Girl in Pieces

I'm not sure a book like this will ever be a “safe” read for me. I hadn't realised what this book was about, just saw someone else had given it a good rating so in I jumped without reading the blurb (something I often do with e-book library books). Self-harming is like an addiction, a coping mechanism for me and I found this very triggering but also quite cathartic. Glasgow understands, she's been there. She doesn't apologise or excuse, she just presents Charlie as a complete person - not broken but slowly fixing. This book is full of people who've made mistakes, lost something or nearly fallen apart. Each one is searching for a way out of the mess they've found themselves in. There's so much positivity towards the end, Charlie's so young - I hope she does okay.
The author understands, she's been there, she's writing this to get a greater understanding and to support people like me who see every sharp edge as a possibility. I wear my scars with pride, they show my journey, Kintsugi.

A really hard read, but very good. A lot of trigger warnings in this book and it did not hold back in showing a very real and raw portrait of Charlie struggling, but that was no bad thing.

I liked the structure of the book very much, and felt the characters were full of emotion and personality. It was a very intense read, due to the subjects it covered, but I didn't feel it was too much. However I took a short break away for a few days as I needed to catch my breath before the end, then it immediately made me cry in the last 100 pages or so as I felt for Charlie so much, and all the characters by that point too.

Reading the author's note was important and interesting as well. I'll definitely pick up her other books and also return to ‘Girl, Interrupted' again as I started it earlier this year and reading this makes me want to finish it.