Willow (2009) (edit title/settings)

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Characters edit see section history

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• Willow: Willow is the main character who has lost both her parents in an accident. She causes harm to herself which she claims gives her the best feeling ever.
• David: Willow's brother.
• Laurie: boyfriend is Adrian and she is chloes friend
• Isabelle: David and Cathy's daughter, named after Willow and David's mother
• Cathy: David's wife, Willow's sister-in-law.
• Vicki: A clueless girl in the physics lab who accidently insults Willow. Willow still takes the blame for what she does though.
• Andy: Add a description of this character.
• Guy: Guy catches Willow cutting, and is determined to stop her.
• Adrian: Laurie's boyfriend
• Chloe: Laurie's best friend. She isn't sure if she should date Andy or not
• Carlos: A nice college student who works at the library with Willow
• Stephen: David's friend
• Claudia: a girl at Willow's school
• willow: a girl that feels guilty for killing her parents so she starts to cut herself.
• Markie: Willow's old best friend
• Ms. Benson: Willow's french teacher

Quotes edit see section history

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• “"When you found me out, you thought that I wanted to kill myself, that all this slashing was like target practice until I got up enough courage for the real thing. You don't understand at all. You just don't get it. I'm saving myself."”

  Willow

• “"Go on. Tell me, if i go, then what?" Guy says once again. There are many answers that Willow can give to this question. She can tell him that if he goes she might be better off. She won't be afraid of experiencing the things that so overwhelmed her in the stacks, that are starting to overwhelm her even as she sits there with him now. She won't worry that there is someone who is intent on weaning her off of her extracurricular activities. She won't have to worry about protecting someone else's feelings. But she will have no one to talk to, no one who knows her, no one who understands. Willow looks at him, and the only answer that she can give, the truest answer is simply: "If you go, then I'll miss you...terribly."”

  Guy, Willow

• “If she let herself, she’d drown in a world of pain. But she can’t let that happen, she simply wouldn’t be able to handle it, not that kind of pain. Thankfully she knows how to prevent such a thing.”

• “You couldn’t really say that something that hurts so badly feels good exactly. It’s more that it just feels right. And something that feels so right just couldn’t be bad. It has to be good.”

• “First coffee, then a movie. Then a few more walks in the park. Willow knows how this kind of thing works. Then feelings. Just the thought of it makes her flesh crawl. She’s done with feelings. She doesn’t ever want to feel anything again.”

• “She stares down at her arms for a moment. If someone were to look carefully, the angry red marks underneath the fine cotton of her blouse would be clearly visible. But nobody ever does look carefully.”

• “She doesn’t understand that Willow, who used to be so concerned with what she wore, now selects her outfits with one criterion only: Will her clothes cover her scars?”

• “Why is it that people only ask if somebody is all right when it’s obvious that they aren’t?”

• “Willow knows that she has forfeited the right to be called normal, but still, she hates to think that he might consider her . . . crazy or something.”

• “And then, just when I thought that I had no control over what was about to happen, I realized two things. The first is that the emotional pain was going away, it was leaving, it wasn’t going to consume me, and the second was that I was stabbing myself, really attacking myself with the screwdriver, and that the physical pain that I was causing was better than the best drug the hospital had. It was just forcing everything else out. This pain, this physical pain, was flowing through my veins like heroin, and I was numb, immune to the rest of it, I couldn’t feel anything but the pain, and I knew that I had found a way to save myself.”

  Willow

• “Willow doesn’t flinch as she presses the blade into her flesh. She stares at Guy, aware that although she is fully clothed, she is completely bare before him. It hurts. It hurts badly, and within seconds the pain is swirling through her like an opiate, completely crowding out everything else.”

• “Maybe her first instincts were right, maybe she has room for only one relationship. Too bad that relationship just happens to be with a sharp piece of metal.”

• “How wonderful that she should affect him so strongly, how awful that it should be in that way. She can’t help thinking that almost any other reaction would be preferable, and that it is her own fault that when he looks at her he doesn’t just see a girl, he sees a cutter. She rolls up her left sleeve and examines her cuts, really looks at them the way she might if she were alone, tries to see them the way that she imagines he does. There’s no denying that they’re hideous. It’s very clear why he told her they were ugly that day in the stacks. That shouldn’t matter. Her cuts serve a purpose and that purpose is independent of such trivial considerations. She knows this as deeply as she has ever known anything. But still, for a moment she wishes that they looked different, that they did look like the kind of scratches a cat might make.”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• You couldn’t really say that something that hurts so badly feels good exactly. It’s more that it just feels right. And something that feels so right just couldn’t be bad. It has to be good.

  Highlighted by 113 Kindle customers

• I’ll never really do anything or think anything special. And even if it all looks good on the surface, I’ll know I’ve failed, and not at something unimportant like school, but at life.”

  Highlighted by 84 Kindle customers

• “I guess what scares me the most now is the thought that I won’t be able to protect you.”

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• It was like there was this extraordinary pain just knocking at the door of my consciousness—this overwhelming, extreme sensation, and I knew that if I let it in, I would go under.

  Highlighted by 63 Kindle customers

• “I’ve taught myself, I’ve trained myself, not to feel anything exceptphysical pain. I’m completely in control of that.

  Highlighted by 61 Kindle customers

• If someone were to look carefully, the angry red marks underneath the fine cotton of her blouse would be clearly visible. But nobody ever does look carefully.

  Highlighted by 56 Kindle customers

• “Well, wait a sec.” Willow tugs on his sleeve. “What’s so girlish about it here?” “Describe your napkin.” “Pink linen with violets embroidered on it.” Willow shrugs. “Right. Okay, let’s go.”

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• Well, sometimes I worry that my whole life will be based around what’s comfortable and easy. I’ll care too much about what makes me feel good to ever really reach for anything. And then I worry that even if I do, I won’t succeed.”

  Highlighted by 54 Kindle customers

• “I just figured out why someone would want to make the first mirror.” Willow blinks in surprise. That is not what she was expecting to hear. “Why?” “I think some lover wanted his beloved to see how she appeared to him. He wanted her to be able to see herself the way that he did.”

  Highlighted by 49 Kindle customers

• It was just forcing everything else out. This pain, this physicalpain, was flowing through my veins like heroin, and I was numb, immune to the rest of it, I couldn’t feel anything but the pain, and I knew that I had found a way to save myself.

  Highlighted by 45 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Tempest

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Series & Lists edit see section history

List the series to which this book belongs.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Julia Hoban (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Notes for Parents edit see section history

One sex scene, some mild violence(description of cutting). Wouldn't reccomend for younger readers.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Teens › Literature & Fiction › Love & Romance
• Books › Teens › Social Issues
• Books › Teens › Health, Mind & Body › Depression
• Books › Teens › Health, Mind & Body › Self-Esteem
• Books › Teens › Health, Mind & Body › Mental Health
• Books › Teens › Social Issues › Being a Teen

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