The Art of Starving by Sam J Miller Google Books

Publisher's description

Matt hasn't eaten in days. His stomach stabs and twists within, pleading for a meal, but Matt won't give in. The hunger clears his mind, keeps him sharp—and he needs to be equally sharp as possible if he's going to find out just how Tariq and his band of high school bullies drove his sister, Maya, away.

Matt's hardworking mom keeps the kitchen crammed with food, simply Matt tin can resist the siren call of casseroles and cookies considering he has discovered something: the less he eats the more he seems to accept . . .powers. The ability to encounter things he shouldn't exist able to encounter. The knack of tuning in to thoughts right out of people'southward heads. Maybe even the authority to bend fourth dimension and space.

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So what is tiffin, really, compared to the secrets of the universe?

Matt decides to infiltrate Tariq's life, and so use his powers to uncover what happened to Maya. All he needs to do is keep the hunger and longing at bay. No trouble. Merely Matt doesn't realize there are many kinds of hunger…and he isn't in control of all of them.

A darkly funny, moving story of body epitome, addiction, friendship, and dear, Sam J. Miller's debut novel will resonate with any reader who'south ever craved the power that comes with self-acceptance.

Amanda's thoughts

First of all, I feel like information technology'south of import to know that Sam J. Miller had an eating disorder as a teenager. Had Miller not had a personal feel with an ED, I probably wouldn't be reviewing this volume. I experience like books that deal with eating disorders are so fraught with the potential to be triggering/upsetting/completely done "wrong." I have no experience with an eating disorder, so I nevertheless hesitate to review this only because the subject matter has the potential to be so triggering for readers. All of that said, I also think this volume is of import because information technology shows us someone we don't see much of in YA: a boy with an eating disorder. And, while Matt, our primary grapheme, believes that power (and superpowers) tin can come from pain and starvation, his eating disorder is not romanticized. It'south awful to read near and awful to witness and just plain atrocious in full general.

Matt, who is gay, is in dire need of medical and therapeutic intervention for his eating disorder. A school psychiatrist recommends urgent action after a visit with Matt proves he feels both suicidal and homicidal. Merely Matt swipes the letter of the alphabet from school, hiding it from his mother, just similar he hides everything else from her. He'd like to run abroad, but like his older sister Maya has recently done. He suspects that soccer star Tariq and his bully buddies may have something to do with Maya'due south disappearance, so he works to get closer to them to learn more. Matt is in complete denial about his eating disorder. He views his torso as the enemy, keeps track of calories, and hates how he (thinks he) looks, but he doesn't allow himself to always throw up afterwards eating, because that is what would betoken he has a problem. And, co-ordinate to Matt, he does not have a trouble. Likewise according to Matt, his hunger gives him clarity, insight, and superpowers that allow himself to get closer to truths, maybe read people'southward minds, and allow him to control the uncontrollable. He is starving himself, still in denial, intent on farther awakening his mind. He researches online for eating disorder tips and tricks, sharing some of them in his narrative. When he ends upwardly in the emergency room, malnourished, he knows what he needs to do and say to convince people he's okay. When an unexpected relationship grows, Matt worries that happiness is blunting his powers. He eventually admits to an eating disorder and ends upward in treatment, where several months are summarized in wide strokes.

Matt is an unreliable narrator. Are his powers real, somehow, or is this all in his head? I constitute myself repeatedly doubting if he actually did or said something, or if it was but how things played out in his mind. At certain points, I doubted that any of the events were actually happening at all, wondering if peradventure Matt was imagining everything (his relationship with the other boy etc). Matt makes some compelling observations about masculinity and social constructions of gender as he thinks about his torso and how he tries to control and shape it. He even, at one signal, notes that his story is non so much an actual guidebook for the art of starving as it is a desperate cry for help. This unique and well-written book is a night, upsetting, and moving look at one boy's experience with an eating disorder that will leave readers hopeful that he'southward on the path to recovery, but perchance still doubting what has happened to Matt and what his future volition agree.

Review re-create courtesy of the publisher

ISBN-xiii: 9780062456717

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Publication date: 07/xi/2017

Filed under: Book Reviews

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Source: https://teenlibrariantoolbox.com/2017/07/11/book-review-the-art-of-starving-by-sam-j-miller/