The Deepest Cut
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of
AccentYA (released 24th May 2016)
Adam
blames himself for his best friend’s death. After attempting suicide, he is put
in the care of a mental health facility. There, too traumatized to speak, he
begins to write notebooks detailing the events leading up to Jake’s murder,
trying to understand who is really responsible and cope with how needless it
was as a petty argument spiralled out of control and peer pressure took hold.
Now, before I start this review, I have one piece of
advice if you’re planning on reading this book: stock up on tissues. Not just
one, a box. I did a post a few weeks ago about struggling to connect with male
protagonists and how rare it is I find a male lead that I can relate to. This
was not the case with Adam. I think it may be because I felt I had such a lot
in common with Adam and this book was centred a lot on mental health, which I
have had trouble with. I think there’s a lot to be said about connecting to a
character on an emotional level and Natalie Flynn does this beautifully.
The
Deepest Cut is written from Adam’s point of view. The book starts
and he explains to the reader he attempted to overdose and his
friend/girlfriend Polly found him on the floor, just in time. Adam wishes she
hadn’t. He wishes he was dead. He is so overcome with guilt about “murdering”
his best friend, he feels like he can’t go on any longer. He was brought up in
a dysfunctional family and was always with his best friend Jake and felt closer
to Jake’s mother than his own family.
Adam gets admitted into a mental health facility and
is told by his counsellor to attempt to write the events of what happened the
night Jake died. Even as I started the book, I knew that Adam was a good person. No one feels remorse this deep
without being a decent person. He is constantly telling himself, “what if I’d
done this?”, “what if I’d done that?” and that is enough to drive anyone to
their breaking point, especially if you believe that if you’d done those “what
if’s?” your best friend would still be alive.
He meets Josie in the mental home. Josie feels like
she can help Adam out of this dark place and tries to be his friend. Adam is
reluctant, all he wants is the pain to disappear and he feels the only way he
can do this is by killing himself.
Reluctantly, Adam begins using his notebook to write
down his feelings. As the events of that night unfold in Adam’s notebook, each
page feels like a weight is being lifted from Adam’s shoulders and the guilt
that is holding him down in this dark place is getting lighter. As he starts to
find himself, you will feel your heart break into little pieces.
Will he have the breakthrough he needs or will the
guilt be too much for him to live with?
This book is such a compelling read; I finished it in
just under two hours because I just couldn’t put it down. It reminded me of E.
Lockhart’s We Were Liars; mainly
because you’re waiting the entire book for some kind of light on what has happened
and how his best friend died and when you do find out…it’s something you were least expecting.
If you’ve ever suffered with mental health issues, get
ready to adore this book even more, because it’s one of the most relatable
books I’ve ever read and portrays the feelings in such an honest way. I loved
this book and would recommend it to all of you.
PS. The author Natalie Flynn is bloody lovely so go
and follow her: @natwritesstuff
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