Review: Cut by Cathy Glass

Cut by Cathy Glass

Finished reading: February 2, 2011

Memoir, Paperback, 310 Pages, Borrow from Hidayah's Book Club

The Story: Dawn is rejected by her parents and is left at the social care institution. She is then taken in by her foster parents Cathy and John. They treat her as a daughter but little do they know that, Dawn is going to be hard to handle. One night, Cathy awakes to find Dawn standing over her baby, Adrian's cot. This freaks them out and a nightmare is about to start. They know something is wrong with Dawn and try to help but it's not going to be easy as Dawn's past is kept secret from them. "Cut" is a true story of an abandoned, abused girl who tries to be part of a family. 

My Thought: A hard-to-put-down book which I thoroughly enjoyed from the start to it's end. "Cut" tackles the issue of psychological trauma experienced by a child who was abused and subjected to the domestic violence which caused her to act beyond our (or her) own understanding. This is a heavy, critical issue but Cathy managed to deliver in a very easy-to-understand voice and the story telling flows through so well, I almost don't realize that so much time has passed because I get so engrossed in the book. Begins the story with how much she and John desperately want to start a family, Cathy makes a decision to foster a child. Her first foster son, don't give much of troubles but with Dawn, it's going to different. Dawn is sent by her social worker, Ruth. She's a polite, shy 13 years old girl and Cathy for an instant comes to treat her like a daughter. That's what I love most about Cathy character. But then, the story becomes creepy as Dawn starts to sleepwalk toward her baby cot, and re-enact the self-hurting and self-blaming behaviors in her sleepwalking. Dawn also play truants, get drunk, and repeatedly went missing and the worst of all she cut herself.  "The hurt builds up inside me until I can't stand any more. I have to cut to let it out". This statements give me the chill along the spine!

Living in worries and so much stress, Cathy and John tries to find out what goes wrong with Dawn. But, her social worker, Ruth is not much a help as she said that all the details about Dawn's past is confidential. What the hell? I start to hate Ruth by then because I think that Cathy has the right to know Dawn's background . But Cathy reaction is different from mine, of course. She tries very hard to help Dawn and she knows that  she can make Dawn happy again. I really admire Cathy and John for not giving up on Dawn though their family is put in misery. This is a good book indeed. Through her own binocular Cathy manages to grip my heart with her effortless style of writing, easy to love characters (except for Ruth) and a heart-wrenching and mind-blowing thrills. The ending is well put just in a way I love it to end. Well done to Cathy Glass for such a great work and I'm so grateful that I read this book as it is one of the books that change something in me. So, without hesitation, I recommend this to all of you.

Afterwords: This book reminds me of a movie, "Mockingbird Don't Sing" which I watched with my classmates in our forensic psychology class.

CoffeeNCracker's Meter: 4 Cups of Coffee

****This review is linked back to Hidayah's Book Club. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to read  "Cut". Malaysia readers who wants to read book for free, visit Hidayah's Book Club site now. This review is also linked back to Book Review Party Wednesday @ Cym Lowell Blog.