Skinny Review

Skinny
by Donna Cooner
Genre: YA Contemporary
Format: Paperback YA
Midnight Minute: A look at gastric bypass surgery and teen struggles with weight.
From Goodreads:

 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.

Midnight Thoughts:

~Ever's inner voice is a wench!
~Hey, my inner voice sounds a lot like Ever's most of the time!
~As you read this book you begin to realize that we ALL have that nasty inner voice, which I think is a very important revelation to young girls and boys- to know that everyone, no matter how things look on the outside, are struggling with something on the inside.
~I'm not sure why the Cinderella feel to the book was necessary because it doesn't really go anywhere, and I'm not entirely sure that comparing major weight loss surgery while still a teen is a Cinderella moment...
~Ever is not a very nice girl in the beginning!  Which is a welcome change, because usually a YA main character is Super Nice, and if they are overweight it's usually just a few pounds and somehow boys never notice it.  Being overweight does not mean automatically that someone's personality is jovial or humorous, and I'm glad Cooner gave Ever other issues than just being morbidly obese.
~The author does a great job presenting all the dangers and issues that come up with major weight loss surgery.  It is not magic, it requires a lot of work, and often time fails in the long term.  Also, I thought Cooner showed that there is a risk that the surgery can go horribly, and deadly, wrong.
~BUT, although Ever has to deal with some of the more unpleasant side effects of the surgery, I felt that it wasn't as realistic that she'd be okay with the social affecting aspects of the surgery- such as eating out, and it never mentions that alcohol is not going to be something she can guzzle when she hits 21 (or senior year of high school).  And she doesn't go through much counseling pre-surgery, which I found to be very unrealistic.
~This is a short book, and an easy read (maybe not a comfortable read, but a quick one) and while a lot of issues Ever has are tied up, everything isn't completely perfect.  Nor should it be.
~The kids that Rat and Ever help at the community center are so freaking cute that you will want to pull them out of the pages and squeeze their cheeks.  Fortunately for them, I do not have super powers to make this happen like in Inkspell. 
~Of course, Ever has an amazing singing voice, because it can't just be good, she has to have a hidden talent that has been buried by layers of fat and her hateful inner voice.  I would have preferred if Ever had just been average before and after the weight loss.

Timeless Characters:

Ever- our main character, dealing with weight issues (real ones, she weighs over 300 pounds and doesn't have the usual 10 pounds overweight issue that most YA books think are real problems), dealing with her perfect step-sisters and step-mother, and dealing with the inner voice that is constantly putting her down.
Skinny- Ever's inner voice.  She is fairly evil.
Rat- Ever's best friend.  He's quirky, scientific and a good friend, better than Ever deserves most of the time. I loved Rat!
Briella- Ever's younger step-sister, she kind of serves as the Cherry role from The Outsiders, to show that life is rough all over, Ponyboy, even if you're gorgeous and skinny.  In some ways I liked her better than Ever.  There is also an older step-sister, but she barely counts and stays fairly flat and stereo-typical.

Also Ever's dad, poplar kids and some doctors, but they don't really count.

Midnight Moment:

The HORRIBLE moment in the auditorium.  It's just horrible.  But this kind of stuff happens, because life sucks and high school sucks even more.

Stop The Clock:

Overall, Skinny is a good book.  It has its strength and weaknesses, but it's a very timely subject about an issue that more and more teens are struggling with.  It's nice that a YA book about weight issues isn't about bulimia or anorexia, although those are also important issues, for once, but rather the morbidly obese side of being overweight.  Skinny could have dug a little deeper, ditched the Cinderella aspect and been a bit better. 


Donna Cooner — Website |http://www.donnacooner.com/

Skinny gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

Yes, I'm aware of the irony of the rating!

**Disclaimer- I picked up the ARC at BEA**