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4.5 stars.
Everyone calls him Butter. He's so large that he's beyond bullying at school. His dad has stopped talking to him. His mum can't stop cooking him comfort food.
Butter has passed 400lbs. His only pleasures are playing his saxophone in the privacy of his own room as his guilty online relationship with the beautiful Anna, who only knows him as SaxMan. But as everything around him just falls apart, on a whom he decides to create his Last Meal website - where he will select a menu and eat himself to death on New Year's Eve, live on the internet.
It's a premise you can't quite believe someone wrote. So mouth-openingly shocking, sad, repellent but, like Butter's schoolmates find it, so hard to turn away from.
You want to know what Butter will do. Like some of his class, you don't believe he'll really go through with it. Their behaviour makes you sick - Butter is suddenly accepted into the popular groups, has friends. But what are they really after? Butter himself, I found both pitiable and self-deluded. His many attempts to lose weight, his decisions, his refusal to accept the blame for his situation.
Anna, I thought would be a little more two-dimensional than she ended up being. A few scenes gave her more depth and development. I would have liked more of Tucker though, Butter's friend from 'Fat Camp', his role as conscience was a welcome voice of reason and counterpoint.
The bullying scenes were a little upsetting (but isolated), and the ending towards the New Year deadline very tense. Butter remains Butter throughout (only at the very end do we learn his name) almost a fat stereotype with no identity outside of his size. His family scenes are quite moving - his dad's refusal to talk directly to him but listening outside the room to his beautiful saxophone playing.
It's a 'journey of self-discovery' wrapped into a tale of bullying, first love, suicide, estranged families and weight problems.
I really enjoyed it, and really wondered just how it was all going to end. A great choice for a teenage book group as well as an individual looking for a story of overcoming adversity.
Everyone calls him Butter. He's so large that he's beyond bullying at school. His dad has stopped talking to him. His mum can't stop cooking him comfort food.
Butter has passed 400lbs. His only pleasures are playing his saxophone in the privacy of his own room as his guilty online relationship with the beautiful Anna, who only knows him as SaxMan. But as everything around him just falls apart, on a whom he decides to create his Last Meal website - where he will select a menu and eat himself to death on New Year's Eve, live on the internet.
It's a premise you can't quite believe someone wrote. So mouth-openingly shocking, sad, repellent but, like Butter's schoolmates find it, so hard to turn away from.
You want to know what Butter will do. Like some of his class, you don't believe he'll really go through with it. Their behaviour makes you sick - Butter is suddenly accepted into the popular groups, has friends. But what are they really after? Butter himself, I found both pitiable and self-deluded. His many attempts to lose weight, his decisions, his refusal to accept the blame for his situation.
Anna, I thought would be a little more two-dimensional than she ended up being. A few scenes gave her more depth and development. I would have liked more of Tucker though, Butter's friend from 'Fat Camp', his role as conscience was a welcome voice of reason and counterpoint.
The bullying scenes were a little upsetting (but isolated), and the ending towards the New Year deadline very tense. Butter remains Butter throughout (only at the very end do we learn his name) almost a fat stereotype with no identity outside of his size. His family scenes are quite moving - his dad's refusal to talk directly to him but listening outside the room to his beautiful saxophone playing.
It's a 'journey of self-discovery' wrapped into a tale of bullying, first love, suicide, estranged families and weight problems.
I really enjoyed it, and really wondered just how it was all going to end. A great choice for a teenage book group as well as an individual looking for a story of overcoming adversity.