Raw Reality of Survivor's Guilt and Self-Mutilation in Willow

Hoban, Julia. Willow. Dial Books, 2009. Tr. $16.99 ISBN 978-0-8037-3356-5

What’s it about?

Willow Randall has terrible guilt for the accident that killed her parents, and secretly numbs her pain by cutting herself. Enter Guy, who cares deeply for Willow—and is the only person who knows her secret.  

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Willow is a compelling look inside the mind of a tormented 17 year old who is trying to cope with a life-altering tragedy. A year ago, her parents hand her the keys after they drank too much wine at dinner. The heavy rain is too much for an inexperienced driver with just a learner’s permit to handle, and a horrific accident takes the lives of Willow’s parents. Physically, Willow is unharmed. Mentally, she is torn apart by her guilt and grief, thinking of herself as a killer. She moves in with her older brother, David, a college professor with a wife and baby. Instead of turning to each other for support, the siblings each deal with their grief separately. Unable to cope with the horror of the accident, and the strained relationship with David, Willow cuts herself with razor blades. Then Willow meets Guy, a sweet boy who shares her interest in anthropology and obscure books. Guy is perceptive, and discovers her secret. He is understandably horrified, but because he cares for Willow, he tries to help her.  Willow is eventually able to reach a turning point, and begins to deal with her grief instead of numbing it out with self-mutilation.  

Hand Willow to readers of problem novels.  This is a helpful book to recommend to tweens and teens grades 7 and up who have dealt with self-mutilation or have friends or family members struggling with this problem. This is also a good choice to hand someone dealing with survivor guilt. I’d be careful to assess the maturity level of a potential reader before recommending this title to someone on the younger end; this is a painful subject, and a Hoban doesn’t sanitize the ugliness of cutting and the horror of Willow’s grief.  Hoban does a good job of conveying the seriousness of this problem, and the reader will empathize with her extreme coping mechanism. There is way too much that occurs in Willow’s thoughts, however, which are distractingly conveyed in third person present tense. The complex relationship Willow has with her brother is so realistically portrayed, it makes up for the sometimes unconvincing romance between Guy and Willow.  It is hard to believe that Willow would open up so much to Guy so quickly, and Guy really seemed more like a therapist than a boyfriend. At the same time, it does make sense that a meaningful relationship is be one of the catalysts Willows needs to deal with her bottled-up grief. 

Genre label: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Problem Novel, Romance

Reading level: 5^th grade

Interest level: Grades 7 & up

At the library I work at, I was initially surprised by the popularity of this book with older pre-teens and young teens. Sadly, this topic may speak personally to more kids in this age group than adults would imagine.  

Read-alikes:

Patricia McCormick’s Cut

Cheryl Rainfield’s Scars

Gayle Forman’s If I Stay

Hannah Moskowitz’s Break

Subjects/themes: Cutting, Guilt, Death, Accidents, Relationships, Grieving, Orphans, Secrets, Survivor Guilt

Character name/descriptions:

Willow—Troubled protagonist, cuts herself to numb the pain of her involvement in the deaths of her parents

David—Willow’s older brother, a college professor and her guardian

Guy—Willow’s love interest and the only person who knows about her cutting