"Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes" by Chris Crutcher

304 pages

Narrator Eric Calhoune was a social outcast during junior high, thanks to his excessive weight. Luckily, he found a kindred spirit in Sarah Byrnes, whose face and hands were hideously disfigured in a childhood accident. They bonded over their problems and became best friends. Now they are seniors in high school and Eric has considerably slimmed down through competitive swimming (though his nickname "Moby"--as in Moby Dick, the whale--stuck). However, he's still fiercely loyal to Sarah, who was his friend back when everyone else either ignored or ridiculed him. Then Sarah suddenly stops talking and is committed to a mental ward. Eric will do anything to help her, but soon he realizes that there are things from her past that are even worse than he thought, and he doesn't know how to help her deal with them--or with the situation she is currently in.

If you ask me, "fantastic" is not a strong enough word for this book. I loved the tone, the characters, the dialogue, the story itself, the pacing, everything! It has a great message (a couple of great messages, actually) but it's not at all preachy. There are a couple of parts so funny and goofy that they made the characters seem more real--almost too weird to be made up, if that makes any sense (though I know that they were made up). This story made me laugh over and over, broke my heart, and made me think. It's not often that a book does all three!