Delicate Cutters

by M.E. Purfield

Friends are full of dark secrets that can harm you, but none are more dangerous to you than your own. Your art is special make-up F/X and you love horror movies. These interests don't fly in suburbia. You're an outsider in high school and your family. Except for your best friend Danny. He's also an outsider. He loves horror movies, too. He loves you. You can sense it and it scares you. When Heather moves back into town, she starts up your once longtime friendship from grade school. Heather is beautiful, popular, and confident, and she doesn't say anything bad about your interests; at least when she's sober. Now you're stuck between two worlds, between two people you love who are speeding down a path to self-destruction. Little do they know, you're racing on your own path. Buy Delicate Cutters now to experience the dark humor of teen love and obsession that will shatter your heart.

200 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2013

About the author

M.E. Purfield is the author of the long running and highly rated Miki Radicci series and the sci-noir Blunt Force Kharma series. He has had short stories in Broken Pencil, Unwinnable Magazine, and Norwegian American Weekly. He lives in Jersey City, NJ but you can always find him at www.mepurfield.com

Reviews

[Joshua · Rating 1 out of 5]

First of all, I want to commemorate the author for writing on such a tough issue. I'm sure the subject matter is very hard to write about.
My main problem was the writing style. The story begins in a second-person narrative. It follows a person struggling with self harm. I felt that the Second-person narrative voice was unnecessary, at times it was annoying, I didn't really see why the author felt it needed to be written this way. Towards the end it switches to a first person narrative. I didn't understand why they chose to do that. I suppose the character was going through a transformation, but it felt pointless. The book is supposed to be about self harm, yet this book covers very little about this subject. There was more about the romance with Danny and the drama with her friend Heather. I couldn't see why this character was cutting because the story struggles to create any urgency or raw emotion. The descriptions of the cutting were not graphic or triggering which I appreciate and some of these moments were compelling, but the writing was so dry that I had a difficult time feeling anything at all for this character. There wasn't a definitive character voice and I didn't really understand what she was struggling with other than being unpopular and having family pressures. The whole thing just felt so apathetic for a book about such an intense subject. The descriptions of really big moments such as the car accident at the beginning and the deaths of Danny and his mother, were strangely written and difficult to follow. The moment had already passed before I had a chance to process what had happened so it no longer felt believable. Overall, I didn't feel like this was an entirely accurate depiction of self harm.