The Stone Girl by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

by:  Alyssa B. Sheinmel
published by:  Random House Childrens
publish date:  August 24, 2012

Sethie Weiss is hungry, a mean, angry kind of hunger that feels like a piece of glass in her belly. She’s managed to get down to 111 pounds and knows that with a little more hard work—a few more meals skipped, a few more snacks vomited away—she can force the number on the scale even lower.

So this is a book about anorexia in teenage girls.  I don't generally read those.  It's not something I can relate to so I don't tend to connect with the main characters very much.  However, somewhere I read that there was a paranormal element.  I don't know where I read that because I can't find it anymore, but my first question upon finishing was: Where was the paranormal element??  So maybe I dreamed it?  I was thinking it was going to be like Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler and it definitely wasn't.
Now you know what it wasn't.  What was it?  It was about Sethie, a fairly average girl trying to fit into a group of rich kids that weren't really that into her.  She was obsessed with "boyfriend" until it was pointed out to her that she was the only person that considered him that and he was messing around with other girls.  Sethie hates herself and punishes herself because she doesn't weigh less than 100 lbs, because she can't live like her rich friends do, and for various other reasons.  She's not a character most readers will like.

I can't recommend this book to anyone younger than like 16.  Maybe even 18.  It's all sex and drugs and parties with sex and drugs.  Definitely not one of my favorite books this year.  I didn't rate it horribly on Goodreads because it did engage me enough to finish the book.  While I didn't like the main character, I did feel something towards her, she didn't bore me.  I think this book will probably be a love/hate thing.