Find my reviews on Blogger ~ Reviews by Bookish Sarah 
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 16-year-old "Butter" pretty much hates his life. He's tipping the scale at over 400 pounds. His only joys in life are food and playing the saxophone. His mother tries to make him feel better by giving him even more food. His father hasn't spoken to him in a very long time. The kids at school treat him as if he's invisible. 
 Butter's loneliness and pain escalate when an incident at school pushes him to the edge. This is when he decides to end it altogether. He creates a website where he proclaims he will eat himself to death live on the web on New Year's Eve. 
 As the news of his plan spreads throughout the school, Butter gets a lot of attention - and it's good attention. He begins making friends with the popular kids and even ends up in the same social circle as his crush. Butter soon realizes, though, that most of them don't actually care about him - they just enjoy being close to the drama. 
 Butter has to make a decision - will he go through with his morbid plan or not? 
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 This story has such a morbid premise that I sort of felt guilty even reading it. I feel like I'm one of the teens in the book; just wondering if Butter will actually go through with it, you know? This book left me feeling a lot of things: disgusted, angry, sad, heartbroken, thoughtful, hopeful, thankful, etc. 
 The writing is superb. Lange really knows how to execute a novel. Butter had an amazing voice. It was easy to empathize with him and it was easy to love him. I really liked that the author made him talented and funny. She gave him a really great personality (when he wasn't blaming everyone but himself for his obesity). I also think Lange captured the modern teenage mind very well. The kids at Butter's school were, sadly, just like a lot of teens nowadays. It makes me sick to think about it. The part where Butter earned his nickname was heart wrenching and made me so angry inside. I almost had to stop reading because it hurt so much to go through that with him. Then you have the fact that the kids egg him on when word gets out about his plan. Not all of them, of course, but a small group. The sad truth is that things like this happen for real. Maybe someone will read this book and it will change the way they see things. 
 The only thing I didn't like about the story was the fact that, in the end, Anna and Butter sort of "made up" - I felt that the author was leading readers to believe that the two of them might end up together. I think Anna was almost as gross as the rest of the students involved. The idea that Anna could get past Butter's size is just too idealistic. The type of character Lange made Anna out to be makes the idea very hard to believe. I really wish Butter and Morgan ended up having some sort of relationship instead. 
 The main thing I truly applaud the author for was simply writing a book with an obese protagonist. No one ever does that. YA characters are always perfect. They are never overweight. They don't have acne. They don't have bad hair. They're always the perfect height and build. People just don't write from a perspective such as this one. It was a really impressive move to make, in my eyes. This is a real issue that real people have to deal with. That coupled with the issue of suicide? Lange broke some barriers here, and she did it so well. Throughout the entire book I thought Butter would never go through with his plan, but Lange does go there. She totally goes there. I don't think the book would have had such in impact on the reader had she not. 
 Overall, Butter is a really fantastic read. The characterization was amazing. The writing was superb. The issues dealt with are real and present in society. The execution was top notch. The story is moving, thought-provoking, and hopeful. It teaches more lessons than I can even count; There is a lesson in this novel for just about everyone. This book is heartbreaking, but it also has the ability to change the way you see people or situations. It's a powerful story that'll hold a special place for those who've been bullied. It's a book I definitely recommend for all readers. 
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 Book source: NetGalley 
 Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books