Lie #1 – “I’m not hungry.”
June is hungry. All the time. When she’s not starving herself she’s bingeing and purging, but because she’s overweight no one realises she has an eating disorder. All they see is a fat girl on a diet.
“The purging place,”
I call it.Where I bury my shame.
Lie #2 – “I’m fine.”
June isn’t fine. Neither is her sister, Mae, whose boyfriend treats her like garbage. Neither is Toby, who lives next door and has secrets of his own.
Everyone has secrets.
Lie #3 – “It’ll be okay.”
Like most lies, it’s the thing we most wish was true.
This is a short book written in verse that introduces a variety of issues that many teens deal with, including eating disorders and fat shaming. The story flows well and it was easy to follow along with who everyone was and their relationships to one another.
The ending felt a bit rushed and too neat for me, but I still managed to get all of the answers I wanted. I didn’t become emotionally involved with any of the characters, but I thought the author did well to include all of the details they did with a limited word count. Even though I didn’t get attached to any specific character I could have quite happily strangled Mae’s boyfriend for her and I was certainly not a fan of Toby.
Content warnings include eating disorders, body shaming, dating violence and mentions of family violence and drug addiction.
Thank you to NetGalley and West 44 Books, an imprint of Enslow Publishing, for the opportunity to read this book. I love hi-lo books! Hi-Lo are high-interest, low-readability books and I love that I live in a world where these books exist. On their website, West 44 Books advises their young adult books are Reading Level: 3-4, Interest Level: 9-12.
Once Upon a Blurb
June is fat. June also has an eating disorder, but no one sees. When she doesn’t eat, her friends and family think they see a fat girl on a diet, not someone starving herself. When June’s secret is found out by Toby, the new boy next door, she is panicked. Then she learns he also has a secret. Everyone has their own little lies.
Schizanthus Nerd 