Name: Tyranny
ISBN: 9780887769030

Lesley Fairfield

Pressured by media, friends, and fashion trends, Anna develops an eating disorder that controls every aspect of her life until she finally decides to get help.

Tyranny

Sarah Sammis

Tyranny by Lesley Fairfield caught my eye at the library. It's a graphic novel that looks at causes of anorexia and the devastating effects it has on people.

The book starts near the end of the story with the protagonist, Anna, wondering how she has gotten to this point in her life. She goes back and examines her home life and how little things piled together to make her stop eating and fearing food.

Throughout, Anna's anorexia is personified by this scribble woman whom she calls Tyranny. She nags Anna when she eats and praises her when she doesn't. She pushes her to exercise to the point of exhaustion and so forth. Slowly over the course of the book Anna begins to look more and more like her inner demon.

The book is raw and upfront about the dangers of a poor body image and the destructive nature of anorexia. The scribble scrabble line drawings work well to reinforce the themes and emotions of the story.

One day, horrified by her reflection in the mirror, Anna makes a life-changing decision - that food is the enemy. Her obsession with being thin and beautiful will now dominate her every waking and sleeping hour.

Eleanor Luhar

So as you've probably realised by now, I have anorexia. And because of that, I am always drawn to books about eating disorders, including this graphic novel I found in the library. It's always good to see realistic and relatable presentations of ED's, and I'm also always quick to point out when something is being portrayed wrong.

This book was a pretty accurate representation of my own personal battle with anorexia. It addressed the starving and the bingeing that many anorexics go through, as well as the body dysmorphia and unhealthy habits and routines. It included friends of Anna (the protagonist of this book) who are also suffering - one of which eventually suffered a heart attack and died. It's not uncommon for people with anorexia to have friends who pass away as a result of the unhealthy habits brought on by the disorder.

Anna does eventually decide she wants life, and goes into treatment. She learns to tell Tyranny (the voice/persons of her ED) that she doesn't care about being thin anymore, and eventually she gets her to leave entirely. (I can't say that's happened to me; it's more of an ongoing, up-and-down struggle in my experience.)

One thing I wasn't sure was so good about this book was the inclusion of weights - her weight loss process, the weight of another patient. This can be incredibly triggering for people suffering with an eating disorder, and can make people feel invalidated - feeling as if their ED isn't as "bad" or "real" because their weight wasn't quite as low. For this reason, I would be hesitant about recommending this book to people who are trying to recover from their disorder.

Overall, I felt it was a good portrayal of anorexia. It was brutally honest and included both the starving and the bingeing, which lots of people don't often discuss. 4.5 stars.

Tyranny

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