Thursday, June 14, 2012

Zoe Letting Go by Nora Price - ADVISABLE

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Zoe Letting Go by Nora Price, 288 p. Razorbill (Penguin), JUNE 2012.  Language: PG-13 (23 swears, 0 ‘f’). 

This morning Zoe woke up and was ordered to pack and driven off by her mother and left at an exclusive mansion buried in the country.  Why is Zoe here?  The other five girls are obviously here because they have eating disorders – but Zoe doesn’t have that problem.  She and her best friend, Elise, have always been in control.  As Zoe writes long letters to Elise, describing her life for the next six weeks, she gets worried, because Elise never writes back. 

For 261 pages, I absolutely adored this book.  It was a gorgeous look into the world of an anorexic and into different treatments and levels of commitment.  When the author reached the crisis point, however, everything was miraculously better and within 12 pages, everyone was gone, over.  Huh?  The other glaring problem is that Zoe’s 6 week treatment program only had 36 days – that’s five weeks and a day according to my calendar, but nothing in the book indicated that Zoe had left early.  So, if you can forgive this book for its shortcomings, it is a very good option for almost any secondary school.  I think Purge by Sarah Littman is my favorite, but that is only for high schools.  And then Emily’s Secret by Linda Barr for middle schools, but I don’t think that’s even in print any more. 

MS, HS – ADVISABLE.  Cindy, Library Teacher

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