[LM_NET] WILLOW, by Julia Hoban

[Teresa Schauer <pettushs@GMAIL.COM>]

 WILLOW, by Julia Hoban posted by Mrs.
Schauer<http://pettushs.blogspot.com/2009/08/willow-by-julia-hoban-posted-by-mrs.html>
<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_egYGOySPHQw/Snxon2rNasI/AAAAAAAAApo/z3VA5OCJkjM/s1600-h/willow-book-cover.jpg>WILLOW,
by Julia Hoban
AR: Yes
Interest Level: Upper Grades

This is another one I picked up at Barnes and Noble because I was drawn to
the book cover. I took it home, and then Hailee had Cat spend the night.
Cat, who can never resist picking up a book, started reading it so I let her
take it home. Since I didn't have the book, I decided to download the
audiobook and listen to it on a trip to East Texas. (By the way, Cat says
she's read it four times--guess that means she liked it!)

The story centers on Willow, a 17 year old high school junior, whose parents
were killed in a horrible car accident months earlier. Willow is consumed
with guilt because she was the one driving the car the night her parents
drank too much wine and asked her to drive them home. Since their death, she
has moved to a new town to live with her older brother and his wife.
Everything in Willow's life has changed since the accident, but the thing
that's changed the most is her relationship with her brother. Once extremely
close, now there is only discomfort as they both try to adjust to their new
roles--he as a parent, and she, as his charge.

Willow has a secret--an extremely self destructive addiction that she
manages to hide from everyone. Willow is a Cutter. She has found that the
only way she can block out her emotions about the accident is to slice her
skin with a razor blade. She describes the pain as flooding her veins in the
same way that heroin might seep through the veins of an opiate addict. She
manages to hide her wounds from everyone...until she meets Guy. Guy is a
student at her new school, and they bond over a love of eccentric classic
literature after they meet at the University library, where Willow works.
Early on in their friendship, Guy discovers Willow's secret and becomes the
one person on Earth that Willow trusts with her heart--but only to a point.
While her cutting causes physical scars on her skin, the emotional wounds
they inflict on Guy are every bit as painful. Can she stop cutting? If she
does stop, will she be able to face the pain, the grief, the rage, sorrow
and guilt that she's kept at bay for months?

It doesn't feel right to say "I loved this book" because the subject is so
jarring. I did become emotionally attached to Willow, though, and reading
her story gave me a better understanding of Cutting. People who cut do so
because it is a way for them to control their pain, rather than facing a
pain that they can't control. Willow's story will resonate with many
readers--of that I'm certain.

-- 
Teresa Schauer
District Librarian/Pettus ISD
Pettus, Texas
tschauer@pettusisd.esc2.net

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