Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz

She's also recovering from an eating disorder - though not one she can be medically diagnosed for, even though she used to starve herself and throw up whatever she did eat, because her weight isn't low enough. So intersectionality, I just had to read it! And it was an even better read than I hoped it would be.Įtta recently split up with her boyfriend, but despite that, the Disco Dykes, the group she was formerly apart of, still don't want to know her, and treat her appallingly for stooping so low as to go out with a guy. Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz is a novel about Etta - a black bisexual girl with an eating disorder.

The latest powerful, original novel from Hannah Moskowitz is the story about living in and outside communities and stereotypes, and defining your own identity. Bianca seems like Etta’s salvation, but how can Etta be saved by a girl who needs saving herself? Both girls are auditioning for Brentwood, a prestigious New York theater academy that is so not Nebraska. Etta doesn’t fit anywhere- until she meets Bianca, the straight, white, Christian, and seriously sick girl in Etta’s therapy group. Not gay enough for the Dykes, her ex-clique, thanks to a recent relationship with a boy not tiny and white enough for ballet, her first passion and not sick enough to look anorexic (partially thanks to recovery).

This is a book told from multiple perspectives-with one character and one event drawing them all together-by some of YA’s most recognizable names.Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz - Etta is tired of dealing with all of the labels and categories that seem so important to everyone else in her small Nebraska hometown.Įverywhere she turns, someone feels she's too fringe for the fringe. Some are sweet, some are dark some are seemingly unrelated, about fights or first kisses or late-night parties. This is about one boy-who had friends, enjoyed reading, playing saxophone in the band, and had never been in trouble before-became a monster capable of entering his school with a loaded gun and firing bullets at his classmates.Įach chapter is told from a different victim’s viewpoint, giving insight into who Kirby was and who he’d become. This isn’t about recounting that one unforgettable day. It took only twenty-two minutes for Kirby Matheson to exit his car, march onto the school grounds, enter the gymnasium, and open fire, killing six and injuring five others.īut this isn’t a story about the shooting itself. In a one-of-a-kind collaboration, seventeen of the most recognizable YA writers-including Shaun David Hutchinson, Neal and Brendan Shusterman, and Beth Revis-come together to share the viewpoints of a group of students affected by a school shooting.