This single-focus anorexia novel includes the contemporary element of "pro-ana" Internet influence. In a clinic, Maddie writes out her memories, from kindergarten through a rocky puberty and to the present, interspersing them with current days in "prison." She finds treatment tedious and irrelevant; she thinks she's fine and her parents have been duped. Her dulled-down diction sounds younger than her age (17). Maddie's an unreliable narrator with severe body dysmorphia, in profound denial. Despite her obvious narrative untrustworthiness, however, librarians and teachers should be aware of some potential "triggers" herein, including calorie counts, purging tips and numbers of pounds lost. By the end, Maddie only begins to acknowledge she might have a problem. Website thinandbeautiful.com, where friends encourage starving and purging, was Maddie's most blatant enabler pre-treatment, but Shaw shows Maddie's points of vulnerability for years before that, making the pro-ana-Internet impact less key than the title implies. The plain narrative voice sounds like it could have been written by any average teen, making this a realistic-feeling read, if not a particularly artistic one. (Fiction. 13-16)
Seventeen-year-old Maddie has always felt a hole in her life, but she has finally found a way to fill it with her quest to mold her body into her ideal, thinnest shape. When she comes across the world of “thinspiration” websites, where young people encourage each other in their mission to lose weight, she quickly becomes addicted. Finally, she has found a place where she is understood and where she can belong.
Maddie becomes a part of a group of friends who call themselves the GWS, “Girls Without Shadows,” on the pro-anorexia website thinandbeautiful.com. Here she finds the respect and support she feels she doesn't get from her family and friends in the so-called real world. Now in a rehab facility where they are trying to fix a problem she doesn't think she has, Maddie is forced to keep a diary tracing how she arrived at this point. Angry that she is barred from accessing her online friends, Maddie refuses to believe she needs help. Will a tragedy change her mind?
Join the conversation about eating disorders by visiting www.thinandbeautiful.com
Seventeen-year-old Maddie has always felt a hole in her life, but she has finally found a way to fill it with her quest to mold her body into her ideal, thinnest shape. When she comes across the world of “thinspiration” websites, where young people encourage each other in their mission to lose weight, she quickly becomes addicted. Finally, she has found a place where she is understood and where she can belong.
Maddie becomes a part of a group of friends who call themselves the GWS, “Girls Without Shadows,” on the pro-anorexia website thinandbeautiful.com. Here she finds the respect and support she feels she doesn't get from her family and friends in the so-called real world. Now in a rehab facility where they are trying to fix a problem she doesn't think she has, Maddie is forced to keep a diary tracing how she arrived at this point. Angry that she is barred from accessing her online friends, Maddie refuses to believe she needs help. Will a tragedy change her mind?
Join the conversation about eating disorders by visiting www.thinandbeautiful.com
