Insatiable - The Compelling Story of Four Teens, Food and Its Power

Samantha, Hannah, Jessica, and Phoebe wrestle with their eating demons in the pages of Eve Eliot’s “self-help novel,” Insatiable. More popular at HHS than its sequel, Ravenous, Insatiable is second only to The Best Little Girl in the World among our eating disorder novels.

Samantha, the blonde, athletic cheerleader, starves, cuts, and vacuums compulsively. We meet her in the first 3 sentences of the book: “Samantha's heart nearly stopped as she realized what Brian was actually telling her. Because there were other students all around them, milling past carrying books and backpacks, she forced herself to breathe evenly, look normal, perfect as always. This is what was expected of her, the blondest cheerleader with the cutest boyfriend, the prettiest girl at Maple Ridge High.”

Phoebe, everybody’s pal and nobody’s girlfriend, is a great student who feels best when she eats. Her fashion photographer Dad has plenty to say about that, and with predictable results.

Jessica is artistic, rebellious, and captivated by style and fashion. She gets along on coffee and Diet Coke, and is now too weak to climb the stairs to English class. Her claim to fame? “I tell myself how special I am,” said Jessica. “I tell myself I’m different because I can be hungry and still not eat.”

And Hannah, another top student, swamped with grief over her Mom’s death, is a beautiful girl who binges and purges to keep herself that way. She is very good at keeping secrets.

Each story has been intertwined, girl by girl, chapter by chapter, to produce a work that is at once gripping, melodramatic, and clinical. Eliot is a practicing psychotherapist, and her novel is based on real case histories. She has also survived an eating disorder, which adds to Insatiable’s authenticity.

While many readers are very enthusiastic about this one, more than a few think Insatiable is too much therapy and not enough plot. What do you think?

Breathing Underwater

Author Alex Flinn interned after law school with the state attorney and tried domestic violence cases, then volunteered at a shelter for battered women and their families. When she gives us Nick’s story -- the anger, jealousy, violence, secrecy, and heartache -- she knows whereof she speaks. But it’s Nick as the narrator who speaks most eloquently for himself.

This is the tale of Nick’s relationship with Caitlyn, related in the journal he now has to keep, by order of the judge. It’s also the story of Nick and his abusive dad and Tommy, his friend for life. Finally, it’s an account of how he struggles to pull his life together, with the help of group counseling and a certain Ms. Wiggins, after he has made his big mistakes.

He told his new girlfriend she couldn’t hang out with her friends anymore, since they didn’t like Nick’s group. “You do want me as your boyfriend, right?” He ridiculed her. “You bitch, you’re just a fat cow.” He tried to keep her glued to his side. Sounds pretty awful, right? Still, Nick managed to charm Caitlyn enough so that they began to see themselves as two of a kind, unlucky teens from seemingly perfect families. Then a long planned group trip to Key West went awry, and our boy was derisive, possessive and drunk, almost killing them both as he drove home. Played the “Don’t you trust me?” and the ”My life is nothing without you.” cards. And then he hit her… and it didn’t happen just once.

Alex Flinn returns to Nick in her novel, Diva, which is actually more Caitlyn’s story. Try it. Life goes on for the two of them, just not together. And do post a response; like Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, this novel is certain to push some buttons.