Katie Green's 'Lighter Than My Shadow' is a moving memoir that candidly explores her struggles with eating disorders and their profound impact it had on her life. Through poignant illustrations and raw storytelling, Green offers readers a glimpse into the complexities of mental illness and the journey towards healing and self-discovery.

Thanks to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors, this was a deep book told through graphics. This book would work well for people that have/or are experiencing eating disorders, someone that knows someone that is and would like some information about it or to anyone that would like to know what it entails.

An intriguing and skillfully related memoir about the author's life, particularly her eating disorders. The story is simple yet compelling, and the art has a low-key appeal and is appropriate to the story.

Katie Green powerfully captures the battles faced by anorexic people in her graphic novel, “Lighter Than My Shadow.”

Highly recommended to those who are struggling with eating disorders and those who know someone who do.

This is an important book.

Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses and in this book, Katie details her struggles with food in a haunting, unflinching and raw way due to this being a graphic novel.

An important graphic memoir, though difficult to read at some points. It's worth noting that some readers may find the subject matter triggering or upsetting (eating disorders and sexual abuse).

This book captured how difficult it can feel to be a teenager, as well as exploring the complex issues around eating disorders. The artwork is beautiful and the colour scheme only added to its impact.

I found Katie's journey really involving and I was so pleased that she found a way through her experiences.

This memoir in the form of a graphic novel does an amazing job of showing the toll an eating disorder takes not only on the victim, but also those around her. If you are a teenager, are the parent of a teenager, or work with teenagers, I highly recommend reading this one.

What a wonderful read.
Heart wrenching, raw and powerful.

The illustrations are gorgeous and so evocative while the writing really pulls you into the author's thoughts and experiences. So heartbreaking at times and I'm so glad it was able to end on a more-or-less happy note.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read the ARC of Lighter Than My Shadow, by Katie Green. Although this book would not download on my Kindle app, I was able to read an ARC from my school library. It is not easy being a teenager, facing your desires to be more independent from your parents, yearning to be pretty enough to be noticed by the boys, and popular enough to be accepted in a large group of friends. This book covers so many issues, including being a picky eater to stay skinny, body image issues, and assault by a trusted adult. This is an important book for parents and adults who work with teens to read.

This is another very good example why some stories are simply better told as a graphic novel rather than in plain writing.
I think, the author manages superbly to convey her feelings, struggling with her eating disorder.
It's heartfelt, raw, honest and touching.

But for me this would work better in two parts, as towards the end, we are also looking at rape and it's basically a door stopper of a book, with too much thrown into the mix for the reader to take it all in at once.

I went into this graphic novel knowing nothing about it; it was my first ever graphic novel to read! For someone who struggles with food and body dysmorphia, it was nice to know and understand that I'm not alone? It's an incredibly sad read as it tells the story of Katie Green's own childhood and is often very close to the bone. I found it a little slow, but not too slow as in not wanting to finish it.

I don't have the words right now. This book was AMAZING. I can't even describe how. I want to read it again. It needs to be read. People need to know about this book.

This graphic novel is Katie Green's memoir of her childhood and teen life that tackles the heavy topics of eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and sexual assault. The whole read was uncomfortable and slow, but I still found myself engrossed in the story. The art style does well in setting the tone of the book, even if it is one I generally don't enjoy.

It's a tough read, but still worth it. Go check it out.

hank you NetGalley for the ARC. This well drawn and well written graphic memoir stays with you. It is an important book that is easy to engage with. I recommend it.

Lighter Than My Shadow is Katie Green’s story of her life with anorexia. As a kid, she had the typical struggles with her family over finishing dinner and changing tastes. She was an artist from a young age, spending time alone in her imagination. Sometimes the things she found scared her, and she sought order and rules and rituals as a way to control her world.

Her happy childhood was disrupted by oncoming puberty. Her best friend was growing up faster than Katie was, which drove them apart. Then there were bullying boys at school, where Katie’s achievement singled her out for more negative attention. Even her friends were catty to her about her lack of interest in the opposite sex. It all added up to a recipe for seeking ever more control over the one thing in her life she can control absolutely: what she eats. At first, her discipline, giving up junk food to start, made her feel healthy, but it soon came to consume her.

Lighter Than My Shadow has a very different look from most graphic novels. Her figures are simple, dot-eyed stand-ins that resemble toys, but they have an impressive sense of motion and emotion. The poses are realistic and well-observed.

Most of the book is printed on grey or sepia paper, giving the whole thing a gloomy overtone that suits the material and focuses attention on the central figures. There are no gutters, and the borders between panels resemble torn paper edges. The despair that overtakes Green is shown as a black scribble, a simple but potent device that can be used as an overhanging cloud or a looming threat. Later on, she draws herself with a yawning open mouth in her midsection, the perfect image for how thinking about food and eating begins to define her.

Green’s portrayal of her life is very approachable, which makes her gradual slide into disorder all the more understandable. Her depiction of her mental state, of how all this made sense to her and even how some attempts at recovery were just more ways of trying to be good, is incredibly truthful. The straightforward art makes this readable by even those not used to comics. I hope this book reaches outside the usual graphic novel readers, because its message of Katie’s journey could help a lot of girls and women realize they’re not alone in their concerns and mental struggles. Anorexics sometimes feel as though they want to erase themselves, and the comic format is a perfect venue to illustrate that literally and symbolically. Her desire to make art infers her well-chosen images, using the visuals to represent her internal state of mind. Compare, also, Look Straight Ahead; both graphic novels brilliantly use the visual/verbal blend of comics to convey mental states that otherwise would be hard to describe.

Stunning graphic novel. It really drains you within and without. It makes you feel the void the protagonist is drowning in. It is that powerful and it deserves to be read by the thousands.

This story was beautiful. it had such a great message told through such a beautiful voice. the art style was gorgeous and really conveyed and suited the stories tone. I would recommend this book to anyone. I also love that it was a graphic novel that had a strong focus on mental health, which was refreshing and done in a respectful manner.

After such a long time, I am writing this review.

In this story we learn about none other than Katie Green herself.
When she was little, she was a picky eater. She was hiding the food between the wall and furniture, couldn't finish the meal, and so on.
As she grew up, the problem never disappeared. I liked her for her love of reading, although this made her imagine weird monsters under her bed late at night.
In school, she was the skinny one. Her colleges were curvy. Katie was annoyed by their stupid questions, like "Why don't you eat more?" kind of questions. So she became anxious and she started spending more time with herself than her friends.

Even though there were times when she managed to get better, she always became skinny very quickly and one time she fainted and went to the hospital.
After a very long time, when she started having pictures in mind of herself being a very fat girl (only the tummy, like she was pregnant - that was somewhat scary), her father took her to a new "therapist" who, amazingly, made her more happy and changed her. He and his wife were the kind of "hipster" people, but so cool and positive; and they were encouraging her to be more powerful.

But after a while, she broke up with her boyfriend she had for some time now (which I liked, because he was such a nice and lovable guy), and ran away from home, moving with this family. But again, she started feeling bad.
Then, something really bad happened. Something that changed her life for the worse. She was again on her own. And towards the end, we see her fighting for her life, to survive.
The story has a happy ending.

What I have to say about this story is that I really liked it. The reason I gave it 4 stars and not 5 was because I really loved the main character, and whenever she suffered, I felt a big rock on my chest; I even cried for her and felt so unhappy at times. The story is a heartbreaker, but so beautiful. I loved that it was long, and I had time to meet the character for real, and that the ending was so great!
I want to buy this book for myself.

*Thank you very much NetGalley, the publishers, but especially for Katie Green for this incredible story and free arc.*

I had heard about this book when I visited the publisher's stand at Bookcon. While I knew it would be different from other graphic novels, I was not prepared for the subject content. Mental health, eating disorders....this book took me much longer to finish than I expected because of that. But overall, I enjoyed it.

A look at the very serious topic of eating disorder through the format of a graphic novel. It really brings home the topic and the effects associated with it in the visual medium. It is a difficult but important read.