Books like Cut by Patricia McCormick

A Little Life follows four college friends in New York as they confront trauma, love and the enduring scars of their pasts, weaving themes of friendship, family, and identity into a profound coming‑of‑age story.

The Bell Jar is the sole novel by Sylvia Plath, a psychologically intense and autobiographical look at a young woman’s decline into mental illness.

Eighteen‑year‑old Susanna Kaysen is admitted to McLean Hospital in 1967, where she documents life in the psychiatric ward, exploring mental illness, recovery, and the cultural landscape of the late 1960s.

Bianca discovers she is the "DUFF"—the designated friend of the friend—in her high‑school circle, forcing her to confront her identity, confidence, and the pressures of social status.

xxxv, 338 pages ; 21 cm

A powerful verse novel follows five teenagers who, after being forced into sexual slavery, confront the abuse and scars that threaten to destroy their lives and their families.

Valley’s senior year is shattered after a violent school shooting tied to a hateful list she helped create. Haunted by guilt and family drama, she strives to heal and make amends while navigating friendships and the victim she saved.

A young adult novel by Walter Dean Myers that tackles the real‑world issues of school violence, bullying, and family strain, offering a sober look at the emotional challenges faced by teens in a high‑school setting.

A 13‑year‑old boy grapples with his family's sudden wealth, evolving sexual curiosity, a friend’s shoplifting, and worsening stomach pains during adolescence.

Two girls in different centuries connect when a lost diary from Revolutionary France surfaces in Paris, revealing how music, grief, and family bonds transcend time.

From Kay Redfield Jamison - an international authority on manic-depressive illness, and one of the few women who are full professors of medicine at American universities - a remarkable personal testimony: the revelation of her own struggle since adolescence with manic-depression, and how it has shaped her life. Vividly, directly, with candor, wit, and simplicity, she takes us into the fascinating and dangerous territory of this form of madness - a world in which one pole can be the alluring dark land ruled by what Byron called the "melancholy star of the imagination," and the other a desert of depression and, all too frequently, death. A moving and exhilarating memoir by a woman whose furious determination to learn the enemy, to use her gifts of intellect to make a difference, led her to become, by the time she was forty, a world authority on manic-depression, and whose work has helped save countless lives.

Evelyn's teenage pregnancy sets the stage for a dramatic family drama with consequences that ripple through her life.

At seventeen, Kia struggles with her mother’s cancer and feels alienated until the goth‑vampire club offers her belonging and an unexpected romance.

The emotional turmoil of a teenage girl forced to keep a horrific secret keeps her isolated from friends and herself, while she obsesses about weight loss and longs for friendship with her boyfriend, Corey 'The Living Stoner', who leads a double life as a stoner and a vegetarian vegan.

Four teens are sent to a Caribbean resort called Paradise, where unexpected encounters shift their lives: romance sparks for Jena, revelations for Dakota, a truth about identity for Skye, and a leap of faith for Owen; together, they learn confidence and change.

A socially awkward teenager who has endured trauma and a parental divorce moves to a new high school, where he uses diary entries to confront and reinvent himself amid complex family dynamics and adolescent relationships.

After the sudden death of his younger sister, Marc's life unravels as his parents divorce, his mother is manipulated by a predatory insurance agent, and he is enrolled in a camp for socially challenged teens.

When I was young, my mother read me a story about a wicked little girl. She read it to me and my two sisters. We sat curled against her on the couch and she read from the book on her lap. The lamp shone on us and there was a blanket over us. The girl in the story was beautiful and cruel. Because her mother was poor, she sent her daughter to work for rich people, who spoiled and petted her. The rich people told her she had to visit her mother. But the girl felt she was too good and went merely to show herself. One day, the rich people sent her home with a loaf of bread for her mother. But when the little girl came to a muddy bog, rather than ruin her shoes, she threw down the bread and stepped on it. It sank into the bog and she sank with it. She sank into a world of demons and deformed creatures. Because she was beautiful, the demon queen made her into a statue as a gift for her great-grandson. The girl was covered in snakes and slime and surrounded by the hate of every creature trapped like she was. She was starving but couldn't eat the bread still welded to her feet. She could hear what people were saying about her; a boy passing by saw what had happened to her and told everyone, and they all said she deserved it. Even her mother said she deserved it. The girl couldn't move, but if she could have, she would've twisted with rage. "It isn't fair!" cried my mother, and her voice mocked the wicked girl.

“Wintergirls” follows Lia, a teenage girl battling anorexia after the death of her best friend Cassie, as her internal voice pushes her to stay strong, lose weight, and control her life.

Straight‑A student in a family of free‑spirited artists must confront hard truths about those she loves most.