Skinny by Donna Cooner

Skinny by Donna Cooner.
Publisher: Point.
Pages: 272.
Release Date: October 1, 2012.
Source: 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.

As someone who struggled with weight issues and social anxiety in school, Skinny really hit home for me. I spent years and years - and still do, occasionally - thinking that every person who glanced my way was judging me and putting me down. I've never known how to explain that before until I read Skinny. Donna Cooner put it into words and into Ever's story and she did a pretty damn good job.

I feel like Skinny goes above and beyond Ever's quest to lose weight. To me, the real story was Ever's quest to make that cruel voice in her head - named "Skinny" - go away. As the book progresses, pieces of Skinny kind of melt in a way that flows really well and doesn't clash at all with Ever's new lifestyle.

I loved the characters. I love how Cooner wrote authentic teenagers in high school. Not all of the pretty, popular girls are evil trolls (despite my issues, I was friends with tons of them in high school) and I appreciated the diverse personalities. I especially loved Rat. He's probably my favorite YA best friend ever. I was a little worried about where the romance was going after Ever had her surgery. I just wanted to smack some sense into her. But luckily, everything worked out in a cheesy yet incredibly adorable way.

The only thing that really bugged me was how gastric bypass surgery didn't seem like a last resort to Ever. The author mentions that she has tried dieting and exercising but I felt like that wasn't really executed well. I would have loved this book so much more if there were an extra chapter or two of Ever attempting to lose weight by herself before she made the decision to get the procedure done.

Overall, I loved Skinny so, so much. It was so easy to relate to Ever and her weight/confidence issues that I spent most of the time reading it blubbering like a baby. This is such a good book to read if you've ever had any confidence - not just weight - problems. I recommend checking it out!

Other reviews for Skinny:
Anna Reads.
Alice Marvels.
For What It's Worth.