This one was a DNF for me. I will not be posting a review of it but thank you for sending. it just wasn't for me. Thank you again for the copy

#22scars #NetGalley


Hard-hitting, book about depression and other things.

Not for the faint of heart.

As a person who has bouts of depression I was surprised to experience many triggers.

Overall a thought provoking read, but I feel it needs trigger warnings in much of the book.

Thanks NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review

I was not a fan of how 22 Scars presented to the subject matter of this bool. I think it needed to go through more edits and sensitivity readers. Also, this cover choice could be extremely triggering for many readers.

This deals with depression and mental health. I would recommend for mature young adults due to some content not appropriate for younger readers.

This was an honest, brutal look at the consequences of depression mixed with abuse of various sorts in the life of a child/young adult. What begins as a form of comfort soon escalates into a way of getting back at the world. When the main character meets someone she thinks can change her life, the reader begins to have hope for her. Yet that hope is drastically taken from us with a shocking twist at the end. 3.5🌟

22 Scars is a book about a woman who struggles through her emotions everyday. This book takes us on a journey of depression, domestic violence and self harm through the events in her life and her parents.

It has a slow and descriptive beginning but delves deeper gradually through her character.
This book is written in a cold detached version to signify the way Amy regards her own life. It shows the ugly truth of living with a mental Illness instead of glamorizing it. '22 Scars' not only talks about mental illness, but it shows how it gradually develops from a seed to a full fledged monster. The only thing i didn't like was the different perspectives which makes it rather tedious and confusing.
My rating : 3/5

I really want to be able to give a review for this book, but despite numerous attempts to download the ARC to multiple devices/computers, I've never actually been able to get it to work. :( . I may eventually go ahead and purchase it, at which point I will come back and give it a proper review.

I never got around to reading this book because at the time the subject matter was a little rough. I have a whole book shelf on self-harm, addiction, depression, and anxiety. Reading has always helped me understand myself better but I'm also a mood reader. I have to mentally be prepared for a such as strong subject matter. I thought I was when I requested 22 Scars but I wasn't then and currently still not. I still hope to get to it eventually. My main complaint with this book since I've yet to read it, is that the cover is extremely triggering. Maybe change it to something a little different?

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read 22 Scars.

I keep stories about mental health close to my heart as it’s something I’ve gone through myself. I thought this book was fantastic at portraying mental health well, with the least amount of stigma and judgement.

The writing was lyrical and beautiful and I was able to get into Amy’s head. She reminded me of when I used to be a teenager and I connected with her.

One thing I will point out is it could be quite triggering. I do however think it’s important to show every aspect of a mental illness so people know what it’s like for the sufferers. Because of this I would suggest a small trigger warning at the beginning of the book - so people are aware of them and can choose to avoid the book if it’s going to bring up painful triggers for them.

It felt like a manuscript or an early concept, like the ideas were written but needed to be organized and completed into a book.
I'm learning to accept that sometimes in life we will not get an answer to the question "Why?" And maybe that was the point here; we're not suppose to know what happened we just need to accept it. But, unfortunately, because of that I never cared about any of the characters we never really get to know any of them, we're just dropped into the story and expected to keep up. I feel like it was suppose to be a mystery, like, we're suppose to stick around because we want to find out and we do find out in the end but by then it feels like too little too late. Plus there were many times I did not see myself making it to the end so I might never have found out myself.

This was a novel which dealt with some very serious issues and fortunately did so in a sensitive manner. It was cautious, engaging, informative and the characters were very intriguing to read about. I enjoyed my time reading this, although it was about a very dark subject.

Trigger Warnings Galore but soooo worth the read.

Very real and raw writting. Depression and mental health issues described in an honest and brutal way. This is a great read if you can handle it.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. A definite tear jerker. I would recommend for mature young adults due to some content not appropriate for younger readers.

This book relies very heavily on dialogue, which makes it hard to read. It's also less interesting, because there are no descriptions - and sometimes details are important..

The characters are very cliche. Just for once it would be lovely to read about someone who self-harms who doesn't dress all in black and wear boots. If it was that easy to spot then it would be easy to identify who needs support - but self harm is a secretive thing, so people aren't that obvious.

In places, this reads almost like a "how-to" book. I realise this might sound contradictory compared to my first point, but it's just that where there are details, they're the wrong details. The book never has a description of a room, but it does have a detailed description of exactly what to use to self-harm and where to do so.

Mental illness is prevalent in teenagers and this book shed light on that. I work in a school with troubled youth and have seen first hand the devastating cycle of self-harm. Even though this book was a work of fiction, I feel that it definitely captured how this pattern occurs. Hopefully this becomes a bestseller because it is entertaining and informative.

DNF: 12%

The premise had potential to be a great story, but I could not continue on with the novel. However, I do feel as if I need to address the issues I found with the book. First, I understand if the author's intentions were to raise awareness for depression and self-harm, but such topics should be handled more sensitively. The cover alone could be enough to trigger someone who might be struggling with self-harm.
To add on, as someone who has dealt with self-harm and has found better alternatives to cope with the urge, I found some scenes to be very triggering due to how graphic they are described. Yes, I went in knowing what I was reading about, but I never expected it to be quite detailed.It has potential for greatness, but I could not continue.
Would not recommend to people who are also dealing with mental issues or self-harm.

This book deserves 5 stars for originality alone.

I initially requested it through NetGalley but their file didn't work, and after reading the Amazon Sample I actually bought the Kindle version. It's that good!

It reads a lot like The New Yorker for YA actually. And the depression is approached internally not only externally on the screen - as in, while you're reading, you're pretty much feeling as confused and disoriented and unsure of anything as Amy herself.

Many will scorn that. I think in today's literary world of too many similar books, that's sheer brilliance.

The writing style is raw and frank, and authentic. And I am literally DYING to read anything else by this author.

If you're a reader tired of predicting exactly what happens or where the book goes - this book is a whole new joyride for you.

Thank you NetGalley for connecting me to this author.

Suffering from mental illness myself and working with clients with mental illness I can definately relate to Amy. Very dark book. It was tough to read at times but I liked it.

NOTE: This book could be a possible trigger for people suffering from mental illness

I really wanted to like this book, but sadly, I found it lacking. The story really felt disjointed.Perhaps that was on purpose, due to the topic. Some parts were overly detailed, while others were sorely lacking. The ending was a bit predictable. Characters weren't all that likable. Diary entries were interesting, and I wish they had been a larger part of the story. A bit confusing to follow overall.

The formatting was off, so there were numerous errors that,hopefully, aren't in the final version. It made it awkward to read.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley, but I wasn't required to leave a positive review.

Upon seeing 22 Scars on NetGalley and VRO, I was really interested in seeing what this author would do with a story regarding such an emotional and sensitive subject like depression, self-harm, and more. Having been a victim of both depression and self-harm, I requested it in hopes to find a book that will help open up people's eyes to the mental illness while providing an emotional story.

This book didn't live up to my expectations. I've been telling myself a lot recently that I should stop expecting anything from the books I read so that I can't be disappointed, but I always fail to do that.

I got my copy off NetGalley and the version I received was riddled with weird formatting issues that turned quotation marks into a cluster of symbols which made it extremely hard to read and determine what was dialogue. Maybe that's the main reason I couldn't truly finish it (I mostly skimmed the rest because my eyes and brain hurt from trying to decipher the poor formatting job).

Anyway, let's get on to the actual story. I first want to touch upon the fact that it seemed like two different people wrote this. Some sentences flowed well, while others were broken up into tiny sentences when they could have been drawn out. I hate tiny sentences. It's so hard to read. It also makes me really annoyed. Do you see where I'm going with this? A previous book I read did this and I absolutely could not stand it.

The scenes moved back and forth, and it made it so hard to follow who we were supposed to be following. One moment, I'm reading Amy's story, the next, it's a couple getting married? What? Look, I see that it was an attempt at doing multiple perspectives to, in the end, connect the two, but it wasn't well done. Most good books with multiple perspectives tend to make it easy to tell what's what, but this just left me confused, irritated, and ready to just stop reading.

I tried not to DNF. I tried to keep going, I really did. I feel so bad leaving this review because of all the shining reviews left by other people. Maybe it was solely the corrupted formatting issue. Maybe I'll go back when/if I decide to get the published Kindle copy. With the format issue combined with the feel that it was written by two different people and the bad multiple perspectives, I just couldn't bring myself to finish. I'm sorry. Unfortunately, for now, this is my review.