Zero
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15
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Average rating2
CCBC's Best Books for Kids & Teens, 2008 Kas fights to conceal her dangerous secret. Kas has everything a teenager could possibly want. Away from home for the first time, and attending a prestigious art school, she makes friends with a model and aspiring actress, Marin, and meets Jacob, a handsome young musician. Her future is bright and promising. But Kas is hiding a secret--a secret so dangerous that it threatens to destroy not only her friendships, but also her own future. Diane Tullson has written a powerful, coming-of-age novel about eating disorders, and of the vulnerable teenager who fights to conceal her secret from her friends. Zero is a realistic portrayal of a very subtle disease that challenges readers to figure out just when they should have recognized thesymptoms of anorexia and bulimia. The novel includes an afterword that outlines the warning signs of anorexia and bulimia, as well as the common misconceptions about the victims of eating disorders.
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This book kind of just felt like something you would read in high school health class. Very after school special. While the eating disorder aspect felt authentic I felt like I didn't really get to know Kaz outside of her disorder so it was hard to be super invested. The romance felt pretty insta-love and Kaz was borderline Mary Sue (such an art prodigy omg!)
There were 3 wtf parts of this book for me. When Kaz stole animal ashes from the shelter I was like “why tho?” I guess we were supposed to be like “oh what an artistic soul” but I was just like “that's gross and disrespectful.” Second moment was when she abruptly was raped and the rapist gave her some meth. That just felt out of nowhere. I guess it was supposed to show her self loathing but I felt like there wasn't enough attention given to the fact that she was raped. It was kind of just shrugged off. Finally, the ending scene where Marin cleaned off Kaz by spitting up water on her. Maybe I'm just ignorant but is that really that much more effective than plain old water?? It just seemed unnecessary.
The story outside of the parts about having an eating disorder didn't amount to much. The characters weren't exactly flat but not super memorable either. I did appreciate the extra info at the end and the disclaimers for people who are actually suffering. I hope this book helps teens who read it. For me, it was just something I've already seen and didn't really bring anything new to the table.
