Wednesday, November 13, 2013

BOOK REVIEW: SKin & Bones by Sherry Shahan



Skin and Bones by Sherry Shahan

3 stars


Skin and Bones
Sixteen-year-old Jack, nicknamed "Bones," won't eat. His roommate in the eating disorder ward has the opposite problem and proudly goes by the nickname "Lard." They become friends despite Bones's initial reluctance. When Bones meets Alice, a dangerously thin dancer who loves to break the rules, he lets his guard down even more. Soon Bones is so obsessed with Alice that he's willing to risk everything–even his recovery.

I received this book through netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

 Jack, aka Bones is sent to an eating disorder clinic to aid him in overcoming his anorexia.  And I have to say it was refreshing to see a book about eating disorders from a males perspective. Anyways as luck would have it, his roommate his nicknamed Lard. Lard is the exact opposite of Bones, suffering from overeatting. I liked that this book talked about the spectrum of eating disorders, as many people think it is only about those who deprive themselves of food.

Bones begins to become infatuated with Alice, a very dangerously thin ballerina. She is so focused on being the best and thinnest dancer that she breaks the rules constantly, like melting exlax onto magazine pages so she can lick them off later. 

I enjoyed that the book tackled some difficult issues, like why people start this road of self destruction.


Things I didn't like:

- They did make anorexia and bulimia seem like the same thing, which kind of irked me.
- The flow of the book. At times I felt like I missed a few pages and wasn't sure if this was because it was the pre-edited version, or what? I also felt that there were a lot of holes in the story.
- The way it ended. SPOILER!STOP READING NOW! What happened? Did Bones get better? Did Alice die? Did Lard overcome his over eating and become a chef? So many questions!


All in all an okay read.  I honestly don't think I would have picked it up if it didn't feature a males perspective. I wanted to see a different view point, and while I did, it just didn't wow me to recommend it to others.  If it didn't have as many holes in it, then I would have liked it a lot more!
Expected to come out on March 1, 2014

1 comment:

  1. It's refreshing to see an honest book review! I hate bad endings though or worse, one's that leave you hanging.

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