Much has been written and admired about “Louder Than Hunger,” John Schu’s brutally, almost painfully honest book about his near-death experience with anorexia nervosa. I think this is a book that will become an important personal experience to each person who reads it as each reader uses Schu’s fictionalized experiences as a mirror that might reflect certain experiences in the reader’s life.

Jake, the narrator in this account, is a happy kid for the most part growing up. His parents aren’t perfect, his dad is absent a lot, and his mother suffers from depression, but he has a fantastic grandmother who showers him with love and affection. When he enters middle school, however, things change. His friends join cliques and Jake is alone a lot. And then the bullying begins. Jake develops an inner voice that berates him, tells him he’ll never be good enough, doesn’t deserve anything nice, including friends and happy experiences, and tells him to stop eating.

With so much out of control in his life, Jake listens to the voice and stops eating. Because really, eating is the one thing that he can control. The voice becomes the loudest sound Jake hears and it often drowns out other voices, more rational voices, even loving voices. Finally, Jake is put into a residential treatment program where he is diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, depression, and OCD. He’s got a lot to work on, and he has no desire to change at all. The voice won’t let him.

The format of the writing is important in how the story impacts the reader. It’s a novel in verse, and the ever-changing directions of the text help us understand the different directions that Jake’s emotions take from day to day, moment to moment. The repetition of certain words, usually verbs, becomes poetic as we feel we are hearing Jake’s thoughts as he tries to make sense of the world around him. And the “voice,” jarring and discordant, shows as just that. We literally see the voice interrupting Jake and taking control. There are other books that do this, but one of the most memorable to me is “Love That Dog” by Sharon Creech. Her book is about poetry and uses that as a vehicle to tell a story, and while this novel isn’t about poetry per se, we still get that feeling of reading poetry as we listen to Jake’s story.

The writing is powerful as we share Jake’s innermost thoughts and feelings. We can feel the desperate desire to get better as it wars with the hurt and devastation that bullying has inflicted on Jake. Because of what Schu himself endured, he is the one who is able to tell this story, share these experiences, warn others about the deadly inner “voice,” and do it in a manner that is impactful, yet engaging. We want to keep reading because we like Jake and we want him to get better. We want him to get everything that his beloved grandmother wanted for him.

It breaks my heart that on social media, I read over and over about schools doing nothing to stop bullying, to hold perpetrators accountable for the harm they do, and to make sure that school is a safe place. I’m a retired teacher, and reflecting on Schu’s story makes me sad not just for what he experienced, but because I know that things are not better now. It’s a tragedy.

Thank you, John Schu, for writing this novel and sharing these intensely personal, emotional experiences with us. I hope enough people read it and that they decide to take action against bullying. Identifying and supporting children with emotional issues is harder to do in schools when there is a dearth of school psychologists, so problems get ignored. Maybe this book will help bring about change, even a bit, for the better.

Please note: This review is based on the final, hardcover book provided by Candlewick Press, the publisher, and TvS Media Group for review purposes.