Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

I read Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes in the car on the drive from Nashville to Indianapolis with my grandparents and mother.  I've heard a number of good things about Chris Crutcher, through I had only read Deadline (which is also fantastic). Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes was added to my to-read list at least three years ago when I took an English/Language Arts methods course as an elective for my master's. We did literature circles. The group I was in read Fahrenheit 451, and created a podcast (which I should really find and put on the internet because it was super cool). Other groups read Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar, another title that I don't remember, and Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. So I finally picked it up. Here's the book talk, see if it would work for you.

Review: Thirteen Days to Midnight

Review: Deadline

Deadline by Chris Crutcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


There are some books you pick up, start reading, and think, "I love this main character, I don't want something bad to happen to him." So you read through the entire book hoping that the end isn't what it's billed to be. And you try to prepare yourself. But there is no preparing yourself. It's like rereading John Green's Looking for Alaska, or reading Jodi Piccoult's My Sister's Keeper (or anything by Jodi Piccoult, really). You know what's coming, but there's no avoiding the visceral reaction you have to the text.

I will reread this book. And when I do, I'll actually write a review of the book rather than my thoughts in general about books that make me cry.



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