Release Date: October 1, 2012
Title: Skinny
Author: Donna Cooner
Pages: 272
Publisher: Scholastic/Point
Available: Barnes and Noble
I got this ARC from BEA 2012
From the Publisher: Find your voice.
Hopeless. Freak. Elephant. Pitiful. These are the words of Skinny, the vicious voice that lives inside fifteen-year-old Ever Davies’s head. Skinny tells Ever all the dark thoughts her classmates have about her. Ever knows she weighs over three hundred pounds, knows she’ll probably never be loved, and Skinny makes sure she never forgets it.
But there is another voice: Ever’s singing voice, which is beautiful but has been silenced by Skinny. Partly in the hopes of trying out for the school musical – and partly to try and save her own life – Ever decides to undergo a risky surgery that may help her lose weight and start over.
With the support of her best friend, Ever begins the uphill battle toward change. But demons, she finds, are not so easy to shake, not even as she sheds pounds. Because Skinny is still around. And Ever will have to confront that voice before she can truly find her own.
Donna Cooner brings warmth, wit, and startling insight to this unforgettable debut.
This ended up being a very difficult book for me to read. In the end, it inspired a blog post that triggered a bout of depression that left me in a funk for days. For a book to have that kind of effect on me, it absolutely deserves a 5.
I turn thirty this year, yet I still see myself in this fifteen year old girl. The way she looks at herself is the way that I look at myself. The way that she pushes away the world is the same way that I push away the world.
Ever is me.
And the thing I learned the most from reading this book is that just because your outside changes doesn’t mean your inside does. And your insides don’t always match your outsides. It sounds like common sense, but this is something that so many young girls – and even young adults – struggle with. It’s always if I can lose 5 more pounds. Or my life will begin once such and such happens.
Ever’s story is about embracing who you are while you strive towards becoming the best you that you can be.
It’s a story every girl should read.
Other Reviews:
I’ve really been looking forward to reading this one, and your review and your story of how it really spoke to you definitely makes me want to read it much sooner.
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