Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Contemporary Realistic Fiction--Skinny by Donna Cooner

Cooner, Donna. (2012). Skinny. New York: NY. Point.

Skinny is the story of Ever Davies, a fifteen year old teen who gains a lot of weight after the death of her mother and is now up to three hundred and two pounds.  Since Ever can remember she has been on every possible diet there is to try to lose weight but has had no success. Ever is constantly reminded of how ugly, fat and worthless she is by skinny, the vicious negative voice in her head that continually belittles Ever’s life. After an incident at the school awards ceremony Ever decides to do something drastic and has gastric bypass procedure done to lose weight once and for all. Even though Ever begins to lose weight there are many challenges that she must deal with to recover, one of them the voice of skinny who is still lingering around.

The story of Skinny is broken up into six sections in the book. The first part called Ashes, includes the first three chapters. This part focuses on Ever’s view of herself based on the little voice inside her head she calls skinny. Skinny tells Ever everything that everyone is supposedly thinking of Ever as well as condemns her for being overweight, “You’re like the big marshmallow monster in that old Ghostbusters movie. Soft. Gooey. Horrifying,” (Skinny, 2012, p.5) and Ever believes it all. She believes that she could never be pretty enough to be loved or liked by anyone. This continuous voice of negativity that “skinny” feeds her is what makes Ever have a negative self-image about herself. It is a constant battle within herself that at the beginning she doesn’t realize who she really is struggling against.

The second section of the book is titled, Prince Charming and it includes chapters four, five, and six. In this section we learn about the secret crush that Ever has had on Jackson, a childhood friend whom she used to hang around a lot until her mother died from Cancer. Here Ever decides to undergo the gastric bypass surgery after a humiliated event occurs at school, “I don’t care. If I die, I die. I will do whatever it takes. I will let them cut my stomach open and change my internal organs forever…I will never feel this way again” (Skinny, 2012, p.49).

The third section of the book is appropriately titled Abracadabra; it includes chapters seven through fifteen and is rightly so the longest part of the book. In this section we are thoroughly taken through the before, during, and after process of gastric bypass patients as Ever, accompanied by her best friend Rat, listen about the risks, life changing habits and physical changes that the body will have to endure after the surgery like only eating one spoonful of food and feeling like she just ate a Thanksgiving dinner (Skinny, 2012, p.97).

It is also here that like magic Ever begins to lose weight quickly. The reader can visually see her physical transformation in the weekly charts provided by Rat. These charts include Ever’s starting weigh, pounds lost, exercise for the week and a column with a playlist since Rat remembered Ever stating, “it’d be great if we could hear the soundtrack of our lives playing in the background” (Skinny, 2012,p.101-102), so he includes it in her charts.

So every week there’s a different sound track that represents Ever’s mental state of mind as she loses weight week by week.

It is also in this section where we see the physical transformation of Ever, not just by how much weight she loses but also by the new friends that she begins to acquire, one of them being Whitney, one of the girls from the popular crowd. Whitney makes it her mission to transform Ever with a make-over that includes make-up, a new wardrobe and a new hairstyle. Slowly and surely Ever begins to accept her new self, “I’m a regular size…I can’t stop smiling and smiling, and smiling at the me in the mirror” (Skinny, 2012, p.129) Nevertheless after all of this, Ever is still hearing skinny’s negative comments and feels changed on the outside but not on the inside, “but I don’t feel any different…on the inside” (Skinny, 2012, p.146).

The fourth section of the book is tittle the Ball and it includes chapters sixteen through eighteen. After all these changes, Ever’s confidence begins to rise and she begins to see a glimmer of hope in herself, “I have to admit it, I like what I see. I look different and after everything I’ve been through, different feels good. A faint, wistful smile slowly lights the face of the girl in the reflection. Long-buried hope starts to stir” (Skinny, 2012, p.185). Not only does Ever’s self- image begins to improve, but also, the voice of skinny is heard less and less, “she doesn’t respond. She misses a lot of these opportunities lately” (Skinny, 2012, p.189).

In the section titled Midnight that includes only three chapters, nineteen through twenty one, Ever realizes all along the real reason why she had the gastric bypass surgery. It is here that skinny comes back with a vengeance and Ever realizes why everything in her life is changing except for the negative thoughts that skinny keeps feeding her. Ever tells skinny, “I’m done believing what you say, I’m much more than what you’ve made me…If I made her, then I can change her” (Skinny, 2012, p.225). At this point in the story, the reader can see the full character development from Ever’s poor self-image to a confident young lady filled with determination to beat her own demons. The last section is titled Ever After and it includes the last three chapters twenty-two through twenty four.

The story is Skinny is somewhat biographical since author Donna Cooner did have gastric bypass surgery herself. She states, “Gastric bypass surgery was a positive experience for me, but it wasn’t a magic wand. I will always struggle with weight and body image issues. This might be your battle too…Don’t believe it. You are so much more” (Skinny, 2012).

Many of the themes in the novel include poor self-image, overcoming negative destructive thoughts, and contemplation of gastric bypass surgery. Publisher’s Weekly says it best, “Cooner’s debut novel may be appreciated most for its information about gastric bypass surgery and its ramifications” (2012, p.78).

To me the story had kind of a Cinderella story feel to it with the many references made throughout the book. At first I didn’t care for the story, the negativity of skinny was overwhelming and the plot moved slow at the beginning. The middle of the story began to pick up with Ever’s surgery and the ramifications but as skinny’s voice began to lessen, I began to enjoy the character development of Ever and her appreciation of the people that truly mattered in her life. Skinny is recommended for ages twelve and up. I would definitely recommend it, especially for someone considering having Gastric Bypass Surgery or someone battling the little voice inside their head, whatever that voice may be.

References

 

Cooner, Donna. (2012). Skinny. New York: NY. Point.

Davies, Sarah. (2012). Skinny. Publishers Weekly, 259(39), 78.

Judkins, Julie. (2013). Skinny. Library Media Connection, 31(4), 71.

Kraus, Daniel. (2012). Skinny. Booklist, 109(4), 58-59.