in Pieces is a book that demands discussion. Crafted with a raw intensity, this narrative grips the core of the human spirit with an unflinching hand. It is a novel that delves into a multitude of profound and resonant themes, each as significant as the next, woven seamlessly into its powerful storytelling.

Glasgow's protagonist, Charlie, is a portrait of brokenness and resilience. Her struggles with mental health, self-harm, and the pursuit of healing are depicted with an honesty that is both harrowing and heart-rending. Yet, it is Glasgow's tender portrayal of Charlie’s inner battles that elevates this novel from a mere tale of suffering to a testament of survival.

The prose is accessible—and relatable, painting each scene with a depth of emotion that is almost tangible. Glasgow doesn’t just tell us about Charlie’s pain; she skillfully guides us through it, ensuring we feel every setback and every small victory as our own. This immersive experience is what sets Girl in Pieces apart.

If you’re unfamiliar with Girl in Pieces , like I was when I added it to my mounding TBR pile earlier this year, you’ll find a rare and thoughtful treatment of the often misunderstood realms of self-harm. The author navigates these topics without resorting to preaching or perpetuating clichés, avoiding the traps of oversimplification or romanticization.

Her writing illuminates these dark corners with an empowering light, inviting readers to engage with the story through a lens of empathy and to hold onto hope, even when faced with the depths of despair.

The novel served as a poignant mirror, revealing the missteps I made and the things I wish I had understood then. I found myself rooting for the protagonist while also confronting my own parental choices. This book is a profound resource for any parent and a beacon of understanding to read alongside a child in distress. It offers layers of healing and understanding.

The narrative of Charlie is a profound testament to the resilience required to surmount life's daunting challenges. Her story is not just about survival; it's a powerful illustration of the indomitable nature of the human spirit, a spirit that refuses to be quelled by adversity.

Girl in Pieces is more than just a beautifully woven tale; it's an ode to the human spirit. Kathleen Glasgow has masterfully reminded us that, even amidst the rubble of our shattered selves, the potential for mending and becoming whole again is possible. Glasgow lends a voice to those who have been silenced by their struggles, elevating Girl in Pieces to an essential read and an unequivocal five-star triumph.

My favorite quote from Girl in Pieces :

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Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, girl in pieces.

• About the Book

For fans of GIRL, INTERRUPTED, THIRTEEN REASONS WHY and ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES comes a novel Nicola Yoon, author of EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING, calls "a haunting, beautiful, and necessary book that will stay with you long after you've read the last page."   Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At 17 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.

Audiobook available, narrated by Julia Whelan

Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

• Publication Date: April 10, 2018
• Genres: Fiction , Mental Health , Young Adult 13+
• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Ember
• ISBN-10: 1101934743
• ISBN-13: 9781101934746

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Girl in pieces.

• Parents say (9)
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I loved this book (as a 14 year old who struggles), not so great for people younger then this age as i am thirteen and thought that this was really extreme and this is coming from someone reasons adult books in one day time slots who will read just about anything i ended up not finishing it as it was really extreme, i like this book.

it’s a rlly good book for those who are able to handle this type of stuff… it has a lot of “triggers” but overall it’s a rlly good book

REALLY HEAVY!!!

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, don't tell mom the babysitters dead.

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Director Wade Allain-Marcus ’s “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” is a remake of the 1991 original, repurposing an older narrative for a new generation and, this time around, centering on a Black family. Seventeen-year-old Tanya Crandell ( Simone Joy Jones ) looks forward to her summer in Spain with her friends. But when her mother ( Patricia Williams ) is shafted at work, losing out on a promotion to a younger, whiter, male-r counterpart, she has a mental breakdown that warrants a summer-long R&R stay, which co-opts Tanya’s budget for abroad and leaves her indignantly stuck at home. 

In her absence, Mrs. Crandell hires an elderly babysitter, Ms. Sturak ( June Squibb ), to watch the kids: Tanya, her stoner teen brother Kenny (Donielle T. Hensley Jr.), macabre little sister Melissa (Ayaamii Sledge), and nerdy kid brother Zack (Carter Young). Ms. Sturak is not the warm, fuzzy granny she appears to be, swapping out freshly baked cookies and comforting hugs for crude, blatantly racist remarks. When the siblings throw an all-out rager disguised as “Bible study,” the underage drinking, smoking, and queer romancing happening under their roof throws the conservative sitter into cardiac arrest. The kids are forced to hide the body and learn how to take care of themselves for the summer. 

The responsibility falls on Tanya as the eldest and most responsible; with some clever Google deep dives and intricate Canva work, the siblings create a 25-year-old simulacrum of their sister, who uses her newly faked identity to land a job at Libra, a fashion company helmed by the ultimate girlboss, Rose ( Nicole Richie ). As Tanya juggles a summer of office politics, adult responsibilities, and a freshly spawned romance, “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” comedically centers on older sibling syndrome and the daunting pressures of adulthood and agency.

Writers Chuck Hayward , Neil Landau , and Tara Ison deliver a script chock full of hilarious one-liners that are kindly doled out evenly among the ensemble cast. Whether quipping on the quotidian precarities of being young Black kids in a wealthy white neighborhood (even aside from the dead white woman they disposed of) or the situational comedy of Tanya’s manufactured identity and adjustment to the 9-to-5 lifestyle, the script hands out laughs with generosity. Kenny’s penchant for weed and Melissa’s true crime fascinations also present familiar comedic archetypes for the film to lean on. 

Unfortunately, many of these comic opportunities fall flat in the execution. Shoddy line deliveries keep you from recognizing the joke, requiring a few seconds of processing time to land. The performances often feel responsible for this; they feel uncanny and solitary as if the cast were projecting lines to the expectant ears of a studio audience that doesn’t exist. While this awkward independence of the functioning characters muddles some moments, it doesn’t entirely erase the recognizable humor that remains consistent throughout.

Jones acquits herself quite well in her first role as a leading lady. She displays a formidable amount of range, from the short fuse of an eldest sister’s stoicism to the personal and professional confidence she develops as the summer pushes her to expand her comfort zone. The dynamics of the sibling ensemble are also generally believable in their moments of union and annoyance. Hensley Jr. is a reliable source of comic relief, and his antics test his siblings’ patience and perseverance. 

Tanya’s employee-employer relationships with Rose and her budding romance with aspiring architect Bryan ( Miles Fowler ) get more screen time than those with her siblings, making “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” more of a portrait of her than that of the family. While Richie’s performance is rather flat and one-note, it’s a testament to the hollow girlboss identity the film crafts in the shape of a chronically-online millennial Miranda Priestly. At the same time, the chemistry between Tanya and Bryan is the most persistent: Fowler and Jones feel natural, weaving through the attraction, timidity, and frustrations of young, insecure, and poorly communicated relationships. Yet this particular pairing has the least bearing on the film's events, and this display of potential exacerbates the desire for magnetism in the core sibling dynamic.

“Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” is laid-back and funny but ultimately whiffs on its swings too many times to make a lasting impression. It has all the right components, earnestly eliciting a few chuckles and a true investment in its characters. Still, it comes together like a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces aren’t fully pressed into place: a flimsy portrait of teen comedy and coming-of-age that won’t stand the test of time.

Peyton Robinson

Peyton Robinson is a freelance film writer based in Chicago, IL. 

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Levitation for Beginners by Suzannah Dunn review – the dark side of a 70s childhood

The village life of a 10-year-old girl is disrupted by a newcomer in a tale of youthful mystery and shifting emotions

F or the past 20 years, Suzannah Dunn has been known for historical novels focusing on the Tudors, such as 2004’s The Queen of Subtleties and 2010’s The Confession of Katherine Howard. Yet for many readers it is her earlier books that retain a unique hold: critically acclaimed contemporary novels and a volume of short stories mostly featuring young women at a crisis point in their lives (a theme that can, of course, be equally applied to her court dramas of Anne Boleyn or Lady Jane Grey). Brilliantly articulated and often piercingly sad, Dunn’s characters find themselves caught up in what may today be termed quarter-life crises – they are unsettled, dissatisfied; prone to despair, to jealousy, to falling unsuitably in love, to deep, unnavigable loss. There is Elizabeth, an exhausted junior hospital doctor in Quite Contrary (1991), and Sadie in Commencing Our Descent (2000), a newly married woman who unexpectedly enters a chaste, doomed affair with a fusty older academic. Venus Flaring’s Veronica sees her friendship with schoolmate Ornella hit the rocks once the pair move into adulthood – a masterly study in rejection, in the intensity and fury of a relationship that has become dismally one-sided.

Dunn’s new novel, Levitation for Beginners, returns to the extreme psychological landscapes of these early works. At its centre is a group of girls in their last year at a village primary school in the home counties, on the brink of adolescence, not exactly close-knit but safe in their loose companionship. Their precarious stability is threatened by a catalyst from outside, an interloper at court – a new girl, Sarah-Jayne, appearing in their final half term. It is 1972. “We had almost all the seventies yet to come,” explains Deborah, the book’s 10-year-old narrator, looking back as a 60-year-old. “We were a year shy of The Wombles and Man About the House … ” You can almost taste the butterscotch Angel Delight in these cultural references, which, while they firmly place the book in context, are a little overdone.

Fortunately, Dunn’s prose is generally attuned far beyond product placement to the darker, more covert side of childhood: “Our neighbours gardens glittered darkly with laburnum seeds, and in the alley behind the fence were abandoned fridges perfect for our games of hide-and-seek.” “Glittering” along with “gleaming” and “glinting” is much employed throughout, especially in relation to Sarah-Jayne, whose eyes resemble “a hall of mirrors”, the implication being that the real person remains hidden behind a superficial persona. For the main, the kids are unsupervised, and in Deborah’s case emotionally neglected – the only child of a young widow, she does not remember her father, and has no other relatives. Her Scottish mother is brusque, undemonstrative, something of a caricature, prone to darkly gnomic statements that leave Deborah, who is bright, reflective and fascinated by language, in confusion.

While her friends have posters of the Sweet or Donny Osmond on their bedroom walls, Deborah’s crush is Tutankhamun (an exhibition of treasures from the boy-king’s tomb took place in London throughout 1972). “I could detect him reaching back through the thousand years of his loneliness towards me.”Sarah-Jayne is sophisticated and disturbingly knowing beyond her years. Her perfect hair and smart red trouser suit stand out among the assorted bowl cuts and hand-me-downs. She has moved into the “big house” with her family – an older sister in her 20s, who smokes and whose nails are painted tangerine, and disturbingly old parents. The other children are fixated on the fact that the garden boasts a pool, even if it is filled in; it will play a chilling role in the novel’s denouement.

While her classmates flock to please the new girl, as she struts and sashays around the classroom, Deborah at first remains aloof, knowing her for a fake. Sarah-Jayne endlessly opines about boys and men, from the unattainable David Cassidy to Sonny, an 18-year-old apprentice builder who begins, to Deborah’s horror and embarrassment, hanging around her thirtysomething mother. Added to this roll call of masculine superiority is the sinister Max, who is engaged to Sarah-Jayne’s sister. Sarah-Jayne, in a red flag for the reader, refers to Max as if he is her own boyfriend.

This is a novel about everything and nothing, sour and melancholy, with elements of sheer comedy and almost unbearable beauty. These girls of the early 1970s appear to be very much the forerunners of Dunn’s adult characters: comically naive, gossipy, uncertain, bold. The novel’s title refers to Sarah-Jayne’s efforts to persuade the group to attempt levitation, but is also a metaphor for how they will soon be shedding their current selves and moving on. The older Deborah reflects that “I’m surprised any of us lived to tell the tale”, and if this subtle book has a message, it is how alien and yet how relatable the past remains.

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