I enjoyed 'Willow'. I thought the book was well written, interesting, powerful, moving.

That said, I have one big problem with 'Willow'. Throughout the book Hoban is unflinching in her description of emotional and physical wounds. She has a strong and compelling voice. However, when it gets to the scene of the first time Willow has sex both characters and author get tongue-tied. Hoban cannot bring herself to write the word condom, so the characters repeatedly refer to it as "something." And when the characters get to the pleasure (emotional as well as physical) Hoban quickly states that pleasure feels better than pain, ends the chapter, and cuts to another place and time entirely.

I'm disappointed that Hoban was unable to follow through on the emotional honesty that she unwaveringly provides for the rest of the book. I feel that without Willow's pleasure being addressed the book is in many ways still incomplete. Hoban presents a one-sided picture, giving us the details of Willow's negative feelings, but not going into the positive feelings that Willow embraces toward the end of the book.

On a stormy night, Willow takes the wheel and her whole life is forever changed. Both her parents are killed in the accident and Willow has to move in with her older brother, his wife and their young daughter. She feels the weight of the world is on her shoulders - she's emotionally overwrought, heavily grieving and feels guilt towards her part in the accident. To top it off, she also feels that her brother secretly blames her for their parents’ death and no longer loves her.

She finds that the only way to relieve herself when her emotions just become too much is to "cut" herself with a razor. But she is eventually found out by a classmate named Guy. Although Guy promises not to tell on her - he also can't just walk away from her. Instead he tries to get closer to her to find out what leads a person to hurt themself in such a way and to try to help her out of the dark place she's in.

This is the first time that I read about "cutting" in such detail and although a bit on the descriptive side, it was not overdone or gory. On the other hand, Willow's pain is so real that you can actually understand why she would feel the urge to cut herself... even if you don't actually agree with it, you almost feel as if it is acceptable. It's as if her pain will consume her if she does not find an outlet to let it out. From the moment you start reading this book you become so emotionally attached to these characters (i.e. Willow; her brother, David; Guy) that you fly through the pages just to see what happens. If they can forgive each other? If they can forgive themselves?

The book is written in the third person, and I really commend Ms. Hoban for having written it this way. It somewhat gives you a detached feeling but at the same time you feel as if you are looking at Willow and Guy from above. Catching a glimpse into a painful part of a young woman's life.

This novel is not just about cutting - it is about love, hope and forgiveness. Although it touches on such a heavy subject, it is not overwhelming, instead it is told in a very unique and graceful voice.

Willow is a beautiful story, compellingly told and is by far one of the best YA novels I've read in quite some time. It is a very powerful piece that I highly recommend to older teens as well as adults. ( )

Poor Willow – she feels like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders. Both of her parents died in a car accident when she was sixteen and now she lives with her brother, sister-in-law and baby niece. Their apartment is small and cramped, money is tight and Willow feels like she’s in the way.

When Willow moved in with her brother, she had to transfer schools and she feels like she doesn’t fit in there either. She thinks everyone knows all about her, and she doesn’t want their pity. Academics aren’t going so well either since Willow’s mind is always somewhere else.

How does a seventeen year old high school student cope with all of that? Willow cuts herself because

"She has so conditioned herself to transmute emotional pain into the physical realm, that without the razor to blunt her feelings, her body is responding the best way it possibly can. She is literally making herself sick."

(This is revealed very early in the book, so it’s not a spoiler.) Cutting becomes so important to Willow at times it seems like it’s all she can think about. She’s an expert at hiding her scars and her supplies. She says,

"I’ve taught myself, I’ve trained myself, not to feel anything except physical pain. I’m completely in control of that."

When I first read about Willow by Julia Hoban on Presenting Lenore, I knew I had to read it and ordered it right away since none of our local stores carried it. It got buried by other books, and then Alea raved over it and I told myself I should read it soon. I got caught up with something else and didn’t get to it. Candace’s review finally made me put it at the top of the TBR pile and I’m glad it did. I really enjoyed this book and its fictional peek into the life and mind of a cutter. The character development in Willow is fantastic! I really cared about Willow and hoped she would speak up as I read this book. Willow’s thinking is flawed at times, but if you can remember your teen years at all, you can totally relate to it. I did feel like things were wrapped up a little too neatly and easily by the end of the book, but it really didn’t distract from the story. ( )

Reviewed by Lauren Ashley for TeensReadToo.com

Willow had a learner's permit. Her parents drank too much wine. The storm was bad. After the accident, Willow is left an orphan, living with her brother, David, his wife, Cathy, and their daughter, Isabelle.

Unable to deal with the intense grief, Willow finds her outlet in a razor. This secret tool helps her handle the pain and keep from being overwhelmed by the fact that she believes her brother no longer loves her and her parents will always be gone.

However, a fellow student at her school, Guy, comes to learn her secret. He promises not to tell anyone else, but he can't walk away and believe she'll be fine. Instead, he stays and takes Willow's pain on, trying to understand and working to heal this girl he is beginning to love.

WILLOW by Julia Hoban is an intense read, but it's not suffocating. Willow has her ups and downs, her problems, her fears. She's like every other person in the world, except her pain threatens to consume her whole if she doesn't get help. This book is about more than Willow's past, though. It's about her future and what will come of her newfound friendship with Guy.

Two lives have been interconnected. Willow needs Guy, but Guy needs Willow, as well. They help each other, they open up to each other, they begin to trust and complete each other.

WILLOW deals with painful topics, and can be hard to read at times, but it's also a very powerful story that is sure to resonate with most who pick it up. I would definitely recommend this one. ( )

I’ve been trying to get my hands on this book for such a long time, and with all of the positive buzz going around on this book, I had a feeling I wouldn’t regret buying it. And I most definitely didn’t. Willow was probably one of the most gut-wrenchingly sad, yet heart-warningly beautiful books I have ever read. Ever.

I’ve had friends who cut before, so I felt myself sympathizing with Guy a lot. Guy has just earned himself a permanent spot on my favorite fictional character list. He was so real, yet one of those guys that only come around once in a lifetime. He dealt with Willow’s problems magnificently, but there were times in which he’d become overwhelmingly angry, which I loved. It’s not an easy issue to deal with, especially if it’s happening to somebody you care about, and frustration is only natural.

I was also saddened by Willow and David’s relationship, but I went through the same waves of emotions that Julia Hoban wrote for her characters. As I read, I went from agreeing with Willow, to scoffing and awing at something David did or said, to wanting to cry when the two finally blew up. The ending didn’t leave you satisfied in knowing that the two were back on regular terms, probably because they never would be. It still left you with a little bit of hope, though.

But the ending was perfect. It wasn’t a story that fast forwarded to years in the future, displaying the change between characters and resolved issues. It was a step in the right direction for Willow, and then an ending, which I loved very much.

I would probably give this a million stars if I could. It was so raw, and real, and I found myself stopping after chapters just to make the story last at least one more day, because I didn’t want it to end. I recommend it to everybody. I absolutely fell in love with it, and I’m almost certain you will too. ( )