LIGHT ENOUGH TO FLOAT

A girl’s experience of being hospitalized with anorexia illuminates the complicated nature of treating eating disorders.

This skillfully crafted verse novel follows white 14-year-old Evie, who’s recently been diagnosed with “extreme malnourishment” due to anorexia, as she enters and completes a course of a few months of inpatient treatment. Evie is placed on a strict and steadily increasing calorie regimen, and as she improves, she meets others who are struggling with eating disorders, learning how diverse these patients’ backgrounds are and how varied the presentation of their disorders can be. As Evie works through therapy and makes strides toward going home, she worries that she won’t be able to maintain her progress on the outside—a not-unfounded fear, which, combined with the range of secondary characters’ experiences, gives Seal the opportunity to show readers why eating disorders can be so hard to treat. The story is informed by the author’s own life, lending tenderness and understanding to its insights. The spare details support strong characterization: Evie’s mother’s good (but poorly expressed) intentions and her sister’s open, vulnerable conversations illustrate well how family members can hurt or help recovery efforts. Readers who are grappling with these issues may find it difficult to read about specific calorie counts as well as the explicit descriptions of dangerously familiar patterns of thought and unhealthy weight-loss strategies.

A realistically complex yet hopeful account of eating disorder treatment.