Quantcast
Channel: Blog Tours – Hedwig's World
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 13

Review: Cuts and Bruises by Kelly O’Flaherty

0
0
‘I’d imagine my family finding me; would they be surprised? Devastated? Relieved? Would I survive? Would they find me just at the last second, resuscitate me at the vital moment before I could slip away? I could see their angry faces flashing before my eyes, screaming selfish, selfish, selfish, how selfish can you be?’

***Content warnings for self harm, suicide ideation and attempted suicide, death of a family member, physical abuse, and domestic abuse.***

Wee disclaimer, I personally know the author and was sent this for review by Cranthorpe Millner as part of their Bookstagram tour (my stop is here). All thoughts and opinions here remain my own.

Teenage years are not the easiest for everyone. In fact for many, they are particularly hellish. Mine weren’t exactly the best either. But for many, they are some of the hardest time people will endure and sometimes the best thing you could have done as a teenager is survive. That is exactly the story of Samantha and Michael.

Life has become banal and monotonous for 16-year-old Samantha Ward. The blade she drags across her skin is the only thing that makes her feel alive, that makes her feel real.

With the death of her beloved grandmother and the rejection of her best friend, Samantha falls ever further into the grips of her darkness, every day adding to the collection of marks on her skin.

Desperate and tired of waiting for change, Samantha ventures out into the rain and finds herself drawn to the graveyard nearby. She stumbles across her classmate Michael Gallagher with a noose swaying behind him. Choosing careful words, Samantha convinces him to leave it behind.

With an unspoken bond between them, a friendship blooms. But as Samantha struggles to keep her habit a secret, she realises that Michael is hiding his own secrets too

This is a powerful debut and that is the best words I can offer to describe it. I’m often, like many readers, taking a look at books that are coming out today and other media. Examples like Heartstopper on Netflix, and just keep thinking that I am eternally glad that teens now have that improvement. There’s a lot more awareness now of things within medical science, understandings of gender and sexuality and a far bigger drive to understand mental health. In Cut’s and Bruises, the focus is that drive as well as the intent to tell a story of survival.

We start out the story following Samantha as a new school year has started. Samantha is in a very dark place. Her self esteem is as low as can be, her own outlook on life has come to a point that she just doesn’t care anymore. A lot of things that would come easy are a struggle, right down to getting up from bed. Her one friend Rachel isn’t much of a support and she feels the need to hide all this from her family. And out of all this, she self harms on a regular basis to try and make sense of all these overwhelming feelings.

Samantha is a character is written with so much care. She is depressed and in honestly a place you wish you could just pull her out of with your own hands to tell her it is okay. I honestly loved her as a character so much. Through all her own pain and grief, like the loss of her grandmother and Rachel leaving, she still shows a huge capacity to care for others. Her own troubles never once make her bitter or resentful. When she eventually meets Michael and stops him from making a huge mistake himself, she has so much empathy for him. The two do bring out the best in each other of the whole story, I really do admire that. They are equals in their relationship and at times where it’s out of balance, I really admire Samantha’s ability to stand up and say to Michael when she does have something on her mind as well. The two are truly every bit of support you would want to see any teenager have for someone their own age.

This all felt very real as well. I have never shied away from discussing my own mental health and times where my own anxiety disorder has been messing with me. I very much struggled with the self awareness I needed at Samantha’s age but it is mostly realistic to the novels underlying point. Ireland still has a taboo about discussing mental health problems or worries. It’s very clear in the book via the main characters parents how this is still a thing. Samantha’s Dad is an Irish army veteran and an amputee who struggles with the loss of his own colleagues. He is the more forward of the pair, her mam being someone who tries with all the best intentions to put on a brave face and keep a positive atmosphere for her children. Her brother is a lot more aware than them, being a little bit older than Samantha herself but it really shows what is something I and any other person who grew up in Ireland has experienced.

There is so much to love in this attentive and thoughtful story. The small joys to be found in life when things are very hard, the importance of a good support network as well. The stigma around things like men who experience trauma or have their own struggles hit me just as much as the thoughts Samantha struggled with when she thought she was unworthy of all the things that she deserved. Even the small nods to what is my college (LOVED THIS) just made this so real and vivid and I just think that we need more stories like this. So many more. Ones that are personal and every bit as hopeful as they can be sad. Never letting the bad days win is what I love seeing.

Thank you to both Cranthorpe Millner and Kelly for asking me to review this amazing book. Cuts and Bruises is out now and most importantly, if you are struggling yourself and/or are based in Ireland you can find some supports listed here .


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 13

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images