Skinny by Donna Cooner

Skinny:
Find your voice.

Hopeless. Freak. Elephant. Pitiful. These are the words of Skinny, the vicious voice that lives inside fifteen-year-old Ever Davies’s head. Skinny tells Ever all the dark thoughts her classmates have about her. Ever knows she weighs over three hundred pounds, knows she’ll probably never be loved, and Skinny makes sure she never forgets it.

But there is another voice: Ever’s singing voice, which is beautiful but has been silenced by Skinny. Partly in the hopes of trying out for the school musical—and partly to try and save her own life—Ever decides to undergo a risky surgery that may help her lose weight and start over.

With the support of her best friend, Ever begins the uphill battle toward change. But demons, she finds, are not so easy to shake, not even as she sheds pounds. Because Skinny is still around. And Ever will have to confront that voice before she can truly find her own.

Skinny made me cry, it made me laugh and it made me look at myself in a completely different light. This is the journey of a brave girl named Ever, bullied because of her weight she decides to do something about it. Donna Cooner brought this girl to life for me, and I could relate to her in so many ways. But what I want to make perfectly clear is that although initially Ever has gastric bypass surgery to become skinny like the other girls, this is NOT a book about a girl becoming skinny. Ever has been depending on food for comfort ever since her mother died, and although she can count calories like the best weight conscious people out there, she just can’t seem to control herself. When it becomes apparent that her weight gain is also a health issue they decide to go through with the surgery. On top of Ever’s weight problems is this disgusting voice in her head she calls: Skinny. The impact Skinny has on Ever is devastating. Skinny constantly belittles Ever and destroys almost every relationship she possesses. Even as she begins to change on the outside, Skinny is still there on the inside. When Ever truly begins to see herself as changed, she confronts her inner demon and realizes that Skinny is blind. A metaphor for her own blindness when Ever thinks of herself.