Grades 9 - 12: "Girl in Pieces" is a hard book about a hard girl's life. Charlotte Davis remembers her father's suicide. She feels guilty for her best friend's attempted suicide. She left her mother's abuse. Charlie has been used and abused by sex traffickers. Her way of coping? A kit that is carefully compiled of broken glass, bandages, and ointments. The story opens in a psych ward where Charlie is bullied by an older woman named Blue and manhandled by an orderly. She takes comfort in one of her therapists, nicknamed Casper because of her quiet demeanor, and another orderly who has a capacity for tenderness--not perversion--and Charlie knows the difference. When the insurance money runs out before Charlie's treatment is up, she is--for all intents and purposes--back on the street. Charlie is unwilling to live with her mother, and her mother reciprocates that antipathy. Charlie is saved by a stash of cash squirreled away by her and her best friend for the purpose of going to Paris. The money is spent on a bus ticket to Tuscon in the hopes that one of her newly sober friends and a change of scenery will help her. In Tuscon, Charlie proceeds to take two steps forward and one step back in her progress toward healing. Perhaps the most compelling thing about this book is the author's first hand experience with cutting and the self-loathing that goes with it. Charlie's sexual experiences, including her relationship with a twenty-something washed up musician, are meant for a more mature audience (nothing on-page, but readers know what is happening), but they are experiences that are all-to-real for girls who truly are living on the street. Fans of Ellen Hopkins' works will appreciate this title, though Charlie's graphic experiences may present triggers for students who are survivors themselves. This story has all the grit of a Hopkins story, but readers who invest in Charlie's growth will be relieved that she not only survives, with the help of others, she begins to thrive. According to one of my students, "Mrs. Kruse, we really need to have more than one copies of this book in the library." Out of the mouths of youth. Verdict: Buy multiple copies for your fans of gritty realistic fiction.
Curricular Use: This fits with the Washington Health standards related to mental health, healthy relationships, and locating resources. The author includes a list or sites for those who either are suffering or know of someone who self-harms, has depression, is suicidal, or needs a safe place to stay. English Language Arts teachers can examine the novel from the perspective of author's craft. This novel also raises several contemporary societal issues related to mental health treatment and insurance as well as youth homelessness and exploitation.

One of my favourite YA reads of the year. A contemporary novel for older teens that provides and unflinching and real look at Charlie's struggle to stay afloat in a world that has pushed her to the edge. This is a book I am always recommending.