The Luckiest Girl in the World

Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: First off, yes, it has its faults. The therapist, Sandy Sherman, is obviously a self-insertion and Katie's skating is something that few people could relate to. The plot line is easily predictable and nearly identical to that of "The Best Little Girl in the World." Keep in mind that the idea isn't to entertain, but rather, to educate people about self-injury.
Her parents are rather stereotypical (abusive mother, not-there father), but several of my friends who cut have similar parents. They're not identical, but it's a close enough variation to be believable. I'm not saying ALL self-harmers parents fit into that stereotype, but some do.
I've noticed that a lot of people have criticized the dissociative parts of the novel ("I don't space out like that when I cut, so it's total BS," etc). True, only about half of cutters dissociate. It would have been nice if that'd been explained more clearly, but it didn't fit into the plot particularly well to do so. I think the hope is that people might read his non-fiction book on self-harm after reading Luckiest Girl, or look into it elsewhere to get more information. It's obviously not possible to include all the information on self-harm in one book, especially a fiction.
I've also seen criticisms about him choosing a young girl to play the roll, since not all cutters are young women. Yes, it would have been nice if he'd clairifed that not all cutters are young women, but statistically (to my knowledge), most cutters are middle school/high school teen girls. Again, it's not fair to ask him to cover all possibilities in one young adult book. He choose the most common victim age/sex. For one of the first books on the subject, that makes sense.
There've also been critisms that he doesn't understand at all, as is evident by how he writes about the self-harm episodes. They're already triggering enough, making them any more graphic could make the book dangerous for self-harmers who read it. Yes, they're rather...general...but that can be explained by:
A) He doesn't self harm himself.
B) More details makes them more triggering to self harmers.
C) The more specific he gets, the less likely self-harmers who read it will be able to feel understood. Everyone self-harms differently. Hell, just by making her dissociative, half the SI's who read it feel it's BS.
D) Self-injurers who're looking for new ways to self-harm probably won't get any out of this book (I know several SI's who do that, so don't dismiss it).
The short version, for those who skipped over most of what I wrote above: The book successfully gives the reader a VERY BASIC understanding of cutting. That's all that can be realistically done in a book of it's type. Hopefully people would have the common sense to look into self-injury more after reading it if they know anyone who self-harms. I would strongly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting...
Review: I think that this book was a little overdramatic. The character 'Sandy Sherman' was obviously a self-insertion, which annoyed me greatly to start out with. The description of the therapist matched the small photograph of the author in the inside cover perfectly.

The description of self-mutilaton was a bit off and had a melodramatic feel that made it seem a lot less real. Some of the more graphic parts seemed like almost replicas of sections in books such as "Saint Jude", "Cut", and "Crosses"'.

The friends that recommended this book to me cut themselves, so I was actually a bit inwardly glad that the book did not suggest any way to 'cut' other than with a pair of sissors. It does not take a genius to figure that one out. However, I feel that this book helped me personally, because now I have a vague of an idea about how my friends may be thinking and feeling, even if they aren't ice skaters or have abusive moms.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT BOOK
Review: It's funny that I'm a junior at UCLA but still read young adult novels along with everything else. However, some really great books have been written for pre-teens and adolescents, and this is one of them. Though a relatively quick read, it holds your interest and leaves you wanting to know more right up until the very end (and even then some!) I'd recommend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Four star quality book
Review: The Luckiest Girl in the World

This is the story about a 15-year-old girl named Katie Roskova, who has no time for friends or a life because of her ice skating career. Her mother is working long hours for Katie to be able to skate and she pushes and pushes her to the end. Katie's mother is living her own dream through Katie which puts more pressure on Katie not to fail. When Katie is not ice skating, she is at school or working on school work to keep her grades up so that she can keep her scholarship at the private school she attends. She has nowhere to escape except to the solace of pain she has found. When things get too stressful, Katie "spaces out" and cuts herself to help her cope with the stress, but she must keep this dark secret to herself. Until one day in school she spaces out in the hallway and slams her hand in her locker and her head into the wall. This incident then begins her road to recovery as her mother, who is in denial, is forced to take her to a psychiatrist and Katie begins opening up about her world of pain where she finds peace.
This book does a wonderful job of introducing a serious problem that is among teens and young people everywhere. Everyone is familiar with eating disorders and depression, but "self-mutilation" is still a problem that many people do not know much about and some haven't even heard of it. This is a largely spreading disorder that still baffles many to why people harm themselves. The reasons for self-mutilation or "cutting", as it is commonly known, can be many different things but they all eventually wind down to one main reason. This book shows the emotional side of why people resort to self-mutilation and also gives hope to many who are looking for a road to recovery.

I enjoyed reading this book personally because I enjoy reading about different psychological disorders and I have been exposed to many of them through friends and even myself in my life. Just as Levenkron's book about a girl with anorexia, The Best Little Girl in the World, this book shows insight to a very serious disorder that many people in the world are dealing with and most of them are dealing with them in secret. Many people in the world are aware of these disorders but either, do not believe they could happen to them or anyone they know; or they are dealing with one but are in denial that they are. This book helped me see into the world of self-mutilation from an outsiders point of view, instead of the insiders view I was used to.
The Luckiest Girl in the World is a great book to read to see the affects of self-mutilation in one scenario; but for anyone who is more interested in finding out facts about self-mutilation this is not the book to read. This is the look inside one girl's mind, who is going through a lot of difficulties in her life. You travel with her as her inner pain comes out and her "dark secret" is exposed; and as she begins her struggle with recovery. I recommend this book to read, even if you are not necessarily interested in psychological problems such as this, because it is a great book. Weather you are dealing with this disorder yourself or have never even heard of it, this book will help open your eyes. You will look at things in your own life very differently after you read this book.


Rating:
Summary: NOT a good book!!!
Review: This book disturbed me. I am a self-injurer, and pretty much everything about the book bothered me, from the stereotypical portrayal of all the characters to the pervertedness of the author who portrays himself in the book as the girl's therapist.
I could relate to Katie; I also have a manipulative mother who tries to make me out to be something I just don't want to be. This is what got me to read the book. Unfortunately, I doubt anyone could relate much to anything else about the book.

"Sandy Sherman"'s way of getting katie to "open up" is completly wrong and unbelievable, and if I, for one, ever considered seeing a therapist and he was anything like that, it would only help in the sense that I would feel more like cutting him then myself. He needs to figure out where the line should be drawn between professional and personal.

I guess I'm lucky that reading crappy books doesn't trigger me. I figured out the hard way that this book could be very triggering to some people who cut themselves, because there were a couple drops of dried blood stuck to the cover of it...

Don't read this book. It is poorly written, disappointing, disturbing, and could be triggering.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting...
Review: When I first read this book I was ready for a book about cutting and not about emotion and understanding. I got both as a matter of fact. I have read this book from cover to cover many times and have even underlined many many parts throughout the book that relate to me. Being most of the book I relate to most of it. It beautifully <after a fashion> describes the feelings and emotions you get befoe, during, and after the cutting. Like I said I am versed in the art of cutting and I recommend this book for everyone. I say we should be forced to read these types of books in school and teach about them so not to hide them in a corner when these problems will continue to manifest themselves in the future generation, the current generation, and the past generation. This book is perfect for all.

Rating:
Summary: I am a cutter and this books poke to me deeply.
Review: When I first read this book I was ready for a book about cutting and not about emotion and understanding. I got both as a matter of fact. I have read this book from cover to cover many times and have even underlined many many parts throughout the book that relate to me. Being most of the book I relate to most of it. It beautifully describes the feelings and emotions you get befoe, during, and after the cutting. Like I said I am versed in the art of cutting and I recommend this book for everyone. I say we should be forced to read these types of books in school and teach about them so not to hide them in a corner when these problems will continue to manifest themselves in the future generation, the current generation, and the past generation. This book is perfect for all.