Willow

Willowby Julia HobanBooks about mental illness, depression and self-mutilation are difficult to read and write. Having suffered through severe depression myself growing up I tend to gravitate to books on the mental illness subject in some attempt to better understand myself or in a way, feel less alone.I wish I could say that Willow had an emotional impact on me like other books on this subject, but it didn't. From the first pages I had a distinct feeling of unease but not due to the subject matter. I did not enjoy the writing in this book at all. I sort of felt like the mater of cutting was forced down my throat right from the start. I think that more could have been explored in relation to how Willow felt about the death of her parents. The relationship with her brother I could accept. Those talks, or outbursts rather, are the only points in the story I ever felt any emotion.That was my main problem with the story. As I read I knew I was supposed to be feeling something, anything about what was going on and I just wasn't. That's rare for me when it comes to teenage depression and feeling left out in a book. I didn't find there was any connection between me and Willow at all, unless she was trying to talk to her brother. She just didn't feel like a real character to me.I especially felt this way about Guy and his "relationship" with Willow. Not once was it ever explained why he latched on to her when he discovered she was cutting. This was someone he had only just met and mere moments later he's dragging her to see her brother to reveal her secret and getting upset with her because he didn't want to have to be responsible for protecting her. Well, dude, you don't have to be responsible for any of that, you don't even know her.Maybe there was supposed to be some sort of soulmate connection between the two of them, but I didn't see it. In fact Guy creeped me out and I kept waiting for him to turn out to be sinister or rape her or something. I did not like Guy, though I appreciated his kindness, but to me it was out of the blue and didn't make sense. If he was a long time friend, ok. But not just having met her.I waited so long to pick up this book because I was terrified of the emotional toil it was going to put me through. Sadly, there was no toil, heck there was hardly any emotion. All I could think of was how I didn't like the way it was written and that Guy was creepy.There could have been so much more explored in this novel. I think there was great potential but it just didn't live up to MY expectations of it. Almost everyone else I know that has read Willow has adored it. I wish I could add my voice to that crowd, but sadly it didn't muster up. I only gave it 3 stars on Goodreads because of that.I am sorry, book. I wanted to add you to my collection of teenage sob-worthy books on depression, but I just can't.In case anyone is interested in reading more on cutting there are a couple of great books out there (thank you psychology courses) that you might be able to find.Cutting: Understanding and Overcoming Self-Mutilation by Steven LevenkronThe Luckiest Girl in the World by Steven Levenkron