The Perfect Cut Book

This is one of my all time favourite books. I've reread it multiple times and each time I see something new, something I previously missed which changes the story for me.

It's a powerful story about a tragic loss, which I can't even imagine dealing with but Bryan somehow struggles through. The first few chapters completely captivate me and then it drops off for a bit (which I don't mind, gives a slight background of how horrible things have become for Bryan) and then the rest of the book is by far amazing.
It puts into words the thoughts and feelings we have all had at some point in our lives. The loss and the fear, the having no idea who you are or why you're here and sometimes feeling completely worthless. It perfectly shows what happens when you have no one to turn to.

This book is centred around self-harm which still is a social issues and has such strong stigmas attached to it. I often feel like people know the least about this, compared to other issues (i.e. addictions and drugs, eating disorders, sexual assault, ect) and Julie really did a great job at providing insight.
People who self-harm often don't do it because they want to die, they do it because they feel such immense pain - or no pain at all - that they need to do something to psychically even it out. They have so much going on in their minds and the only way they can get it all out is to hurt themselves. And I felt like she wrote Bryan's experiences with self-harm perfectly, letting people understand the why.

Bryan is such a misguided person with so much potential, proving throughout how smart and thoughtful he is but his self worth has been chipped away his entire life. I always sympathize with him and connect with him on that level, knowing that you could do so much but also feeling like you can't do anything at all.

The one thing that bugged me about this book was Chris... for some reason I always wanted to know more about this character and grew very attached by his small supporting role. I don't know why but I always wished that he and Bryan would meet up in the end, especially since Bryan played such a role in Chris wanting to get clean.

This book also deals with self-harm which still is a social issues and has such strong stigmas attached to it. I often feel like people know the least about this, compared to other issues (i.e. addictions and drugs, eating disorders, sexual assault, ect) and Julie really did a great job at providing insight.
People who self-harm often don't do it because they want to die, they do it because they feel such immense pain - or no pain at all - that they need to do something to psychically even it out. They have so much going on in their minds and the only way they can get it all out is to hurt themselves. And I felt like she wrote Bryan's experiences with self-harm perfectly, letting people understand the why.