Wow wow wow. A great YA book about anorexia in men. I'm going to need to do a blog review on this one. ( )

A well written and poignant story. The narrator (the voice) is a very good idea and a different take in a novel. A Trick of the Light is quite an emotional read, but it's worth it. Everything about it is well done, mostly the terrible changes Mike go through... both psychologically and physically. It's realistic.

I highly recommend it! ( )

A Trick of the Light I'll admit that what first drew me to A Trick of the Light was that it dealt with something I haven't seen before. Books that deal with anorexia are almost always about females, but this one follows a male character. Even stranger, Lois Metzger chose to have anorexia as the narrator. The reader sees how it this disease becomes an all consuming entity, taking over from the inside out. Mike's story moves lightning fast, and I can't deny that I was hooked.
 
I know it might seem off at first, but I truly believe that Metzger's choice in narrator was spot on. We all know many teens deal with self image problems. Mike feels like his life is falling apart and, when he meets the wrong girl, his image problems turn into something much more. His story turns ugly quickly as his own voice is drowned out by the one in his head. It was hard to look away as he lost himself to this aggressive disease, and his life spiraled out of his control.
 
It was pretty amazing to me how well this story was told in such a short amount of pages. It doesn't go quite as deep into the consequences of anorexia as some other books. However it definitely skims the surface well enough to show how quickly the onset can be. It's a quick visit into the life of a person who was able to make it out of the abyss. As much as I would have liked to dive deeper, it was emotionally exhausting enough just to read Mike's story as it was.
 
A Trick of the Light was a different read, and one that I'm glad is out there in the public eye. It's not often that you see a male portrayed in a book about anorexia, even though they suffer from it too. While short, it's well written and intriguing. I'd recommend you give it a read. ( )

Mike and his friend Tamio enjoyed watching Ray Harryhausen movies, discussing his stop-motion method of filming and the many creatures he brought to life using this technique. When his mother began to spend her days sleeping and his dad left home after he found a young girlfriend, Mike’s life started to go downhill. Read the rest of the review on my blog: http://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.com/2014/09/17/a-trick-of-the-light-lois-met... ( )

I don't get a feeling I got with this book very often. I was completely, excuse my French, mindfucked by this from the very beginning and sometimes I needed to take a break and process everything that I've read. It's unusual, strange, weird - however you want to call it - book and it takes some time getting used to it, or it did for me. But once I did, I couldn't keep my eyes off this book. It's a fast read, but so terrifying at the same time that it'll made you question everything that you've just read. Anorexia is an eating disorder that mostly gets younger girls, teenagers, and sometimes people forgot it can happen to males, too. This book shows perfectly how it can happen to anyone.

Everything is straight-forward, bold and astonishingly honest. There is no sugar coating, everything is described in detail - Mike's mind, the voice in his head that's probably the most terrifying thing in the story, and his process to having anorexia nervousa, without him realizing it for the most of the book, which is not surprising. I liked that more than anything. It only made me want to finish it as fast as I did and I'm definitely not sorry for picking this book up and reading it in hours time. I'll most likely go back and read this over and over again. There is no way I could give it any less than 5 stars. It's just that good. ( )