The more I try to reread Interview with a Vampire, the more hints I get about how Louis feels about Lestat, and the more romantically inclined/abusive controlling their relationship develops in my mind. It's interesting, to some extent. I mean, romantic and controlling aren't really two words that can go together unless one of them is negated.

And oh, remember Skinny? That Ibi Kaslik book? I finished it. again.
It was as good as it was down to the very last word.


Summary: Do you ever get hungry? Too hungry to eat?

Holly’s older sister, Giselle, is self-destructing. Haunted by her love-deprived relationship with her late father, this once strong role model and medical student, is gripped by anorexia. Holly, a track star, struggles to keep her own life in balance while coping with the mental and physical deterioration of her beloved sister. Together, they can feel themselves slipping and are holding on for dear life.

This honest look at the special bond between sisters is told from the perspective of both girls, as they alternate narrating each chapter. Gritty and often wryly funny, Skinny explores family relationships, love, pain, and the hunger for acceptance that drives all of us.


This book was the one that got me started on the gritty genre. After this I picked up similar ones in first person narrating self-destruction and eventual death. I liked the tight first-person narrative, the bleary outlooks and everything. It's a lot more vivid in first person, and it's a lot more personal and engaging than it would have been in third-person.

Giselle is a very very very engaging character. She's perfect: good grades, moderately pretty, modest, careful and determined, but she's also a flop: she hates herself. She's a perfectionist, and she's suffering from a mental disorder more so than anything else. There are times when you will hear her narrating about her, a controlling character who screams and thrashes at her for every single small mistake (five skewers at a potluck, having alfredo instead of white-wine-mussel sauce) and convinces her that she's worthless (especially about that guy she likes). The pacing is not very good -- I didn't like the subplots about her parent's pasts because it seemed badly out-of-place and unfinished, even though it was to some point illuminating, but everything else is wonderful.

So? While I finish The Alchemist, go pick up a copy.