Willow

Some facts about me:
1) I don't usually review books.
2) I have never stopped reading a book in between. (Even if I did, I usually picked it up later at some point)

But this book made me break my rules. Read on to know why....

Willow was actually quite a promising book. The blurb was quite interesting and it was similar to some other books I read so it ended up in my recommendations and I thought it would be one of these deep, dark, meaningful books. And I had this ridiculous notion that since it was about a serious subject, it ought to be good. Boy, was I wrong.

First up, let me say this: Self-harm is a very serious issue. I can't stress on this fact enough. And I am accustomed to reading about deaths, suicides, bullying, abuse, rape and accidents, so it wasn't that I was squeamish about self-harm.
Like many others said, I can't help but think that the third perspective was a huge mistake. Especially for an issue such as self-harm because that isn't something many peoples go through. I don't know about others, but I seriously don't understand the reason behind self-harm. I get suicide. I'm not encouraging it obviously but to me it makes sense: when the whole world around me was crashing, I would rather collapse along with it rather than strive in the ruins of it. But self harm? Putting yourself in pain to forget about some other pain, doesn't make any sense to me. But I hoped that after this book, I would get it, why someone would do this thing to themselves, I mean.

Willow: Willow's parents die in an accident. As if that isn't it bad enough, she was driving the car. So she is living with her older brother who doesn't speak beyond five words a day to her. So Willow turns to self-harm to numb the pain.
Okay so this sixteen year old girl's parents died in an accident while she was driving and so she injures herself. She is bound to have some issues, right? But issues or not, Willow is a bitch, pardon my French.

Willow thinks that she and only she has like the right to feel pain. Yeah so, this is how it works in Willow World: “My life is so hard. Everybody should feel sorry for me every second of my life. And no one should mention/complain or cry about their own problems because my problems are bigger. ” I'm not kidding. This girl doesn't feel an ounce of sympathy for anyone except herself, so how does she expect me to feel sympathetic about her? There was this one time when a girl break some lab equipment and this is Willow's reaction:

“Willow is shocked to see that she's on the verge of tears. Doesn't this girl know that a couple of broken beakers and a failed physics experiment are nothing to cry over? Willow sits back on her heels, the sponge dangling uselessly from her hand, and stares at Vicki. Doesn't this girl realize how lucky she is that the worst thing in her life is some broken glass?Tears, actual tears, start to form in Vicki's eyes and roll down her cheeks.Over some broken glass?Willow is stunned. She can't help it, maybe she should be more charitable, but she simply can't bring herself to feel anything but contempt for someone so weak.”

I would have been okay with it if Willow herself wasn't so weak. Also Willow is paranoid. If everybody is looking at her, it is because they want to see the freak that killed her parents. If no one is looking at her, it's because they don't want to look into the eyes of a murderer. If they are talking to her, it is because they want to get the scoop on her. If they are not talking to her, it is because she killed her parents. If people are eating it is probably because they need energy to escape if she decides they are her next victim. Okay, the last one wasn't true but everything is because she killed her parents.

Guy: Okay, so next comes the guy...uh..what's his name again? Oh, that's right! Guy! You know what would have been a better name? Gary. As in Gary Stu. No, he's not perfect. But still everyone thinks he is and acts as if he is. First of all, he grabs her wrist. Because, of her injuries it becomes much more complicated. Unless, there is murderer on the loose or something equally catastrophic you never grab a girl's wrist. As if this weren't enough, he throws a box of razors at her.

I have stopped reading by this point but apparently (from other reviews), they have sexwhich totally clears up all the issues including the self-harm. They throw the box of razors into a lake. Think about the marine life, you idiots. And can't they use them for something? I mean throwing in lake is very symbolic or whatever, but can't Guy use them to shave his beard? Do they use the same blades for both the purposes? I have no idea. Also, Guy is more of a charmer than I thought : He carries a condom since he meets Willow. I would rather take Edward Cullen watching me while sleeping over this crap.

The rest of the two dimensional characters whose names I don't remember :

David: I don't actually remember his name. It was in the blurb. Yeah so lots of trauma and what not. And he's totally okay with his little sis doing it with a random guy.

There's a girl who talks about dying her hair and a couple of girls who talk to Willow while she comes up with her conspiracy theories. And there's this guy who talks about rowing. Also there's David's wife who does something sweet which I don't really remember but Willow just brushes it off. And oh yeah, David has a baby too who is also the subject of Willow's conspiracy theories. She thinks that David doesn't want to let Willow babysit as she's gonna kill the baby or something.

This is one of the books where you would rather see the girl stand up in her own like Dreamland or Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen. But no, she enters into a creepy relationship with a stranger. I mean, putting all the happily ever after theories aside, what is going to happen if they break up? Willow is going into jump into the lake for her razors? Also is this the message for girls who harm themselves? Wait for your Prince Charming to show up?

I give you my permission to hit me on my head if I ever read another word by Jublia Hoban.

Check out the original review on my blog here

I liked this book, however I didn't appreciate some of the ways that Willow's cutting was dealt with. I did understand how Willow could blame herself for her parents' death because she was the one driving the car, but with the fact that her parents had been drinking it's kind of like would it had still happened. I just couldn't get around the fact that two parents would allow their child drive in a terrible storm knowing that she doesn't have a driver's license (only a learner's permit). It didn't seem like her parents were being too responsible.

I didn't think that Guy was a good person for Willow, he just didn't deal with things in the most healthy way for Willow. Overall, I thought the book was really good. I'm not really familiar with people self-harming. Like I know there are people who cut themselves and people who starve themselves, but I never understood it. I'm not saying that this book is the perfect representation of the topic, but it did give me a little insight into the topic.