Cut has a diary feel about it. Callie is not speaking to me, as the reader, she is speaking to her therapist whose name we never learn. This is very clever because when we first meet Callie, she does not speak; she is in a mental institution and she cannot speak because she is so traumatized by her brother’s illness and her parents dysfunctional behavior over it and by the responsibility she has to take care of a seriously ill little boy in an increasingly dysfunctional family where her parents, especially her father, are distant and withdrawn, that she is compelled to cut her own flesh over and over again. Callie gets to know the other guests at “Sick Minds” (Sea Pines) by observing them and their behavior and Callie keeps her secrets until the arrival of Amanda, (who also cuts,) forces her to face herself, her family and her cutting. As she begins to speak she begins to heal and finally is able to confront herself and her father and start dealing with some serious family dysfunctions. The story comes full circle when Callie decides she does want to be healed and she tells her therapist she is ready to talk. The book then, is Callie telling her story to the therapist.
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