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DNF at around 50% -- I just really didn't like this book and I had a lot of problems with it. More in-depth reasons throughout reviews.

1.5 stars (basically 1-star; I threw in the extra half story mainly for the hell of it [more of my reason behind later on])

Then I place the blade next to the skin on my palm.
A tingle arced across my scalp. The flood tipped up at me and my body spiraled away. Then I was on the ceiling looking down, waiting to see what would happen next. What happened next was that a perfect, straight line of blood bloomed from under the blade.The line grows into a long, Fat bubble, A lush crimson bubble that got bigger and bigger. I watch from above, waiting to see how big it would get before it burst. when it did, I felt awesome. Satisfied, finally. Then exhausted.

And that is where everything all started for Callie. Callie was a cutter, but she never did it too deep enough to die; only enough to feel the pain and the sensation of it. Enough to have it numb the pain of the world around her, bubbling her up in her own little world.

She eventually gets checked into Sea Pines because of cutting. She spends her time there with other girls who have problems of their own. Eventually, a girl named Amanda joins her Group, a fellow cutter.

This story follows Callie's adventures throughout her time at Sea Pines as well as some of her life before and a little history of her and her family.

Enough of the plot synopsis. I'm sure what you really want to hear is my review. So, here you go:

Now, I want to preface this by saying I have had my own share of experiences similar to Callie's, and I have had countless friends in that place, too, so a lot of this is going to be based on me as well as my friends and just general experiences.

Let me just say that while yes, I think this was a good concept for the book, I think that it is losing some things and that there were a few execution problems.

Honestly, the only reason I gave this book the extra half a star was because I felt like it had a lot of potentials to be a great, inspiring book, but it didn't live up to that potential that I had in mind for it to really any means, so really, this book doesn't deserve that extra half a star -- I was being nice and threw it in mainly just for the hell of it.

I might as well start off with what I liked (it's VERY little) about this book before I get into what I disliked (which is a lot, and it is going to be filled with rants -- you've been warned)

Something I appreciated was how McCormick made the characters all have their own issues. We have the girls with eating disorders, the cutters, the depressed chicks, a little of everything, so there is something for everyone that is reading it to relate to, or that they previously could've related to.

There was some second person sporadically used throughout, and I think that was a fun little extra touch to this story. However, when second person was being used, it could've been used and written better, but props to McCormick for throwing it in there in a nonetheless unique way.

Remember two seconds ago when I said there was very little that I liked about this book? Well, that is my likingness of this book stopped, right at a dead end.

Now, onto what I disliked about this book, aka like 89% of this book.

This book was kinda poorly written, in my opinion. Going back to the bad execution of it, we got basically no insight into Callie whatsoever. Maybe a tiny, tiny but here and there but it was lightly sprinkled in, not pack-punched into the whole book.

Something that I think would've helped the execution of it was if McCormick actually experienced this in her life. Yes, you can research it all you want (she did for a supossed three years) but it will never come close to the real feelings and the rawness of it. If you are going to write a book on such a hard-hitting topic that a lot of your target audience is dealing with, right now, in this very moment as I write this and as you are reading this, then it should be up to the best that it can be. This book, quite frankly, isn't up to the best that it can be.

There is nothing worse than someone with any issue, but mainly cutters, like Callie, can do besides not getting help. Callie literally got NO help. It's not that help was unavailable to her, it was there. It was practically biting her ankles for her to pay some attention to it instead of taking it for granted and pretending like it didn't even exist. Callie barely talked. Yes, later on in the book she talks more, but not nearly as much as she should be. That is no help to someone who's going through something similar to Callie (trust me, most of the people who read these kinds of books have some relation the character[s] in it, some stronger than others, of course). For someone who already is skeptical to get help, this could influence them even more not to get it.

Callie gets checked into Sea Pines because of cutting. Callie seems to want to get help, regardless she's taking it 100 percent for granted, but yet, while she is there, she finds literally every possible way to still continue to cut. Still, it was never deep enough to die; only enough to feel the pain and the sensation of it. Enough to have it numb the pain of the world around her, bubbling her up in her own little world (yes I copy and pasted that from the intro to this review, it's called EMPHASIS, people!). From the sharp edge at the bottom of the paper towel dispenser in the bathroom to a ripped piece off of a pie plate from two nights ago's dinner, Callie always found a way. She never gave up on it.

This book gave no alternative to cutting. The main character kept cutting and cutting and cutting regardless of really anything. I wish there was an alternative given, but haha, NOPE! Not to my surprise, there wasn't one. Some people like that there wasn't an alternative because that it made it more "real and raw" but I don't like it, as you will hear more of my reasoning behind why I dislike it. I guess there is some good, like in the way that it can help you realize more why these people do it and what their emotions are behind it, but this book didn't do a good job at that anyway. There was little to no reason given as to why Callie was cutting and there has to be some reason -- literally any reason at all -- as to why she was doing it. Maybe it was for attention, she had depression, a bad family life, unhealthy relationships with friends, but I guess we'll never know the truth behind why. That's another thing I don't like about this book: no reasons were given. She did what she did with no reasoning. There was an intention in it, but there wasn't a reason. A reason is different than an intention behind doing something. At least some intention was given, I guess (*inserts the emoji of a girl holding her hands up like a waitress holds a platter, minus the platter, with an "I guess so" face here*).

It's so hard to get out of that hole (trust me, I would know), and this book just doesn't help a teen, or anyone for that matter, who is confused on whether or not to get help. If anything, it would make them even more confused on that decision. Here's the hard thing about cutting: once you do it once, it becomes an impulse and basically a part of your everyday routine, a part that needs to be cut out of your life immediately. Callie never cuts it out of her life. Instead, she keeps cutting and slitting her wrists even when she is literally in a mental facility for doing so, what the hell? And I'm sure she doesn't enjoy being there, who would? Okay, maybe Craig Gilner would, but that's beside the point. The point is, that this book is a bad influence on people going through that. I made this point previously, but screw it, I'm bringing it up again: Most people who read these books are experiencing it. Why you make a book like this such a horrible influence?

Think about it: If you had the option to get help and deep, deep down inside you know you wanted that help and you know that it would help you, and not just you, but the people around you EMMENSLEY, wouldn't you take it? Well, NOT CALLIE! :) She sees it as stupid and instead decides to continue with her bad decisions and let her impulses take over and control her everything, and let me just tell you, in a real-world situation, that is not okay! You need to have control of your thoughts and your impulses, not just let them run wild and out of control.

Here's my few sentence summary of this book: It had a lot of potentials to be an amazing book, but it wasn't. From the poor execution to not relating and hitting home hard enough to the target audience and more, it just wasn't THERE where I wanted and where I was hoping it would be.

SIDE/ENDING NOTE: I'm sorry that this was a lot of repetition and ranting that you probably found nonetheless unenjoyable and annoying, but I didn't know what else to say or else to put it.