I love this story’s novel-in-verse format. It really focuses on Evie’s emotions and experiences and keeps us in the present with her. The cover copy compares Light Enough to Float with Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. As I read the book, I thought of some moments in Wintergirls.

Whereas Wintergirls focuses on the relationship between two girls and their harmful impacts on one another, this novel stays more focused on Evie herself. Evie does have a relationship with another girl that leaves readers questioning the helpfulness of the friendship, but her own journey stays front and center.

Light Enough to Float feels as deeply personal as it is. Evie brings readers into the center of her anguish, fear, and shame. But she also draws readers forward into her hope and her journey toward healing. Those moments stay grounded, reminding us that there’s no light-switch fix, but they show what recovery can look like and leave us rooting for Evie every step of her journey.

This has to be one of the most real books I’ve ever read about mental health & eating disorders. The writing style was very similar to Ellen Hopkins writing style, which I absolutely love! This was heavy in content, but was so real and relatable as a young girl growing up and learning who she is and how to navigate life as a teenager. This is a perfect coming of age book and I feel like every woman can relate to something in this story even if you’ve never dealt with an eating disorder, there is something you can relate to whether it’s the main character Evie or one of the other characters that is brought up. Such a great story, that was quick and easy to digest. I loved how short the chapters were but you could get all the emotion and feeling out of so few words! I highly recommend this for a coming of age story or just a real depiction of mental health and eating disorders, but also being a young girl and dealing with not feeling like she’s enough and being put in a hospital, but still trying to navigate life.

4.5 stars

This is an important and moving story for anyone who is dealing with eating disorders or mental health issues to read. I have not read a lot of NIV (novel in verse) books, but that format works perfectly for this one. It helps give the reader deeper insight into what Evie is going through, feeling, etc. Society tends to glamorize unrealistic expectations that often lead to eating disorders. Seal chooses to focus on the importance of self-acceptance. While this is geared toward the young adult market, this concept is key to readers of any age.

I really appreciated the introduction, as well as the resources that the author shared. Seal's vulnerability in sharing her experiences lead to the authenticity we find in Evie, and it helps others know they're not alone.


Possible trigger warning: eating disorders

My thanks to Rocky Pond and NetGalley for providing the ARC.

Please check trigger warnings before reading.

Light Enough to Float is a painful read—and I think it needs to be. The spare verse helps readers connect to Evie’s desperate need to be small, which she believes will lessen her pain, when really, the opposite is true. Treatment for anorexia requires taking actions that goes against every mandate the illness dictates, and debut novelist Lauren Seal illustrates this internal battle beautifully on every page and in every poem.

The healthier Evie gets, the better she feels physically and the harder her anorexia fights. A wonderfully specific metaphor for the pain her illness creates and the physical comfort her recovery provides comes by way of the hard wooden chairs in the recovery center. Early on, the chairs physically hurt to sit on, but later on, after Evie has gained some much-needed padding, the chairs are so much more comfortable that Evie asks if they’re new.

This is an important work—getting published at a time when stories like Evie’s are desperately needed.

This book was amazing and by far my favorite poetry book I have ever read! I hope I will get to read more books by the author. An amazing experience, 100% recommend for any poetry lover 🫶🏻

Thanks to @penguinteen and @netgalley for the eARC of Light Enough to Float. Seal’s debut novel-in-verse offers a compelling and heartfelt portrayal of her fictional character Evie’s time in inpatient therapy while getting support for her eating disorder, anxiety, and depression. Her powerful and descriptive imagery pulls a punch and can be hard to read at times, but this is a testament to the author's raw honesty and vulnerability and her lifelike characters. I found the development of Evie’s relationship with herself, her family, her therapist, Anna, and her fellow patient and friend, Marianne, over the course of the four months the novel takes place during heartwarming and healing.

I appreciated Seal’s inclusion of content warnings at the beginning of the book, which shows her concern for the well-being of her readers. It’s important for anyone dealing with similar challenges to approach Light Enough to Float gently and with self-compassion, as it can be triggering. I think it’s essential to read this powerful narrative at your own pace and ensure you’re in a good place emotionally.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

This book was just absolutely beautiful. I have discovered that I love novels in verse and the way that the writing flows. It delivers some much depth and power and that could be seen in this book for sure. This was such an honest and raw depiction of mental illness and eating disorders, and did such a good job of capturing the struggle that Evie has to go through in order to heal. This story really touched me, and I am so grateful to the author for sharing this story with the world but most importantly with young people, as I know that would have been so impactful for me and the way that I thought as a teen. Overall just a great read and cannot recommend enough!

Light Enough to Float by Lauren Seal is a beautifully crafted story that explores themes of hope, resilience, and the struggle to find one’s place in the world. The narrative follows a young protagonist grappling with personal challenges while navigating relationships and self-discovery. Seal’s lyrical writing and vivid imagery create an emotional depth that resonates with readers, drawing them into the protagonist’s journey. This poignant novel is a touching reminder of the strength found in vulnerability and the importance of embracing life’s uncertainties. A must-read for fans of heartfelt contemporary fiction!

This was a beautifully written young adult story about Evie, a 14 year old girl with Anorexia and her time in an inpatient treatment for it.
I thought it was heartbreaking, real and relatable. I also really loved that it was written in verse.

I highly recommend this one!

Evie is fourteen and living in lowercase: afraid to eat, afraid to step outside the rules, afraid to take up space. In "Light Enough to Float", she finds herself in treatment for an eating disorder: "one extreme / or the other. no room / for moderation. my rules, / but flipped." (loc. 1244*)

Written in verse, this is a fast read. Much of it will feel familiar if you've read any books in similar settings, though I'm interested to see the way technology and access to phones and so on has changed the ways in which these stories play out and are told; I remember reading books years ago in which characters were sneaking off to log in to Internet forums, and now they're being lectured about the dangers of social media and having their phones taken from them so that they can't access Instagram and the like. I'm also curious about the representation here—Evie notes early on that she didn't know boys could have eating disorders, which surprises me, considering that she's of the social media generation and doesn't so much as blink when another character mentions being trans; makes me think that the book might be largely based on experiences at a point earlier than (e.g.) the 2020s, with some updates for diversity. (I do really like seeing that at least a couple of the characters are married, because eating disorders are so often written off as a teenage thing.)

This will likely go over well—accessible and an easy read. Not groundbreaking but it doesn't need to be. Oh, I'm curious about the title: it's (unsurprisingly) a theme that comes up a few times throughout the book, but what I find so interesting about the title is that floating in water is easiest with some body fat; fat floats, and someone with more body fat will find floating easier than someone with less. In a way, the point of the book is not "light enough to float" but "heavy enough to float". Maybe that was intentional or maybe not, but I appreciated the little play there.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

This truly is a beautiful mix of Ellen Hopkins' Impulse and Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls. And just like I loved those books, I loved this book. Evie was extremely easy to relate to. I was nervous going into this title, eating disorders are something I am no stranger to, but I feel like these books are so incredibly important and with my experience, when I'm mentally able, I love reading these hard mental health books and supporting them, so that teens or even adults like me, can see something in them that maybe they didn't recognize before and get the help they deserve. I really enjoyed all of the characters, and that the whole ward wasn't teens like many books. I loved (you know what I mean) seeing the adults struggling, just as hard or harder than the teens.

As a parent reading this, my heart broke with Evie's Dad especially. I am terrified that I will be in his position, saying I didn't think anything was wrong, that I'll miss or ignore the signs thinking I'm projecting or something. I love that you get to see not just how Evie is handling things, but you also see some of the raw reactions from her family and friends, that often feel muted in ED books.

All of that said, my last parting words of advice for this beautiful book: It is FULL of triggers. Please, please proceed with caution. If you are in the right head space, you will adore this book. If you need to step away from it, do so! Take care of yourself, and if you or someone you know are experiencing anything like these characters, please reach out to a trusted adult.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author via Netgalley and Rocky Pond Books in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, PENGUIN GROUP, Penguin Young Readers Group, Rocky Pond Books, and Lauren Seal for the opportunity to read Light Enough to Float in exchange for an honest review.

This novel is a HiLo written in a poetic verse style. Seal's technique is awe-inspiring and so vivid with so few words. This novel really show the way someone with anorexia nervosa thinks and feels, a perspective that many people do not understand, because it's not happening to them. Anorexia is a life-threatening eating disorder tied to a certain way of thinking, considering it mental health as well. 

Evie is only fourteen when she acknowledges she might have an eating disorder. Her heart rate is so low, she could die any moment, because her body isn't getting the calories it needs to sustain itself. After giving life to the idea, she is sent to an in-patient treatment facility where there are people of all ages struggling with various disorders, though there are others there too who struggle with eating.

Evie is expected to stay for thirty days, but ends up needing to be there longer. She makes friends with her older roommate and finds the teen group hanging out on Sundays, but at every meal, it's a struggle to finish. From an IV drip to covering calorie counts with Ensure, Evie struggles with the idea of consuming food, not finding her weight gain healthy, but rather that she looks like a "whale." This perspective is challenging to grasp as a reader, because you already know she is deathly thin (though it never states her weight; different body types will fall under different weight categories, so I think the author was trying to avoid showcasing certain weights as anorexic or "normal" for the reader).

When the daily calories rise to 3,000, I have a hard time comprehending that amount and how thin someone with anorexia nervosa must really be to warrant that. It's a medical push to get to a healthy weight, and once there, the patients would then be reduced to what is considered healthy once they are clear for release. With home visits, patients live Evie must be watched very carefully. They must eat all their meal and cannot go to the bathroom alone (or really be left alone anywhere) for at least an hour due to the potential of purging. Evie has a long journey ahead of her, but once she finds a new perspective on herself, she will be able to push through.

This novel shares the journey of a teen with anorexia nervosa and while help is available and changes can be made, it emphasizes that  conscious care is required to maintain health. This eye-opening perspective completes changed how I think of anorexia, especially when we teach eating disorders in health class at school. This is a story that should be shared with youth so they can gain at least some modicum of understanding for someone who is anorexic: it isn't exactly a choice. There is much more going on in the mental state. This novel is truly a visional masterpiece of writing.

this book was extremely raw. real. emotional. and deep. it hit me in ways i didn’t know it would. it had me thinking deeper than a lot of other poetry and had me really feeling for the author. i wish them nothing but the best for the rest of their life. this book moved me. thank you, net galley, for the opportunity to read this as an arc

Wow wow wow, I was blown away with this novel in verse! I have a personal connection to the content in this book and it is absolutely a novel that I wish I had as a teenager. You can tell the author GETS IT and it comes from the heart. It is heartbreaking, it is real, it is powerful. Can it also be triggering ? Yes, but the author addresses that and I am thankful for that. I cried reading this novel and my only wish is that this novel was longer. Thank you so much for letting me read this arc, it is a top read of 2024 for me.

Light Enough to Float tells the story of Evie, a 14 year old girl who is forced to come to terms with having an eating disorder as she is placed into a inpatient treatment facility. This story told in verse catalogs Evie's days through the inpatient treatment program, showing all of the struggles she faces in and out of the program.

What I liked: I was a little worried as I opened this book even with the trigger warnings I was worried that they wouldn't be enough for what I was about to read and I was right. This book captures Evie's raw feelings throughout her journey and there are moments in which I could see myself standing with her and watching as she battled herself. There were also moments in which I saw a younger version of myself who struggled with some of the thoughts we see Evie struggling with.

I appreciated the way that the author handled difficult subjects throughout the book and how real each of the feelings felt. I appreciated the way Jayda's suicide attempt is handled by the author and how we get to see how Evie felt about it and the ways in which she was impacted. I also appreciated that we did get to see how this impacted Evie's family, mostly her sister and how Evie then made her recovery about that instead. I also really loved Harlow's role in all of this because often that was Evie's line to her family, and that was her reason for sticking around and wanting to heal.

Final Verdict: Light Enough to Float is a heavy but much needed book for young adults who may find themselves struggling with an eating disorder. This is one that adults will also enjoy regardless of if this is an experience they share or not.

This book in verse put words to some of the same thoughts and feelings I had when I was in inpatient ED treatment myself. This book was raw, but incredibly revealing. Lauren was able to put these verses on a page and explain things that I never thought I'd be able to articulate to anyone else. I still don't think that anyone who hasn't experienced an ED will ever truly understand it, but this will help them see what it's like in our heads. There were some small things the narrator, Evie, mentioned throughout that took me right back to my weeks in treatment--for better or worse.

This book was hard to read, but so rewarding. Reading through Evie's narrative of events, I found myself so proud of her for taking the steps she needed to to get better. It forced me to take a step back and look at my own situation and stop condemning myself and my "healthy" body that doesn't always feel so healthy; to remember that "food becomes glucose becomes energy becomes ___________" just like Evie said. Everyone in recovery needs reminders of their "why" and if they tell you otherwise, it's because they're trying to hold on to their behaviors. This short book brought me back to my "why" and I am so excited to see my treatment team later this week and talk about it.

Thank you so much to Lauren Seal for writing this and to NetGalley and the publisher for making it available for me to read. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Lauren Seal’s Light Enough to Float is a beautifully written, deeply emotional novel that takes readers on a raw and intimate journey through recovery from an eating disorder. This story isn’t just about the struggle with food; it’s about confronting fears, reclaiming self-worth, and finding hope in the darkest of times. For those who have faced similar battles or know someone who has, this novel offers a powerful and relatable narrative that leaves a lasting impact.

The protagonist, Evie, is introduced at one of her lowest points—newly admitted to an inpatient treatment facility after barely coming to terms with her eating disorder. Seal doesn’t shy away from portraying the complexities and challenges of recovery. Evie’s days are filled with therapy, difficult conversations, and intense calorie loading. The descriptions of these daily struggles are heart-wrenching but never sensationalized. Instead, they are delivered with empathy, offering readers a genuine portrayal of the physical and emotional toll disordered eating takes on a person.

What makes Light Enough to Float so compelling is Evie’s internal journey. At first, she longs for home, for the sense of control she lost, and for a time when her life felt manageable. But as the story progresses, she begins to confront the underlying issues that have led her to this point. Through her interactions with caregivers and peers—each with their own unique stories and battles—Evie slowly learns that recovery is not just about food; it’s about learning to love and accept oneself again. These relationships, tenderly depicted, are the backbone of Evie’s healing process, showing how the support of others can be instrumental in finding hope.

The cast of secondary characters is equally well-drawn, each person facing their own version of Evie’s battle, and they add richness to the narrative. These characters serve as mirrors for Evie’s struggles, highlighting the universal aspects of disordered eating while also providing a range of perspectives on recovery. Seal writes with sensitivity and care, making each person’s experience feel personal and real, without falling into clichés or stereotypes.

Seal’s prose is both lyrical and insightful, capturing the weight of Evie’s emotions while also offering moments of quiet beauty. The winter setting of Evie’s treatment echoes her internal state, cold and uncertain at first, but gradually thawing as she begins to face her fears and find her way forward. Seal’s writing shines in these moments of vulnerability, allowing readers to feel Evie’s pain, resilience, and eventual sense of self-acceptance.

What makes Light Enough to Float so unforgettable is its honesty. It doesn’t offer a quick fix or a neat, tied-up resolution. Recovery, as Seal shows, is a long, often non-linear process. There are setbacks, moments of doubt, and constant reminders of how difficult it is to change deeply ingrained habits and thoughts. But within this honesty is an underlying message of hope. Evie’s story shows that while the road to recovery is tough, it’s also possible—and that every small victory counts.

Final Thoughts:
Light Enough to Float is a poignant and deeply moving exploration of recovery, self-acceptance, and healing. Lauren Seal has crafted a novel that is both heart-wrenching and hopeful, with characters that stay with you long after the final page. Evie’s journey is a testament to the strength it takes to confront one’s demons and the power of love—both from oneself and others—in the process of healing. This is a novel that will resonate with anyone who has ever faced hardship and come out the other side, making it a must-read for those seeking a story of resilience and redemption.

I so enjoyed this book! I always enjoy novels in verse—it's amazing how they can convey so much meaning in so few words, and each word has to be chosen so carefully. LIGHT ENOUGH TO FLOAT is definitely a new favorite for me. Beautifully and authentically written and well-paced, the story takes readers through a fall/winter in 14-year-old Evie's life, as she goes through inpatient treatment for her eating disorder. While on the journey to recovery, Evie's also forced to navigate complicated relationships with her family, the best friend she left behind, the other people at the treatment facility, and, of course, herself. I thought her relationship with her dog was so sweet and added a touch of lightheartedness to an otherwise heavy read. I also thought the familial relationships were particularly well-done!

Additionally, I thought the author just did a fantastic job overall at conveying the pain eating disorders and mental illness in general can inflict upon someone's life, as well as the lives of their loved ones, and how recovery is not always linear, and mental health struggles don't just disappear overnight even once an individual has made great progress. I especially appreciated how she included and described skin-picking as a huge symptom of Evie's anxiety, because while mine manifests differently to Evie's, that's something I've struggled with too, and I hadn't seen it depicted in a book before. Overall, I'd highly recommend this one (but do check trigger warnings before reading)! While it is certainly not an easy read, you won't be able to put it down—I finished it in the span of a day. I look forward to seeing what Lauren Seal writes next! Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Young Readers for the ARC.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

This book. This book has my whole heart. I absolutely adored this! From the incredible characters, to the plot, to falling in love with everything so quickly- I couldn’t put this down. I highly recommend this! It really just sucks you in and makes you never want to leave. In my opinion, those are the best books and I couldn't get enough.

This is a subject that is close to my heart. I have read A LOT on this subject and honestly, the writing is what did me in.

So boring and lyrical. The constant details and the almost mystical aspect of this disease completely went over my head.

The ultimate sin for a book - boredom.