Brooke here. I haven't been reading much at all in these last few months, and I've gotten back into it! I made an account on paperback swap, so hopefully i'll have a bunch of new books coming soon :)
For high school senior Parker Rabinowitz, anything less than success is a failure. A dropped extracurricular, a C on a calc quiz, a non-Jewish shiksa girlfriend—one misstep, and his meticulously constructed life splinters and collapses. The countdown to HYP (Harvard, Yale, Princeton) has begun, and he will stay focused.
That's why he has to keep it a secret. The pocketful of breath mints. The weird smell in the bathroom.
He can't tell his achievement-obsessed father. He can't tell his hired college consultant. And he certainly can't tell Julianne, the "vision of hotness" he so desperately wants to love.
Only Parker's little sister Danielle seems to notice that he's withering away. But the thunder of praise surrounding Parker and his accomplishments reduces her voice to broken poetry:I can't breathewhen my brother's aroundbecause I feel smothered,blank and faded
Brooke's Review: It's a book about a eating disorted BOY. One of the few books about guys with eating disorders. What really grabbed my attention about this book was the quote on the back, ""Sometimes trees can look healthy on the outside, but actually be dying inside. These trees fall unexpectedly during a storm." It's a book that switches characters each chapter, between Parker and his little sister who feels like she's always in the backround when Parker gets the spotlight. I really liked this book, actually. Not THE best read, but pretty good.
Rating; 3.5/5
