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Willow by Julia Hoban is the story of Willow; a seventeen year old girl who tries to cope with the tragedy of a terrible accident which took the lives of her parents by secretly cutting herself.
My book review rating: 5 stars – couldn’t put it down
I was beginning to think I’d lost my reading mojo this year; after the vast number of books I got through in 2008 I’ve gotten off to a very slow start. But when I opened the package containing Willow by Julia Hoban, I took one look at the cover and knew this book would reignite the spark!
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I had to take a four hour train journey today so I settled down in my seat for some uninterrupted reading time. I have to say that this book had me riveted from the first paragraph – I was actually disappointed that I had to take a break in the middle of reading it to attend the conference I was travelling to!
In this Young Adult novel, Hoban takes the very sensitive subject of self-harm and delivers a powerful story. Of how people cope with loss, of our perceptions of the world around us, and how sometimes we see things differently to everyone else, almost to the point of paranoia.
The characters are believable, from Willow herself, a girl wracked with guilt over the death of her parents, who believes the only way to stay strong is to cut her skin with razor blades. Guy – the boy she meets who is the one person she can really be herself with; his sensitivity and understand him make him the kind of person anyone would be very lucky to know. And David, her elder brother who one stormy night finds himself moved to a whole other role, of parent and guardian, and is struggling in his own way to cope with the tragedy that has engulfed them both.
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In Willow, Hoban forces us to look more deeply into what causes people to resort to self-harm, the effects it has on them and on the people around them. I would highly recommend it to anyone, whether you are a young adult or not, and am looking forward to reading anything else Hoban has to offer.
Want to know more about WILLOW? Read my interview with Julia Hoban.
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I’m a mother of two, and I LONG FOR a four hour train journey in which to read. I promised myself at the start of the year that I would read one title from a different Nobel prize-winner every month this year, and I have even managed to finish January’s! This book sounds interesting. Gritty. Real-life. Thanks for the review.
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Well, look at that you wait aaaaaaaaaaaaagggggeeeeees for one post and then two come along at once!
And one of them sends a book a book straight on to the wishlist! Sounds like a powerful read.
As a Librarian I am so excited for this book to come out. Its going to be my top priority to read this before i give it out.
All the reviews are so very positive.
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willow is an amazing book. not only do you find many themes in this story, but you understand how some peoples' lives may be. julia hoban did an astonishing job on the book. im happy she published the book and i know she will get many hits on it.
Willos is the best book i have ever read!!! i found it in a bookstore a few months back, the only reason why i bought it was because my best friends name is willow, and my name is julia. once iread the discription i thought i was in the twilight zone because the discription freakishly descrived my friend willow. we passed the book around form friends to parents and then we read it. i was never a big reader but this book got me to start reading more. thank you Julia Hoban for writing such an amazing book!! I look foward to many more!!
I’m a teen and I read this for a project, I loved this book. I could really realte to it. I would so recommend this book.
I’m a 13 year old cutter, and much like Willow it was my only way to cope with the things happening around me. And of course being the kind of people my parents were, they are not readers. Yes they have the time but never get around to it, or just find no need. But back to the story…So when I told them about my ‘problem’ they figured I was like a broken toy, fixibale. You have no idea how hard it was to explain over and over to my parents that I can’t just be fixed with therapy and medication, they needed to change to. And of course they never did. I soon was diagnosed with Major Depression (One of the worst) and still my parents looked at me the same, a whiney teenager who just was looking for attention. A broken daughter. So I handed my mom this book, at first she looked at it as if I had just handed her a pile of my dog’s crap. “Whats this?” How could I tell her this book held my thoughts, my imput on cutting, and why I do it? I just handed her the book. For weeks it just stayed on her messy bedside table, as if it was meaningless trash, and it was too her. So I asked her again to read and luckily I got her to after hours and hours of pestering her to do so. After she read it she came in and told me she was sorry, the first time she had told me she was sorry. She never said it when she called me a “Emo whore” or when she threatened to “Yank my hair and pull me on the ground then beat my ass” for standing up for my father. But finnaly the two words came from her mouth. She doesn’t fully understand why I cut or how to ‘fix’ me but she has a idea, and I’m hoping that her idea won’t fade, but grow. So I can get better. So I can be fixed. I owe alot to this book, it helped me understand myself
better, it helped me mend a little.
-Holly
5 Stars-I met Julia when she was buying Girl Scout cookies from one of our NYC troops. She told us about the book and I was thinking that I might not like the book, I never really read a book that contained such a serious topic. I could not put the book down. From the first page she captured me. I cried, laughed, I was blown away shocked. As I was reading it was like I was there. As a mother I had no problem sharing this book with my 19 yr old son and 17 yr old daughter, praying that they would know that they can always talk to me about their problems. Guy reminded me a my son’s friend who was going through the same thing. He told me about his situation and I gave him the best motherly advise, but never really understood until I read the book. I truly was awaken to another world that I really didn’t know teens dealt with. I asked my children and they knew all too well about people that cut.
Thank you Julia for your book and I hope that you make a sequel to Willow’s story. I would love to read more about Willow’s story, where she goes from here…
Wow, I clicked on an Add for this book because it looked interesting and of coarse because of the fact that I have the same name as the main character so that really caught my eye.I’v taken the time to read some of the reviews and they all seem VERY positive. I cannot wait to read this book. Even though the Willow in this book and myself seem to be very different, I’m sure i’ll love it anyway. Oh, and even more interesting I happen to know a boy named Guy as well. Haha. Very weird!
- Willow <3
This book was one of the best i have ever read, I wish i knew if she has written other books and where you can get them. I love this book and will read it over and over again. No just to get my friends to read it. One of them is like Willow, but just cuts herself for enjoyment. We all think that it is descusting but she wont stop.
My interest for this book is slowly going away. It’s not very interesting in my own oppinion. I thought I would relate to this book because of the cutting, drug use and other things but I can not find any interest in this book for some odd reason. I wish that this book was more interesting. I’m going to stick with it for a bit though and see if it gets anymore interesting, because it has a very good plot to it, but it’s just hard to get into. Is it just me, or did the begginning of the book bore you as well?
HI Taylor – thanks for your message. Not everyone likes the same books – but as you can see from the comments here this one is well thought of by a lot of people. If I were you I’d stick with it – it’s worth it in the end
With the book Willow by Julia Hoban, i have found that I cannot stop reading it. I can relate to it in a personal way, and I know people who can relate to this book. I lovee this book and I even got my younger sister to read it, and she even loved it, herself. I used to be cutter,,,that is until I met my new best friend. boyfriend. He has always been there for me, and to read Willow just makes me realize that I really had no “real” reason to cut…i was mostly to just hide my emotions, but I soon found out (through Chandler) that to hide my emotions only makes me seem weaker, than stronger, all because the emotional pain that we feel makes you stronger than the physical pain that we inflict upon ourselves to erase the emotional pain. Do you understand what I am saying? But let;s just say that after reading Willow and meeting Chandler I stopped cutting… (:
i loved his book…somehow its so moving and reading it just feels like a personal experience..i loved all the characters and i love the way that is realistic to a point…and one fact that i coudn’t ignore was there is no physical description or how anyone looked of any of the characters for that matter unlike all other books and that really was refreshing!
i love this book so far im 12 and i have a very high reading level and comprehension level this book is amazing and very touching i hope to finish it by this thursday for my book project, i just really want to know if guy nd willow start dating
I loved this book! The characters were not only amazing but i could relate to both willow and guy. I had a friend in the seventh grade who used to cut herself. Id thought it was gross and sick and id tried to talk her out of it, not that it helped too much. Then one day i got into a really bad fight with my mom and she kicked me out of the house. I had to go stay with my grandmother for a few days. I was sitting on the bed at her house crying nd i remember feeling that maybe if i just died at least my mom could be happy nd i wouldnt get blamed for the root of all her problems. im not quite sure when i started but all of sudden i realized that i was scrathing myself really hard but even though i was bleeding i felt better. I had grabbed a mechanical pencil nd started stabbing myself with it and even though it had hurt like hell, i felt better. It was winter so i had a great excuse for wearing long sleeves. Anyways, willow was a great book. Im sure that most who read it will love it and come to understand cutters a bit more nd realize that just because we cut doesnt mean we want to die. Thank you julia hoban for writing this book. It has now become my all-time favorite!