WAISTED – SYNOPSIS

 

At Krisp County High School, everyone is hungry. Hungry to lose weight. Hungry to make weight. Hungry to be big and visible—or completely invisible. Desperately hungry to make love and be loved.

 

Like teens everywhere, everyone at KCHS has body issues, including 98 lb. junior varsity wrestler, Bailey George, who decides to give up making weight to pursue Amanda Britchet, AKA, The Missing Girl, who just disappeared from school five days ago. But when his quest reveals problems at the school too big for him to ignore, he sets out to save the entire KCHS student body, including heavyweight wrestler, Houston, who believes big is in and bulk is beautiful; stud athlete Dallas, who’s secret could blow up the world; and all five of the school’s Amandas.

 

Meanwhile, the Girl with the Big Slurpee Cup, whose beverage includes a daily diet of vodka, cannot swallow the scandalous secret she is keeping about her past. Even when she’s mostly sober, she causes havoc that threatens to shame everyone in her way. And as for Bailey, when he finally finds what he’s looking for, he’s in way over his hero-head. The Missing Girl, and all these other haunted high schoolers, may be too hungry to save.

                            

Told through first person multiple narrators via chapters in shorter bursts, WAISTED offers a candid glimpse into body image and identity issues facing teens, particularly boys; but WAISTED is further-reaching, capturing through dark humor what can happen when you try to become someone brand new from outside in.

 

WAISTED will appeal to readers of Sherman Alexie, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Ned Vizzini.  One excited teen reader tagged it “The Breakfast Club on steroids.”