Nothing

By: Robin Friedman

Narrated by: Trevor Goble, Casey Holloway

"Sometimes trees can look healthy on the outside, but actually be dying inside. These trees fall unexpectedly during a storm."

For high school senior Parker Rabinowitz, anything less than success is a failure. A dropped extracurricular, a C on a calc quiz, a non-Jewish shiksa girlfriend - one misstep, and his meticulously constructed life splinters and collapses. The countdown to HYP (Harvard, Yale, Princeton) has begun, and he will stay focused.

That's why he has to keep it a secret. The pocketful of breath mints. The weird smell in the bathroom.

He can't tell his achievement-obsessed father. He can't tell his hired college consultant. And he certainly can't tell Julianne, the "vision of hotness" he so desperately wants to love.

Only Parker's little sister, Danielle, seems to notice that he's withering away. But the thunder of praise surrounding Parker and his accomplishments reduces her voice to broken poetry:

I can't breathe
when my brother's around
because I feel smothered,
blank and faded

©2016 Robin Friedman (P)2021 Scribd Audio

Loved

This wasn’t the first book I’ve read where a teenage boy is the one with an eating disorder. Yet it’s the first time I’ve read a book where someone you least expect it is struggling like that. I think this book is incredibly realistic, sad, confusing and endearing all at the same time. I wish I could read it for the first time again. Although I can’t I still listen to it over and over because that’s how good it is. The one and only thing I would change about this book is that I think it should be longer. But that’s only because I love it so much I want more. This book deserves a lot more attention.