For the first third of this book, I was thinking to myself that it was written for concerned parents and teachers to give to girls who were cutting themselves. I didn't cut myself as a teenager (I did other stuff) but if I'd been given this book, I would have thought it was ultra-patronising and dumbed down so you wouldn't miss the point. I nearly put it down at this stage, but not having anything else light in the house to read over lunch I perservered, and I am so glad I did.

The author really knew his stuff, he knew about teenage girls, about the inner satisfaction of self-mutilation and just what group therapy is really all about, how it works. I would recommend it to anyone with a spare couple of hours and an interest in the subject, except for troubled adolescents, this would definitely make you look out-of-touch and uncool to give it to them. ( )

I was expecting this book to be really cheesy, and it was in spots, but in general it was better than I expected. The descriptions of the mental process you go through were pretty spot-on for my experience (it might be different for other people, of course). I'm all for anything that increases awareness of self-injury, even if it's kind of cliched. I appreciated the fact that the ending admitted that it was something she would have to continue dealing with. A word of warning: there are a couple of scenes near the beginning that have the potential to be very triggering. ( )

This book is about girls who have trouble socializing and making friends because of their pushy parents. I recommend people read this book if they self-mutilize themselves or people who are interested in people hurting themselves. This book will never want you to stop reading. For me I couldn't stop because my mind wanted to see what she was feeling. I could not because i have never and will never cut myself. If i knew that this book was about self-destruction then I wouldnt even have picked it up from the shelf. (192-192) ( )