Starred Review When Charlie cuts into her skin with a broken piece of mason jar, she inflicts wounds that are deep and wide. Found almost dead from her latest grievous self-attack, Charlie winds up at a treatment facility. There, she slowly responds to therapy and the camaraderie of the other patients. But her struggles to cope with years of neglect, abuse, and homelessness have rendered ropy scars on her arms and legs, and even deeper wounds carved in her heart. Unexpectedly, Charlie's insurance is cut off, and her mother will not take her back home. Through a tentative connection to an old friend, Charlie winds up in Tucson, once again left alone to fend for herself. Soon it becomes apparent that the cruelties of poverty shrink in comparison with the cruelties of human relationships. In Glasgow's riveting debut novel, readers are pulled close to Charlie's raw, authentic emotions as she strains to make a jagged path through her new life. Love and trust prove difficult, and Charlie's judgment is not well honed, but her will to survive is glorious. Recommend to readers looking for gritty, complex novels such as E. R. Frank's Dime (2015) or C. Desir's Other Broken Things (2016).

Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis cuts herself in a desolate attempt to stave off the cataclysm of trauma and pain. Chronicled in chapters of varying length, Charlie's journey struggling with abuse, loss, homelessness, and self-harm is one that gets worse before it gets better. Along the way, her intense first-person narration can be disconcerting but reliably embroiling.

After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author's note) (Fiction. 14 & up)

Nearly broken by a suicide attempt and a spate of personal losses, 17-year-old Charlotte -Charlie- Davis finds solace in the broken shards of a mason jar and, later, through art, in debut author Glasgow-s visceral novel of self-harm. On the streets of the Twin Cities after her father died and her mother simply stopped caring, Charlie -cut all her words out heart was too full of them.- Bandaged and silent, she ends up in a psych unit for self-harmers. Although Charlie sees herself in the other girls, it-s her friend Ellis she craves the most. But the Ellis she knew is gone, stuck in the limbo of cutting deep enough to cause significant blood loss but not enough to die. When Charlie is discharged abruptly, she leaves for Tucson, following Mikey, a boy she liked but who always loved Ellis more. Glasgow skillfully juggles multiple difficult topics (homelessness, self-harm, etc.) without dipping into melodrama. Charlie-s intimate first-person narration places readers deep within her experience while maintaining awareness of the outside world and the people in it. Ages 14-up. Agent: Julie Stevenson, Waxman Leavell Literary. (Aug.)

Charlie is a girl in pieces, physically, emotionally, and socially. In hard-bitten language, she reveals the story behind her self-mutilation. Her father drowned himself. Her mother beat her. Her best friend tried cutting and bled out to the point of brain damage. She lived on the streets. For now, she is Silent Sue, then Strange Girl at rehabnot talking, not sleeping, just starting to work out her problems. Then, the insurance runs out. Her mother lies to the staff to get Charlie out, but she is not really letting Charlie come home. Instead, Charlie is headed to Arizona, where she is supposed to build a new life with help from a friend whom she hopes might become more than that.Charlie's saving graces are her ability to lose herself in her art and a series of people who care enough to keep her alive. Glasgow draws each of these characters deftly with sparse details and vivid language. With their help, Charlie finds work as a dishwasher, gets a room, survives an unhealthy relationship with the boss's manipulative brother, and endures one more skirmish with a piece of glass. At first blush, the topic and length of the book might be off-putting, but teens with the courage to crack the cover will find themselves driven to see Charlie's story through. They will better understand a world that often makes no sense to outsiders. Glasgow's debut novel is a dark read, but the engaging writing will win an audience for her next one.Donna L Phillips.