Butter - Erin Lange

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Butter - 
Erin Lange
Released: May 1, 2013
Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Synopsis: You think I eat a lot now? That's nothing. Tune in December 31st, when I will stream a live webcast of my last meal. Death row inmates get one. Why shouldn't I? I can't take another year in this fat suit, but I can end this year with a bang. If you can stomach it, you're invited to watch ... as I eat myself to death.

So starts Butter, the story of a lonely 423-pound boy everyone calls 'Butter'. Worse than being ridiculed for his size at high school, he is simply ignored. Desperate, he pledges to eat himself to death live on the Internet - and everyone will watch. When he makes this announcement online, he expects pity, insults, or possibly sheer indifference. Instead, his classmates become morbid cheerleaders for his deadly plan.

Yet as their dark encouragement grows, it begins to feel a lot like popularity. And that feels good. But what happens when Butter reaches his suicide deadline?

Readers will be surprised to find themselves identifying with both the bullied ... and the bullies.

What it's about: Butter is a teenage boy, weighing a whopping 423 pounds. After a hard day, Butter creates a website, in which he promises to eat himself to death on live webcam. What Butter doesn't expect is people to  encourage this suicide mission, and now's he is more popular then ever. Will he go through with his plan, now that he's feeling included, and if he doesn't, will all these "new friends" still be around after?

What I thought: This book was sensational. Fantastic. Amazing. Plus lots of other positive adjectives. It was a painfully honest book, about bullying and obesity. Some scene's even made me cry. At first it seems like Butter is pathetic, depressed his weight but not caring enough to want to do something - the "years" of work he has to put in seem too daunting. He has this crush on the hot girl at school, who he only chats to online. But as we read on, Lange shows us just what it's really like to be the obese kid at school. We find out how he got his nickname, and how his family life affects his eating. We watch his struggle with the consequences of all his actions, but mostly, I just kept wondering how this story would end. But of course, that department certainly doesn't disappoint.

Butter kept me hooked from start to finish. Definitely the best book I've read in 2013.


The Good: This book really makes you take a hard look at bullying, while also showing the other side of obesity on the sly. Well done.


The Bad: This book was fantastic, start to finish. Nothing bad can be said.


Rating:

5 bookstacks

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