Lighter Than My Shadow by Katie Green

🌟🌟🌗 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis:

Like most kids, Katie was a picky eater. She'd sit at the table in silent protest, hide uneaten toast in her bedroom, listen to parental threats that she'd have to eat it for breakfast.

But in any life a set of circumstance can collide, and normal behavior might soon shade into something sinister, something deadly.

Lighter Than My Shadow is a hand-drawn story of struggle and recovery, a trip into the black heart of a taboo illness, an exposure of those who are so weak as to prey on the vulnerable, and an inspiration to anybody who believes in the human power to endure towards happiness.

^{*I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*}

I thought that the symbolism within the drawings was well done. It was interesting to see how the author was able to include the Katie's issue by drawing scribbles of varying degrees. I also thought that the use of pages looking like they were ripped wherein she showed herself in the present talking about the past were creative and interesting. I believe that these drawing will help people to be able to understand eating disorders in a very abstract way.
It is a difficult novel to read because it is one thing to read something that deals with a character with an eating disorder and another to see the drawings of a character going through it. There are times when the drawings show her emaciated body and there is some nudity as well. It is important to be aware of your own triggers before beginning to read this graphic novel because it is not a light read at all. I'm not sure that I completely understood the progression the story. It seemed to jump around at times and I had to reorient myself to where the author went. Overall, it had a fairly good flow to it and the author leaves the ending open.