This is one of those rare books that will make you laugh out loud on one page and bring you to tears on the next. First of all, Brett’s adoptive mother has cancer. His main coping strategy becomes late night “drunk drive-thruing”, where he gets a bit drunk and then calls a rideshare to take him through all the fast food joints in town. While his size is increasing, so is his anxiety. At the urging of the school counselor, Brett begins keeping a food journal. When a portion of his journal is anonymously posted online, the whole school finds out about his struggles with binge eating and grief. I can’t even imagine having my journal pages revealed, especially ones that are so personal.
One of the special things about this book is how interesting Brett is as a character. He is wildly inventive and funny, and has even created a whole cast of comic book characters. He is also struggling. Sometimes I wanted to hug him, sometimes I wanted to yell at him, and sometimes I just wished I could hang out with him. Unsurprisingly, his best friend Reed often feels the same way. One of the things I loved most about this book was the relationship between Brett and Reed. It's not perfect, but there is this absolutely beautiful male friendship/brotherhood where they are actually vulnerable with each other and help each other and fight and play and talk. And I loved that for them. Secondary characters (wait until you meet Mallory, because she rocks) are so well drawn it really added to the whole experience, and provided a lot of moments of levity within a deeper storyline.
This can be a pretty tough read, whether or not you personally find it triggering. I would say that for most people, myself included, the journey is worth it. If you are interested in reading a book about a boy who is really going through it (grief, disordered eating, substance abuse, growing up in general) then you should definitely pick this one up. It was also a finalist for the National Book Award this year, so you know it’s not just me who thought it was a great read! The writing is fantastic, and you can tell the author put a lot of his heart into this book, especially the wonderful and flawed character that is Brett.
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