Skin Game - by Caroline Kettlewell (Paperback)

About the Book

As a young girl, Kettlewell discovered that the only way to find relief from overpowering feelings of self-consciousness and alienation was to physically harm herself. She has become the first person to tell her own story in a book about living with and overcoming the disorder known as cutting.

Book Synopsis

Caroline Kettlewell's autobiography reveals a girl whose feelings of pain and alienation led her to seek relief in physically hurting herself, from age twelve into her twenties. Skin Game employs clear language and candid reflection to grant general readers as well as students an uncensored profile of a complex and unsettling disorder. "[This] mesmeric memoir examines the obsession with cutting that is believed to afflict somewhere around two million Americans, nearly all of them female," Francine Prose noted in Elle. "[Kettlewell's] language soars and its intensity deepens whenever she is recalling the lost joys and the thrilling sensation of sharp steel against her tender skin."

Review Quotes

"Superbly articulated . . . on par with Autobiography of a Face or Girl, Interrupted." --The Washington Post Book World

"Told with unflinching honesty . . . A sobering, deeply perceptive look at a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly discussed, one all the more troubling for its secret, solitary perpetration." --Cleveland Plain Dealer

"A surprisingly warm and lyrical evocation of an incredibly complex struggle for survival." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Kettlewell has a well-developed sense of humor and irony . . . A gifted writer." --Richmond Times-Dispatch

"Skillful and engaging . . . Like a good novel, leaves the reader wanting to know more." --Chicago Tribune

About the Author

Caroline Kettlewell graduated from Williams College and hold a master's degree in writing from George Mason University. She and her husband live with their son in Virginia.