School Library Journal Starred Review (Mon Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2010)

Gr 6 Up-This is one of the most moving and important graphic novels to come along in years. Many stories have been written about teens who try to change what they see in the mirror through anorexia and bulimia, but this one features a girl who is driven by her own personal demon. That demon is called Tyranny, and it is represented by an angry and chaotic swirl of lines that form the shape of a person. The very first image in this book is of Tyranny choking Anna, yelling at her about how she's too fat and lifting her off of the floor by her neck. What follows is Anna asking the question, "How did I get to this place?" and reflecting back on her life choices up to this point. Fairfield treats this important subject with intelligence and empathy, and personifying Anna's horrible self-image in the character of Tyranny is a unique and compelling approach. The simple yet powerful black-and-white drawings do wonders in bringing the book's message to its readers. Tyranny is so important that both younger and older teens will benefit from reading it. Every public and school library should own at least one copy of this amazing book. Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library

ALA Booklist (Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

Tyranny, the part of Anna's personality that tried to rule her life using anorexia as its weapon, took a lot of things from her: high school, steady employment, good health, even a dear friend. But through hard work and a stubborn desire to overcome, she slowly begins to fight back. Fairfield's own struggles with bulimia and anorexia shaped her telling of this graphic novel. It doesn't offer a lot of new information, but the emotions are real. The simple line drawings give the character an ageless feel, young enough to speak to middle-schoolers, but old enough for a young adult to relate to as well. Tyranny is portrayed as a skinny, Jules Feiffer like squiggle that haunts Anna, encouraging her to lose weight and chastising her when she tries to stop. The story is told with equally simple words, relying on the pictures to provide the punch. Some nudity doesn't prevent this effective tale about a young woman trapped by how she perceives herself from being appropriate for teen girls.

Kirkus Reviews

This searing portrait of a teenager with an eating disorder is a slim comic stuffed with weighty issues. Readers will page along as Anna morphs from a young, healthy girl into an adolescent riddled with hormones and self-image issues and, finally, an adult with a life-threatening eating disorder. She scarcely tips the scale when she bottoms out at a dangerously low 85 pounds, barely surviving on a vitamin-enriched diet of diet drinks and laxatives. Fairfield's spare illustrations—loose and undefined line drawings that parallel Anna's inability to distinguish between reality and disease—work to elevate the elusiveness of her protagonist's demon. The author personifies the eating disorder here as Tyranny, an ill-defined whirlwind that berates and abuses Anna, a slippery Etch-a-Sketchesque figure who lurks and slinks her way invidiously through the panels. It's a crusading work with a laudable message and boldly honest about the disease and its consequences; death, laxative abuse and early-onset osteoporosis all make an appearance. A well-proportioned volume with a haunting story and characters—both literally and figuratively. (Graphic fiction. 14 & up)