pages: 285-329

After Guy finds out things sort of start going uphill. Now that she has someone to talk to and look after her she isn't so emotional. She ends up falling in love with Guy, and they start dating. He can't stand to see her constantly want to hurt herself. The cuts he sees all over her body kill him inside. He believes that nobody should have to endure such harsh emotions, especially at such a young age. Guy is on the rowing team, and one day after practice the couple spends time sitting on the bridge above the river where the team practices and Guy convinces Willow to throw all of her razors into the water. It took a while to actually get to her, and even though he knows she could just go and buy more he hopes to God that she won't. She also promised him that she wouldn't, because she'd do anything to keep him.

pages 203-285

Willow finally starts seeing more of the guy at school she's interested in, and interestingly enough his name is actually Guy. One day the two were sitting outside on the lawn at school and he noticed there was blood coming through the arm of her white shirt. Not thinking it was anything like what it would turn out to be, he lifted up her shirt sleeve and what he saw made him speechless. Right away he realized what she was doing, and was shocked but instead of running away to avoid the problem he held her arm and began cleaning the wounds with supplies from his gym bag. (This was my favorite part of the book.) This made her already strong attraction to him even stronger. Willow wondered why someone she barely knew would do something so caring for her. From that point on Guy was the only person Willow could talk to about her cutting problems. Her best friend from her old school didn't talk to her, well, she tried. Every time she would phone, Willow would just let the call go to voicemail. She desperately wanted to be able to talk to her best friend again but she just couldn't bare to discuss her parents death. Knowing that would surely be brought up bothered her. She didn't like sympathy from people over her parent's death. To her that just made everything worse.

^ Basically sums up why Willow didn't tell anyone about her addiction. Society would either view her as crazy or attention-seeking.

pages 117-203

Throughout these pages Willow is really struggling to deal with the fact that she has put so much extra pressure on her brother's shoulders. Since she had to move in with him, his wife, and his daughter after her parents died she can tell he's been so much more stressed. He has to deal with taking care of his baby, his work as a teacher, going to school conferences for her, thinking about what to feed everyone, making sure Willow has everything she needs and finding time to spend with his wife. Whenever it's just Willow and him together alone he doesn't even speak, he just sits there staring off. She doesn't want to be such a burden, and seeing her brother this way just makes the cutting worse.

Mr. Moston

pages: 50-117

Ever since her parents died, Willow has been noticing those who know treat her different; almost like she's some kind of invalid. She hates being treated so carefully. Knowing people just want to comfort her and make sure not to say the wrong thing, Willow knows they're just trying to help but she can't help but hate them for treating her differently. She just wants to be treated like a normal kid. One person she singles out about the different treatment is one of her teachers, Mr. Moston. As one of Willow's cuts began bleeding she knew she had to go to the bathroom to try and clean it up before it became noticeable, but when she opened the door she realized there were two girls already in the bathroom. She knew she couldn't clean up her cut with them watching, so she turned around and walked back out in to the hall. As she began walking, not knowing where she was even going, Willow began walking faster and faster and before she knew it she was sprinting through the halls. When she finally reached a dead end she sat down against the brick wall and started rubbing her calf, out of breath. Soon, she realized one of the cuts on her leg had re-opened and was bleeding through her jeans. Mr. Moston found her, and invited her into his classroom. He didn't know about the cutting, but he wanted to see what was wrong. She knew he just meant well, but she couldn't stand the special treatment from him. After they were in the room he realized he had left something outside the room, but wasn't so sure about leaving Willow alone in the room. He seemed to think she was an emotional wreck, reading to explode at any moment.

Willow

pages: 1-50
Seven months ago on a rainy March night, the main character of this book, Willow,  her parents drank a little too much at dinner and asked her to drive them home. But they never made it - Willow lost control of the car and killed both of her parents. She is now seventeen and lives with her older brother, who can barely stand to speak to her. He's married and has a daughter, and Willow doesn't feel like she belongs with them. She feels like a nuisance. She had to leave behind her old home, her friends, and her school. But she's found a way to survive, to numb the new reality of her life: She is secretly cutting herself.

That's the problem with cutting. Once you start, you can't stop. It's addicting, cutting is my drug. It serves its purpose perfectly. "Once I cut, I forget about everything that has been wrong. All that is left is my concentration on my cut. I forget about everything but the pain. Pain has become my world."

pages 252-281 pretty much focused around this quote. 

Voices

pages 187-252

"Depression is something so unrealistic. It makes you believe these voices. You are overcome by these demons and everyone else sees through the tinted glass but YOU can see the real world, the real you, the real humanity, the real pain. The agony, you can't explain it or take a painkiller but you can just sit, unable to move or connect with reality, and you just stare, feeling anxious and nervous and ill, can't voice it, so you cut instead. That's where the real problem starts. The blood, the addiction.

This whole section of the book pretty much talked about "voices" that people suffering from depression sometimes say they hear. The voices tell them that they need to punish themselves, that they deserve the pain and suffering they're going through, and they even deserve more. That they're a failure and aren't good for anything. They can't escape the "voices" because they're so used to "listening to them". The voices come when they start over-thinking things. Once they're alone, they voices get louder and eventually the "cutter" gives in.