Book: Cutters Don’t Cry by Christine Dzidrums

Published by Creative Media Publishing

Purchased for my Nook (132 pages)

Genre: New Adult: Contemporary

Find out more: Goodreads~Barnes And Noble~Amazon~Christine Dzidrums

Goodreads.com Summary: 19-year-old Charity Graff engages in self-harm. More specifically she cuts herself to numb emotions. In a series of raw journal entries, the confused teenager writes to her estranged father, filling him in on what’s happened in her life since he left her nearly 18 years ago. Throughout the course of her letter writing, Charity chronicles her penchant for cutting, a serious struggle with depression and her inability to vocally express her feelings.

I just loved Cutters Don’t Cry!

I found Charity to be very real and very relateable, and there were a few times her own story mirrored my own.  There were times I couldn’t stop crying, and Dzidrums did a great job at capturing the range of emotions Charity felt.  I’ve never self-harmed but it’s so easy to understand why Charity does it.  And Dzidrums did a wonderful job with showing the downward spiral Charity was in.  I thought the use of a journal was such a great way for Charity to share her thoughts and express her feelings.  Sometimes, you write because speaking can be too hard and scary.  The journal entries written to her dad were so powerful, and I loved seeing her work through everything.  Her entries were very honest, and very vivid.

I also liked that Charity wrote to her dad, who she doesn’t remember.  Almost like writing to him was her way of telling someone what was going on, and to work out her feelings about her dad.  I connected very much with Charity and her experiences, and I loved that she’s 19, in college, and not sure of her future.  You really see her as someone who’s scared to speak up but who eventually realizes that she needs help and is ready to get that help.

The only thing I didn’t like was that it was really short.  I would have liked a little more closure- you see she’s taking steps in the right direction, but you don’t see her several months down the line.  You also got bits and pieces of her childhood, and I would have liked more of that as well.  But in it’s own way, it did work. because you got enough of what happened and where she was headed.

Cutters Don’t Cry gets a 5 out of 5.  It was so well done, and I really connected it.