14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty solid up until the end, November 7, 2006
Skinny is the story of two sisters; Giselle, a college-aged med student who has anorexia, and her 8th grade sister, Holly. The chapters alternate narrators to the effect that you get a feeling for how Giselle's anorexia influences both her and those around her.
Giselle's chapters, interspersed with snippets from her med school textbooks, feature a person torn by her own desire for perfection and permanently wounded by a father who openly showed preference for her younger sister. The snippets from the medical textbook act almost as subheads for the pages that follow, and sometimes I found them to be too "artsy." Like something a grad student in a creative writing class would do to make her story seem "different" even if it doesn't really do anything to provide insight. I get the meaning they're often supposed to have, but that's kind of the point. Either the meaning was too obvious, and therefore cheap and unnecessary, or the snippets didn't really seem to have much of a purpose at all. I also failed to see the purpose in her new boyfriend who runs in and out of the book--the one who is so enamored by Giselle's anorexic face that he ignores a broken wrist to go get coffee with her. I feel like the author wanted me to like him, but I was repelled by his tendency for addiction and his dependence on someone who clearly doesn't have enough stamina to even stand on her own. I just kept picturing them, ten years down the road, living out of dirty motel rooms and trying to scrape together enough money for some meth, or something. Yeck.
Holly's chapters almost perfectly capture the inner struggles and angst of being a young teenager. Of course, Holly has a little more on her plate than most kids, her sister has an eating disorder, her father is dead and she is half-deaf. Regardless, the relationship she maintains with her sister is touching in its intimacy and realistic in its acidity.
Sometimes the father's preference for Holly seemed a bit extreme. Like he'd basically hurl Giselle in front of a bus because she was standing in front of Holly when he wanted to hug her. I guessed fairly early on why he was drawn to the younger sibling, but that still wouldn't account for a human being completely and brutally shutting out a child.
All-in-all I'd say this was a very well-written and engaging read. The only part I'm confused about is the ending. See, I read all the pages in the book, but I still didn't get to it. I don't need everything to tie up neatly, like Giselle gains 80 lbs and gets married and gets her doctorate and Holly becomes Student of the Year, but I just wished for a little more epiphany and a little less dreariness.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, November 2, 2006
Giselle is an intelligent, over-achieving medical student who is self-destructive and tormented by her relationship with her dead father. Holly is a blossoming young track star that struggles academically for several reasons, including the fact that she is hearing impaired. Giselle has been hospitalized and forced to return home to recover from anorexia. SKINNY tells the story of the effects of Giselle's illness on these two sisters now that Giselle has come back to the family home. The sisters take turns narrating the story.
Each chapter told from Giselle's perspective is laced with medical textbook excerpts that hold keys to the story. Holly's chapters are often brief and yet very poignant. The book details both sisters learning their family history and struggling with its effect on their current lives. The dialogue between the sisters is very well written, as are their inner monologues.
This book has many subplots and some come together in the end and others are not tied up so neatly. At times it feels as though Kaslik has attempted to write two completely different books about the same characters and weaved them together and yet, overall, the story is incredibly moving and emotional. Each sister's words force the reader to empathize with them despite the fact that they often seem to be battling against each other.
Overall, Kaslik has written a remarkable book about the devastating effects of eating disorders on both the person suffering from the illness and those around them. This book is incredibly weighty and touches on some incredibly intense issues at times, and would likely pose a challenge to even some of the strongest high school readers. But their efforts would not be wasted, as it is an incredibly satisfying read. It is accessible on several levels, so if a younger reader were to read this book they would likely take something from it as well, but revisiting the book later would likely reveal a more complex set of issues and themes.
Reviewed by: Allison M. Rotonda
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A passionate look at anorexia in the family and its effects on the entire family, December 9, 2006
Holly's older sister is fighting anorexia and Holly herself is trying to cope with her sister's deterioration and change from a top medical student and role model to a sick person in Ibi Kaslik's Skinny. How can she affect her sister's life and how can she consider positive changes in the face of such consuming hungers? SKINNY is a passionate look at anorexia in the family and its effects on the entire family, differing from similar titles that focus on the sufferer alone.
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