Book Review: Pretty Bones

Media Type: Print Book
Title: Pretty Bones
Author: Aya Tsintziras
Publisher: Lorimer
Pages: Paperback; 160
Release Date: September 2, 2011
Source: Teen Book Scene
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Intended Reading Group: Young Adult
Content Screening: Nothing of note.
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HDB Rating: 3 Keys to My Heart
Recommended to: Readers who are comfortable with discussions of anorexia.

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Raine has a family, good grades, best friends, and a boyfriend who loves her. But then anorexia takes over, and her life spirals out of control. Her efforts to hide her condition are finished when she collapses at a school dance. Although she’s whisked away to treatment, Raine isn’t ready to accept who she really is and get the help she desperately needs. For Raine, coming-of-age means coming closer to death.

For me, Pretty Bones was a bit tough to get through. On the one hand you have a character who gives the reader a glimpse into the mind of a normal girl who is battling anorexia. Raine is a person who has a fairly great life. She has a family who cares, she does well in school, and she has a support group of friends. In fact, Raine has it more together than most of the other characters I’ve read about lately. However, despite everything, Raine still feels out of control. So she turns to the one thing she can control, the numbers on the scale.

I know what I’m doing to myself. But I’m fine. I could stop if I wanted to.
I just don’t want to. Not yet. – pg. 22

At only 160 pages, Pretty Bones doesn’t really allow the reader to probe that deeply into Raine’s motivations. I felt like I was missing the reason as to why she chose this lifestyle. It made me feel like she just didn’t care about anyone but herself, and that selfishness drove me completely crazy while I was reading. I’ll admit that there were small mentions of things going on in her family life, but none of those seemed to me like enough reason to turn to anorexia. Perhaps it’s just me, but did take away from my enjoyment of this book.

The one character that I really did fall in love with was Dylan. I won’t spoil, but he was a character who made me smile. The message that comes through, under everything Raine related, is that it only takes a few people who really care to make a difference. Pretty Bones also shows the reader that giving up is not an option. It was this part of the story line that was a saving grace for me. All of the side characters actually made more of an impact on me than Raine did.

Overall Pretty Bones wasn’t my favorite read of the year so far, but it does have its good points. If you are looking for a fairly quick read with tougher subject matter, this is one for you.

FTC Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I was not monetarily compensated for my opinion.