Book Review: Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes

Title: Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
Series: No
Author(s): Chris Crutcher
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 303

Summary:  When Sarah Byrnes was three years old, her condition became synonymous with her surname. Her face and hands were badly burned in a mysterious accident, and her father refused to allow reconstructive surgery. She developed a suit of cold, stainless steel armor to defend herself against the taunts of a world insensitive to her pain. You enter into Sarah Byrnes's world on her terms, or you don't enter.

Enter Eric Calhoune--Moby to his friends. Eric passed through his early years on a steady diet of Oreos and Twinkies and root beer floats, and he sports the girth to prove it. Because of their "terminal uglies," he and Sarah Byrnes have become true masters in the art of underhanded revenge directed at anyone who dares to offend their sensibilities.

When Eric turns out for the high school swimming team, he begins to shed layers of extra poundage. Fearing the loss of the one friendship he treasures, he gorges to "stay fat for Sarah Byrnes," who discovers his motive and threatens to beat him more senseless than she thinks he already is. Then the truth of Sarah Byrnes's horrific past finally catches up with her.

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is a darkly funny, suspenseful novel about friendship, fear, and making the best of a bad situation. Once again Chris Crutcher slaps us in the face with compelling questions that demand dignified answers.

My Thoughts: I actually enjoyed parts of this book! The first 100 pages were a struggle for me to adjust to the brutally honest, and sometimes cruel voice of Eric. It really shocked me at first, especially when he called his mom a fox. That was his voice to just say it, no matter how weird. In the beginning he also had lots of flashbacks that almost took over the entire beginning so it was hard to follow until the end which was intense, and I sucked up every word as Eric went through loads of emotional roller coasters. The book also has many plot lines going at once which somehow worked. I didn't feel overwhelmed with all that was going on I felt caught up in his moment/ world.

Overall it was a great book that made me realize that not all good books have to have a paranormal love triangle!

Overall Rating: 4/5

One word/phrase sum up: dark and twisted