Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher

The story begins with Eric Calhoune who is a typical teenage boy who is a little overweight.  Over the years he has lost a lot of weight, but for one whole year, he tried to hide it and stay fat.  He didn't do it for himself, but for his best friend Sarah Byrnes who was covered in horrible burn scars all over her face and hands.  They had been best friends since middle school when they realized that they were outcasts.  But currently, Sarah Byrnes is struggling.  She has gone into a catatonic state and refuses to speak by staying in the mental ward of the local hospital.  Eric visits everyday in an attempt to help her.  He becomes aggravated because no one else seems to understand and he is pestered by the local "perfect guy" named Mark Brittian.  They fight with each other verbally in their classes and against each other in the pool.  Mark in his extreme devotion to religion takes their tole on everyone he surrounds, but he has the support of the vice-principal who seems to hate Eric.  While all the typical high school drama goes on, they mystery surrounding Sarah Byrnes continues to grow.  Eric soon discovers that Sarah actually can speak but is choosing not to because her life is in danger due to her father.  Her father is the one her who burned her at the age of 3 and is starting to threaten her again. She needs to get away  but can only trust Eric.  So he and Mrs. Lemry (his swim coach), plan to help Sarah escape and find her mother who can put Mr. Byrnes away.  But Mr. Byrnes isn't giving up without a fight.  She tracks down Eric and attacks him to find out info on Sarah.  Finally, the police show up but Mr. Byrnes gets away.  He is tracked down by Eric's father figure and brought in.  In the end, Sarah is adopted by Mrs. Lemry, Mr. Byrnes goes away to prison for a long time and Eric gets a swimming scholarship.  Things end well for everyone and gives hope for the future.

While the story is good and well written, there are times in which the story begins to lag.  In the beginning, it was difficult to really get into the story because Eric (the narrator) kept jumping back and forth between past and present.  There are moments in which it would have been easier for Eric to simply tell the whole story of the past rather than skipping around telling one part here and another part here.  The story progressed very well and did manage to keep me interested.  However, there seemed to be a great many details that did not pertain to the story.  While the side story of Mark Brittian was important to the turn of other events, it would seem to try and compete with the Sarah Byrnes part of the story for attention.  However, the story was well done and does manage to keep the reader's attention for a good majority of it.