Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes [Book Review]

Sarah Byrnes is a burn victim with scars on her face and hands. Eric Calhoune is overweight. Their differences cause them to stick together and become inseparable friends. When Sarah is institutionalized after going into a seemingly catatonic state, Eric has to get to the bottom of whatever caused her trauma. Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes is touching, humorous, and exciting, but at its core it is a book for and about misfits.

Though the format of at least the first half of the book is confusing, and in my opinion not well constructed, the messages and topics covered in the book make it a thoroughly worthwhile read. There are plenty of reasons for this book to be a recurring guest on banned book lists: abortion, suicide, strong language, child abuse, violence, etc. Of course, those themes are excellent reasons for why this book should be read.

For example, at one point in the book [spoiler alert] several of the main characters battle against an ultra-religious antagonist who treats everyone around him like absolute crap. When the main characters finally triumph in breaking the antagonist's self-righteous facade, the antagonist attempts suicide. What is most important about this theme of suicide is that several authority figures in the book (parents, teachers, pastors, etc) emphasize that the antagonist's suicide attempt is nobody's fault but his own. The suicide is not simply put in there as a gimmick, but to teach those affected by suicide of others how to cope. [end spoiler alert]

The book deals well with hard topics, it doesn't just throw in issues just to be edgy - "being edgy" doesn't seem to be the point of this book, in fact I thought it was fairly tame until several of my Adolescent Literature classmates went off in class about how explicit the book was - this book discusses issues to show solutions, and it accomplishes this purpose very well.

I would recommend this book to everyone, at least 9th grade on up. It is a slow read for the first half, but the second half kept my attention in a firm grasp. This is not a difficult book to comprehend, but it is a starting point to further discussion on important topics. This would be a good one to introduce to a book club because people will love to talk about it.
3.5 stars