Skin

Fourteen year-old Donnie is fairly invisible. He and his sister Karen escape during their parents' blow-out screaming matches. When Karen is with her best friend Amanda, Donnie becomes invisible to them. Donnie had two best friends last year. Chris and Bean are "best friends with each other, and I'm best friends with the two of them at the same time. Not individually, though, because they already have each other." This year, however, Chris and Bean decided to move up in the pecking order, which necessitates having someone like Donnie below them to cement their status. Skin is an unflinchingly honest look at family dynamics and formative friendships. Dad never had a father of his own, so parenting is shaky territory. Mom is desperately concerned with saving her marriage and getting her teen daughter to eat. Karen creates a web of lies about her health, always full of excuses about how she just ate at Amanda's or doesn't feel up to having food right now. Karen's weight is ready fodder for arguments between Mom and Dad. All od these tensions render Donnie, our narrator, to the the background at home, at school, and in life. Skin is a story of survival. How much can one teen absorb before he stands up to shake the world up?

"These are the things you think when you come home to find out that your sister has starved herself to death and you have dropped to your knees to revive her." This is the first yet, chilling line that begins Donnie's story in this debut novel, Skin. Fourteen-year-old Donnie has just begun high school, which hasn't been going well. He has almost completely "disappeared." His older sister, Karen is the only person he could count on. Now that she is ill due to an eating disorder, Donnie must decide whether to stay "inside" or take action and help Karen. This is all ready a totally awesome book. It is a better alternative to the normal "girl view". Seeing Karen through Donnies eyes makes him think inspiring, tearful, and painfully honest. We recommend this book to both genders. It gives a new perspective on an eating disorder and how bad it can be. This book can teach us how to be ourselves and try how not to let anything in our way. -Jessica Vargas and Marissa Egipciaco

Skin is an excellent book by a young, new, and talented author. Her name is Adrienne Maria Vrettos. Skin is her first novel. This book is about a family's bond together and how they try to maintain that bond after Karen, the daughter, gets anorexia. Little Donnie, the brother, tells his story and how this affects him. "My sister looks like she could fold in a paper cup." Do not belittle this book! It may seem like an average book, but once you read the first chapter, there is a high possibility that you would want to read the whole thing. Skin is a definite 10 out of 10. I really enjoyed this book because it shows the life and struggles of one girl, and how this fatal disease affects the family, especially the brother. There are also many situations that you might have been through, so you can relate to the characters in the book. You should be able to learn to love, hate, trust, and even honor the characters by the end of the book. I know this because it happened to me.

Adrianne Vrettos newest and first novel, Skin, is based on a boy's perspective in his life. The main character, fourteen year-old Donnie, tells us his experiences in life and what are the causes and effects of them. As he struggles to save his sister, sixteen year-old Karen, from dying of a serious case of anorexia, he is becoming more isolated from the world. He is so isolated that he has no friends whatsoever. With Donnie's parents arguing, his sister dying, and him becoming more isolated, what can get any worse? Despite the fact that this is Ms. Vrettos' first novel, her writing is very fluent. Her writing grabs you, not only as a reader, but also because she puts you in the book as a character. It's as if you're in the book and you don't want to get out until it ends. In my opinion, this she has a great writing style. This is the type of book that I would rate 5 stars.

I am a nurse who has worked with anorexia in the past. This book brought me back to those days and how the diease could tear apart families. It was well writtien and it gave the point of view of others in the family who also were affected by it all. Great job!!!