Maw Books

Maw Books – book reviews, book recommendations, book lists, author interviews and more!

Recently, I read Sold by Patricia McCormick. I enjoyed her book so much (you can read my review here) that I immediately read her two previous books Cut and My Brothers Keeper.

In Cut, Callie is a self-destructive, withdrawn, and unresponsive teenage who finds herself in residential therapy after her school nurse and parents find out that she’s been cutting herself. Callie doesn’t speak to anyone and tells her story to the reader in a first person narrative letter written to her therapist. Her self-mutilation or cutting, makes her feel alive and she cannot resist the urges when they overtake her. She wants to get better though, so with the threat of expulsion from the treatment facility, she begins to open up and hands over anything in which to cut herself. Underneath the cutting lies the reason for it and that reason is slowly revealed as a traumatizing event in which she felt responsible for her brothers near death. This was McCormick’s first novel and I’m sure that it has given voice to the girls and young women who engage in this type of behavior.

In My Brother’s Keeper, Toby Malone is like any other kid except he’s got exactly 52 gray hairs, is the youngest kid in his class because he skipped a grade, collects baseball cards long after most kids have given it up, thinks his dad who walked out on the family will still return, worries that his mom has enough to deal with so he throws away the overdue credit card bills, and oh, he hides his older brother, Jake’s, drug use. In this story, Toby knows what all the answers are about drugs from videos from school, but doesn’t know how to deal with it when the drug user is his older brother. This story approaches a serious subject matter that I’m sure many children are familiar with and gives them a voice (wait, did I say that about Cut too?).

Patricia McCormick is a very talented author and chooses such serious subject matters and gives them illumination. I enjoyed reading all three of her books, Cut, My Brother’s Keeper, and Sold, but enjoyed Sold the best. If you were to read just one book by McCormick, make it Sold.

Hey you! Yes. You! I've noticed that you've stopped by to visit a few times! But I don't know who you are. Why don't you take a moment and introduce yourself. Don't be scared. I try not to bite. I know you're a lurker but I'd love to hear your thoughts about what's been bringing you here. And if you haven't done so already, don't forget to never miss a post by subscribing to my feed or receiving updates by email. Thanks for visiting!