More Than You Can Chew

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Like Marsha Skrypuch’s The Hunger, Marnelle Tokio’s first
young-adult novel deals with an adolescent girl who is experiencing an
eating disorder.

Seventeen-year-old Marty Black had almost graduated from high school in
California when she was admitted to Silver Lake, an expensive private
treatment centre. Bulimic, anorexic, and weighing just 87 pounds, Marty
was not to be released until she attained her goal weight, 118 pounds.

The principal storyline, which follows her 245 days of treatment, is
sandwiched between a prologue and an epilogue. The former, which occurs
two years before the main plot, provides a glimpse into Marty’s
divorced parents, an alcoholic mother and an absent New York–based
businessman father. Additionally, the prologue reveals the specific
incident that triggered Marty’s conscious decision to stop eating.
Each “chapter” within the main story is headed by the day of
treatment, the date, and a title (e.g., “DAY 32 July 15 Field
Trip”). Readers not only observe Marty’s recovery, but also come to
know her caregivers and fellow patients. The death of one,
eight-year-old Lily, ultimately plays a large role in Marty’s pivotal
decision, “I’m fed up with being an anorexic.”

Through numerous flashbacks, Marty provides significant details about
her pre-hospitalization relationships with her parents and how her
perception that she had to be the picture-perfect daughter affected her
psychological health. The epilogue, set six months after Marty’s
release, provides closure to this portion of her life. Tokio’s
emotionally engrossing read, with its surprising moments of dark humour,
will find a ready audience among teenage girls. Highly recommended.