Gr 8 Up—Zoe, a 16-year-old from Brooklyn, finds herself in a small rehabilitation center for girls with eating disorders, but she is sure there must be some kind of mistake. "I didn't feel like a patient; I felt like an inmate or a victim." The other girls are clearly wasting away, while she feels in control of her cautious dietary habits. Through letters to her mysteriously silent best friend, Elise, as well as a personal journal, readers quickly see that her protests are actually denial and discover that she is, in fact, a girl with a disorder that is spiraling out of control. Zoe and the other patients attend cooking and vegetable-gardening classes each day and endure mandatory meals in which their plates are heaped with nutritious foods that disgust them. As Zoe goes to therapy sessions, makes friends and enemies, and writes her letters, the whereabouts of Elise become clear to readers-if not to her. She leaves rehab at the end of the summer to reenter normal life, although it is unclear that her disorder is truly under control. While the ending may seem rushed and slightly unsatisfactory to some discerning teens (unanswered questions abound), Zoe's circumstances and problems will resonate with fans of Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why (Penguin, 2007), Jake Coburn's Love Sick (Dutton, 2005), and Beatrice Sparks's books.—Nora G. Murphy, Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, LaCanada-Flintridge, CA
Zoe is mysteriously sent to "recover" at Twin Birch. As the skillfully paced story unfolds through disoriented first-person narration and (unanswered) letters to best friend Elise, details of Zoe's eating disorder gradually emerge. In a disturbing, heartrending climax, readers learn the truth about Zoe's disease, her memory loss, and her friendship with Elise, but an abrupt, idealistic ending lessens the poignancy.
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