Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

Trigger/Content Warnings - self-harm, suicide, drug use, abuse, strong language, and other adult content. This book is about a girl named Charlie Davis and her battle with self-harm. She is in pieces and at seventeen years old, she has already lost more than a lot of people lose in a lifetime. She figured out an unhealthy way that makes her forget about all she's lost. The book opens with Charlie in a treatment facility she is with other women who engage in ways of self-harm. Although this book tells a story of people who are awfully cruel to themselves, it is also a book about being gentle with yourself. It seems a bit off to call this novel amiable, as it was sometimes a difficult read but it definitely has such a pleasant heart, like a strong desire for the characters to improve themselves in plenty of ways, that hope continues in even the darkest moments. Girl in Pieces is about survival. The fear of physical survival when you are homeless: finding food, daily shelter, and trying to stay safe in the defenseless dark. It is a heavy book about emotional survival and how Charlie works through the suffering of abandonment and abuse and how she deals with the scars that not only strangers and friends but also her family that have etched their way into her heart. This is a book about welcoming your art and your voice and finding a way to set the gorgeous parts of you free into the world. I would probably recommend this to older teens and adults who like to read YA.