The Year I Didn't Eat
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4.5 • 8 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Fourteen-year-old Max Howarth is living with anorexia. With the help of his therapist and his supportive, but flawed, family, he's trying his best to maintain his health. But things spiral out of control, and his eating disorder threatens to isolate him from everyone he loves. Beautifully crafted and honestly written, this debut YA novel tells the story of one boy's year-long journey toward recovery.
* "The raw and real portrayal of anorexia from a group often left out of the conversation." Kirkus Reviews, STARRED Review
* "[A] no-holds-barred debut novel based on the author's own experiences as a tween will be a significant addition to any library." Booklist, STARRED Review
In most ways, Max is like any other teenager. He's dealing with family drama, crushes, and high school-all while trying to have fun, play video games, and explore his hobbies. But Max is also living with anorexia and finds it impossible to be honest with his loved ones-they just don't understand what he's going through.
Starting at Christmas, a series of triggering events disrupt Max's progress toward recovery, sending him down a year-long spiral of self-doubt and dangerous setbacks. With no one to turn to, Max journals his innermost thoughts and feelings, writing to "Ana," the name he's given his anorexia. While that helps for a while, Ana's negative voice grows, amplifying his fears.
When Max gets an unusual present from his older brother, a geocache, it becomes a welcome distraction from his problems. He hides it in the forest near their house and soon gets a message from the mysterious "E." Although Max is unsure of the secret writer's identity, they build a bond, and it's comforting to finally have someone to confide in.As Max's eating disorder pulls him further away from his family and friends, this connection keeps him going, leading him back to the people who love and support him.
Writing from his own experiences with anorexia, Samuel Pollen's The Year I Didn't Eat is a powerful and uplifting story about recovery and the connections that heal us.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Max is a 14-year-old who's devoted to friends and family, fascinated with ornithology and geocaching, and interested in the new girl at school, who seems to like him one minute but mocks him the next. He's also a boy with a "monster" inside him, telling him not to eat. In order to "externalize the disease," something his therapist thinks will help him, Max calls the monster Ana (short for anorexia "Imaginative name, right?") and starts writing to her in a journal, confiding his day-to-day life alongside his most troubling thoughts and his feelings about recovery. Max has a sturdy support system in his well-meaning parents, older brother, and therapist, but it's up to Max to gain control of Ana. Telling the story in a candid, often humorous first-person narrative, debut author Pollen draws Max's life and recovery process realistically as a series of steps and setbacks: obsessive running and calorie-counting, a Christmas meal plan gone awry, and Ana's constant voice ("Do you really need to eat that?") share billing with school humor, moments of hope, and a loving family life. Ages 10 14.
Customer Reviews
Could Have Explored More
While I believe representation of male eating disorders is important in today’s reckless society, the story doesn’t expand much outside of Max’s diagnosis. Yes, he struggles. But why? What exactly caused this to form in Max’s brain? Everything seemed to spiral after he began struggling.
Another point of exasperation is the terse way of naming symptoms. Max can easily pinpoint his symptoms of anorexia and give a reason. Everything is told and not shown.
I would have rated this story four stars if not for the romance aspect. There is more chemistry going on between Max and his friend than who he actually ends up with. But I suppose you can’t represent an anorexic AND a gay male, can you?
If I were to recommend a book on eating disorders, it would most likely be The Art of Starving. Beautifully scripted and wonderfully detailed. As if the author were writing an autobiography. That’s how a book solely targeted for mental health should feel.