Butter

Author: Erin Jade Lange
Goodreads Rating: 4.04
My Rating: 4 Stars
Pages: 316
Reviewed by: Nicole

A lonely obese boy everyone calls "Butter" is about to make history. He is going to eat himself to death-live on the Internet-and everyone is invited to watch. When he first makes the announcement online to his classmates, Butter expects pity, insults, and possibly sheer indifference. What he gets are morbid cheerleaders rallying around his deadly plan. Yet as their dark encouragement grows, it begins to feel a lot like popularity. And that feels good. But what happens when Butter reaches his suicide deadline? Can he live with the fallout if he doesn't go through with his plans? With a deft hand, E.J. Lange allows readers to identify with both the bullies and the bullied in this all-consuming look at one teen's battle with himself. 

I really enjoyed Butter even though it was terribly morbid the whole way through. I happened to get two copies of this book, I decided that it was important for me to pass the second copy on to my sister and her high school students. There were so many important messages that came across so clearly in Butter.

I loved that this was such a quick read, it was easy to fall into Butter's narration and thought process. Even though it was a terrible idea, I could see why he lead himself to thinking that death was his only option. At first it didn't seem like he was bullied that much, but once you get into running his website then you see how it really was for him.

The story of how he got his nickname "Butter" was enough to horrify me. The thought that people could be that terrible, was just shocking. I couldn't even want to cry about it. It was just jaw dropingly awful. That the amount of cruelty in a single act, I just couldn't believe it.   There was of course one kid that was a total jack-ass through the whole book, but nothing else done topped that single act.

I loved his humor and how he didn't even know that he wanted to live. I felt that the only reason that he decided that he wanted to live was because he felt accepted when he really was only being made fun of which was awful. There were so many things wrong with how everyone started to talk to him after he posted the website that I don't even know where to begin.

I can honestly say that I wasn't sure how the book was going to end, but I am glad it ended the way that it did. I'm glad that Lange didn't cop out of the end and that Butter also stuck to his plan (even if it was awful). This was a great debut, and I can't wait to read more from Lange.