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Summary
Summary
From the YouTube slam poetry star of "Shrinking Women" (more than 5 million views!) comes a novel in verse about body image, eating disorders, self-worth, mothers and daughters, and the psychological scars we inherit from our parents.
Fifteen-year-old Ivy's world is in flux. Her dad has moved out, her mother is withdrawn, her brother is off at college, and her best friend, Anna, has grown distant. Worst of all, Ivy's body won't stop expanding. She's getting taller and curvier, with no end in sight. Even her beloved math class offers no clear solution to the imbalanced equation that has become Ivy's life.
Everything feels off-kilter until a skipped meal leads to a boost in confidence and reminds Ivy that her life is her own. If Ivy can just limit what she eats--the way her mother seems to--she can stop herself from growing, focus on the upcoming math competition, and reclaim control of her life. But when her disordered eating leads to missed opportunities and a devastating health scare, Ivy realizes that she must weigh her mother's issues against her own, and discover what it means to be a part of--and apart from--her family.
This Impossible Light explores the powerful reality that identity and self-worth must be taught before they are learned. Perfect for fans of Laurie Halse Anderson and Ellen Hopkins.
Praise for This Impossible Light :
★ "In an exceptional novel in verse, slam poet Myers debuts with a powerful commentary on maternal inheritance and eating disorders....striking use of the flexibility of free verse...absorbing and evocative." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review
"Every YA library needs this book." -- VOYA
"Written in evocative verse, with notes of wonder and despair, the cadence flows across and down the pages with grace. Lifted beyond the confines of the problem novel with its lyricism and resonance." -- Kirkus Reviews
"This verse novel's form perfectly mirrors its content as readers move from poem to poem, from thought to thought, following Ivy through the false logic that triggers and sustains her disordered eating--and into the beginning of the much more difficult steps of grief and recovery." -- Horn Book
"The undeniable teen appeal makes it a first purchase for any YA collection." -- School Library Journal
"More than a touching debut, this is a surefire coping companion, too." -- Booklist
Author Notes
Lily Myers (www.lilymyerswrites.com) graduated from Wesleyan University, where she competed on the slam poetry team and won Best Love Poem at the 2013 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational for her poem "Shrinking Women." Lily has also written for NEDA's youth site, Proud2BMe, and their magazine, Making Connections . She lives in Seattle, Washington. You can follow Lily on Twitter @lmyerspoetry.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In an exceptional novel in verse, slam poet Myers debuts with a powerful commentary on maternal inheritance and eating disorders. Ivy, a high school sophomore, is a self-described smart girl who "understands that/ discipline is success." Since her parents' divorce and her mother's subsequent withdrawal into herself ("More far-off stares./ More wine./ More silence"), Ivy finds comfort in assuming control where she can, such as in math: "Numbers keep their promises." When Ivy's need for control moves outside the classroom, she begins to severely limit her food intake and to exercise excessively. As Ivy's obsession grows and her body begins to fail, she is forced confront her familial issues and harmful choices in order to begin her journey back to physical and mental health. Myers makes striking use of the flexibility of free verse to communicate Ivy's emotions and eventual loss of control. Ivy's relationship with her mother and her understanding of what she has inherited from her- "the unspoken lessons/ that worm their way under my skin/ the things I wish I could unlearn"-are particularly absorbing and evocative. Ages 12-up. Agent: Erin Murphy, Erin Murphy Literary. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Fifteen-year-old Ivy Lewis is a straight-A student who takes comfort in the familiar predictability of her sophomore year. Her father has moved out, her mother is slipping further into depression, her brother has left for college, and her best friend seems to have left her behind. Ivy appreciates the unfailing certainty of math equations--2 + 2 will always be 4. / The quadratic equation always works. / Numbers keep their promises. But solutions in the rest of her life are not so easily grasped, and Ivy begins to fixate on the one thing she can control: herself. Her body becomes the machine whose input of calories she will strictly limit for a more perfect output, powering through the weakness of hunger and fatigue until her concentration, her grades, and her health eventually collapse. This verse novels form perfectly mirrors its content as readers move from poem to poem, from thought to thought, following Ivy through the false logic that triggers and sustains her disordered eating--and into the beginning of the much more difficult steps of grief and recovery. anastasia m. Collins (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Slam poet Myers serves up a poignant portrait of one tenth-grader's struggle with disordered eating. For Ivy Lewis, numbers have always kept their promises. However, after her parents split, her brother leaves for college, and her best friend returns from a summer in Paris irrevocably changed, numbers become the enemy. Ivy's grown two inches and gained x pounds, and she'll cut y calories to balance the rapidly fraying equation. But Ivy's battle with her body is vicious, and healing may mean confronting not only her own open wounds but also her mother's. Teens will identify with Ivy, a girl grappling with her growing body and the stifling pressures of a society and self demanding nothing short of perfection. Myers' succinct (often no longer than a page) poems, sprawling into surprising shapes and strategically set against ample white space, nimbly underscore questions of emptiness and control, fluctuation and resilience. More than a touching debut, this is a surefire coping companion, too.--Shemroske, Briana Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-This debut by the "Shrinking Women" slam poet is an emotional novel in verse about eating disorders. Ivy is a smart girl. She studies, she doesn't party, and she is a good friend and daughter. But when Ivy's personal world is thrown into upheaval (divorce, distant family, a best friend who has moved on), she seeks control in all aspects of her life, including over her expanding body. She struggles with anorexia and bulimia while also disturbingly slipping out of the attention of every adult in her life. Ivy eventually alienates everyone and then, after a significant health scare, works her way toward healing her mind and body. The strength of this title is the writing-Myers's verses are incisive and gut-wrenching as she realistically depicts the pressure and expectations facing teenage girls. There are many passages that readers will underline or share on social media. Ivy's inner narrative also accurately represents how body dysmorphia can warp relationships and previously held goals. However, the story is often didactic, the secondary characters are flat, and Ivy's tale is a predictable arc that ends too neatly. VERDICT Despite the unevenness of the book, the undeniable teen appeal makes it a first purchase for any YA collection.-Susannah Goldstein, Bronx School for Law, Government, and Justice, NY © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Her life in upheaval, Ivy finds solace in controlling her caloric intake. Ivy's once-close family, all white, is coming apart. Her dad has a girlfriend, and her brother has also moved out. Now it's just Ivy and her mother at home. But her mother is progressively disappearing into depression. So when her sophomore year starts, Ivy can't wait to see her white best friend, Anna, who has just returned from Europe. But now Anna has a new best friend and a new beer pong pastime. Ivy is a "Smart Girl." She adores math and trusts numbers for their constancy. She enters an arithmetic competition, but the weight of grief and loneliness sends her careening into obsessiveness. Ivy begins using numbers to control her life, viewing her growing eating disorder as an equation: "My body / is a function. / And I know / that the lower my x is / the less I put inside of me / the better / my output / will be." The distinct quality of this topical novel is Ivy's voice and composition. Written in evocative verse, with notes of wonder and despair, the cadence flows across and down the pages with grace: "I never knew silence / could take up a whole room: / sitting on all the chairs, / climbing up the stairway, / thick in the air like fog." Lifted beyond the confines of the problem novel with its lyricism and resonance. (Verse/fiction. 12-16) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
