Butter by Erin Jade Lange

 

Last night, I finished reading Butter by Erin Jade Lange. This realistic fiction novel is about Butter, a high school boy who is lonely and morbidly obese. During lunch one day at school, he tries to save his crush, Anna, from a bully, Jeremy, but ends up making a fool of himself instead. Then, after he goes onto a blog by an anonymous student and learns that he's been voted most likely to have a heart attack, he decides to eat himself to death live on the Internet. When he receives what seems to be encouragement instead of pity and insults, it gives him an in with some of the popular kids at school and they invite him to hang out with them outside of school. As his suicide deadline of New Year's Eve approaches, he begins to have doubts, even as he wonders if he can live with the consequences if he doesn't go through with his plans.

This book was riveting and I didn't want to stop reading until I was finished. Although I felt bad for Butter because Jeremy was cruel to him and I know what it's like to be lonely, I did come to understand that his situation by the middle of the book was at least partially his fault. I definitely wanted him to get help, though. Despite the fact that I did identify with Butter's loneliness, I hated how he was lying to Anna about who he was online and I knew it wouldn't go over well when she found out the truth. It was also frustrating when he pushed away people who really did care about him, like Professor Dunn and Tucker, a friend from FitFab camp. While this book is about the consequences of bullying, it also shows how your outlook on life and how you feel about yourself on the inside is even more important than what you look like on the outside. Exploring cyberbullying, obesity, and teen suicide, Butter is an excellent choice for eighth graders who are interested in mature topics.