SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL -- Katie Green's Lighter ThanMy Shadow (Lion Forge, 2017) is a powerful memoir of anorexia, disorderedeating, and sexual abuse. Green's story takes herself from a child who was apicky eater through repeated bouts with anorexia and rigid eating habits, whichare exacerbated by bullying at school and her own low self-esteem. Some of hertherapists and doctors are clueless, while others are fooled by her calculatedanswers. Indeed, Green dupes many of the people around her, but not herreaders-she draws her disorder as a black, scribbly cloud that sometimes hangsover her head and consumes her completely. Even when she appears to be doingwell, the darkness is often hovering nearby. Finally Green goes to an"alternative therapist" who encourages her to rebel against herparents, and she begins to feel better, until she realizes that he has beensexually abusing her under the guise of therapy. Tortured by guilt, flashbacks,and feelings of worthlessness, Green attempts suicide, but when she finallypursues the art career she has always wanted and finds a therapist whounderstands her feelings, she begins to recover. Anna, the central character inTyranny by Lesley Fairfield, contends with anorexia.
It should be noted thatGreen's depictions of sexual abuse are fairly explicit; nonetheless, she wroteLighter Than My Shadow in part for teens. "I would love 17-year-olds toread it," she said in my interview with her in May 2017. "I don'tblame myself for the abuse that happened to me, but I know that if I had abetter understanding of what abuse is or looks like, it might have been stoppedearlier. If teenagers are reading this kind of story, then hopefully they willunderstand it better." Tyranny (Tundra, 2009), by Lesley Fairfield, isanother look at the same topic. This fictional story of a young woman withanorexia and bulimia uses a skeletal squiggle to represent the negativethoughts-the "tyranny"-that compel her to try to be thin. Anna, theheroine, struggles with her disorder and relapses before going into aresidential treatment facility and finally gets well. Along the way, Fairfielddepicts Anna's distorted self-image, comparing her real body to what she sees inthe mirror, and brings in other characters to show different aspects of thedisorder.
Although the subject is very serious-one character dies of thedisease-Fairfield's light, cartoony style keeps the book from ever feeling tooheavy. (Note: Some nonsexual nudity.) Both of these stories use the graphicmedium to reveal the distortions in body image that come with eatingdisorders-in the case of Tyranny, Fairfield visualizes both the reality ofAnna's body and the inaccurate view she sees in the mirror. In Lighter Than MyShadow, Green imagines her belly bulging every time she eats. Meanwhile, shealso envisions herself getting lighter and disappearing into a wisp of smoke asshe loses weight.