Teenager, Libby Strout, had a hard time dealing with her mother’s sudden death from a cerebral hemorrhage. She began to soothe her anxiety and sorrow by medicating with food. The utter despair at losing her mother who was also her best friend began an obsessive compulsive reaction within Libby’s psyche and the less she could talk about her feelings, the more she internalized her grief. Like a pressure cooker, the more she stuffed her feelings down inside her the more she tried to fill that gaping hole in her life with comfort food but still she found no comfort. As her size grew larger and larger, her father took her to doctors and finally a therapist to try to help her out of the abyss of self-abuse she was in. Libby tried to put up an, “I’m fine,” face for her father. She knew he was dealing with his own grief and she didn’t want to add to his worries. She never talked about her Mom to her Dad, she never let on she was battling mental demons until finally after her weight ballooned to 650lbs. One day laying in her bed, because it had become too painful to try to get up, she had an anxiety attack and couldn’t breath. She thought she was having a heart attack. Because the paramedics were unable to get her out of her room due to her size, she had to be cut out of her house and lifted down with a crane. She endured this humiliation and media circus but finally was assigned a case worker who got through to her. Finally someone who understood her and let her say what she hadn’t been able to say and someone who was open minded enough to go to the park and twirl in a circle with her when she felt the need, because it brought up a happy memory of skirts she and her mother had when she was little and taking dancing lessons. They would twirl in circles so that their skirts would billow out around them. Her social worker understood just how important this was to Libby and joined her every time Libby wanted to twirl. It became a running joke for them. Through this support and friendship, Libby was able to get on a diet and exercise regime where she lost over 190lbs. Feeling great and sassy and fully alive in her skin, she decided to go back to public school. Her father was not so keen on the idea knowing how cruel life can be and wanting to protect his little girl. As expected highschool was no piece of cake nor celery for that matter. She was hassled by boys pranking her with a “Fat Girl Rodeo,” where the guy who could grab her and hold on the longest won. The girls were no better, talking about how disgusting her weight was, etc. The good news was Libby had a power base now. She was sure enough of herself and comfortable enough with who she was whether other people accepted her or not that she did not let anyone stop her nor did she let their hateful remarks nor notes stuffed into her locker (so many they avalanched one day when she opened her locker door) hold her back from anything she wanted to do, not that it didn’t hurt, but, she felt like after the humiliation of the media dubbing her the world’s fattest teen, if she could get through that, highschool bullies were not going to stop her from being who she was and she was not going to go hide and be quiet. Things heat up for her in lots of ways when one of the finest looking cool guys in school begins paying her attention. And it seems they have more in common than they know, they are each struggling with issues in their lives. I love Libby Strout, she is fierce like the Tracy Turnblad character in Hairspray! Good story, good book.
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