Seventeen-year-old Willow Randall is the new girl in school. She is living with her older brother because she is now an orphan. Her parents are both dead, and she blames herself for their demise. It was a horrible accident, but that doesn’t ease the pain of their loss or her guilt. The only thing that does is “the cutting.”

Cutting her skin with razors and sharp objects, her self-mutilation is not a form of punishment but of escape. The pain from the cutting blocks the pain of her loss. Even though she finds new places to cut and more pain to inflict on herself, she can’t make the other pain go away. She must face it --- and eventually she does, when a boy from her new school discovers her secret. Guy is somewhat repulsed by the cutting, but he doesn’t turn away from her. Rather, he promises not to tell anyone about it. He becomes determined to help her, one day refusing to allow her to cut herself anymore.  

In the meantime, Willow has to cope with classes that she’s failing because she can’t concentrate on schoolwork, living with her brother who she thinks hates her and blames her for their parents’ deaths, and feeling like an outsider in her new school.

To say that this novel is intense would be quite an understatement. Julia Hoban shares with her readers what’s going on inside her main character’s head by writing in the third person, making the story of Willow both highly personal and compellingly emotional.

At first I thought the book would be really gross as Willow is a “cutter,” someone who uses razors and sharp objects to mutilate themselves. But, even though the writing is a bit graphic, the subject matter is handled in a very sensitive matter, making the tale both revealing and insightful.

The plot line also hit a bit close to home as the son of a family friend tried self-mutilation through burning. I can’t pretend to know why he did what he did. But now, after reading this book, I can understand some of the reasons why Willow and people like her feel the need to hurt themselves; it’s a way of blocking out emotional pain.

WILLOW will move you. Whether you’re repulsed or intrigued, you can’t come away from it with nothing. Hopefully, you’ll gain a sense of understanding and compassion for those who do harm to their bodies, and you’ll come away with the idea that love has the power to redeem our lives, no matter how far we may have fallen.