book review: Paperweight - Meg Haston

"Seventeen-year-old Stevie is trapped. In her life. In her body. And now in an eating-disorder treatment center on the dusty outskirts of the New Mexico desert.

Life in the center is regimented and intrusive, a nightmare come true. Nurses and therapists watch Stevie at meal time, accompany her to the bathroom, and challenge her to eat the foods she’s worked so hard to avoid.

Her dad has signed her up for sixty days of treatment. But what no one knows is that Stevie doesn’t plan to stay that long. There are only twenty-seven days until the anniversary of her brother Josh’s death—the death she caused. And if Stevie gets her way, there are only twenty-seven days until she, too, will end her life.

Paperweight follows seventeen-year-old Stevie’s journey as she struggles not only with a life-threatening eating disorder, but with the question of whether she can ever find absolution for the mistakes of her past…and whether she truly deserves to."

Read Date - May 2024

Length - 288 pages

Genre - Mental Health, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction

Rating - 7/10

Notes - I think this is a great depiction of different levels of loss, grief, and trauma. It unpacks it all through the story of a girl with an eating disorder staying in a treatment center in new mexico, and it switched back and forth between present day and the past through flashbacks. I think the flashback scene are VERY well done, and they remind me of my own flashbacks. They’re accurately described where its a memory, a very STRONG memory-- but a memory nonetheless. They use this format to show off how Stevie got to where she is now with her trauma. I personally am a big fan of the resolution of this book as well, where the therapy starts working. I’d honestly be interested in a sequel to this about Stevie’s life in the center as she’s accepting treatment. I loved this book.