Lighter Than My Shadow

An Amazon Best Book of October 2017: A vast number of thoughtful books about mental illness and eating disorders already exist, so it seems almost impossible that a new story could add anything more to the genus. But Katie Green does exactly that with her astonishing graphic memoir that reveals through every delicate squiggle the long-lingering anguish people in recovery live through while friends and family assume that everything is now A-OK. A normal child growing up among a normal family, Katie develops bulimia as a teen, eventually requiring hospitalization, and she is pulled from school while she learns to eat again. An alternative treatment therapist helps pull Katie through her rough spots, but as Katie discovers once she’s older, his therapy was not completely benign. Artist and storyteller Green exposes buried-deep emotions through the slope of a shoulder or the slightly-too-big distance between her characters in a way that can’t be mimicked through words. The impact of Katie’s loneliness and constant, low-level despair drives deep into the soul but paradoxically will open your own heart and eyes. You’ll finish this determined to look more closely at your friends and loved ones—and especially your children—to make sure you’re not missing what’s masked by a benign surface. —Adrian Liang, The Amazon Book Review