Weightless: A Novel

Written by Sarah Bannan

Narrated by Andi Arndt

When Carolyn Lessing moves from New Jersey to Alabama with her mother, she rattles the status quo of the juniors at Adams High. Gorgeous, stylish, a great student and gifted athlete without a mean girl bone in her body Carolyn is gobbled up right away by the school's cliques. She even begins dating a senior, Shane, whose on again/off again girlfriend Brooke becomes Carolyn's bitter romantic rival. When a make-out video of Carolyn and Shane makes the rounds, Carolyn goes from golden girl to slut in an instant, with Brooke and her best friend responsible for the campaign.

Carolyn is hounded and focused on, and becomes more and more private. Questions about her family and her habits torture her. But a violent confrontation with Shane and Brooke in the student parking lot is the last attack Carolyn can take.

A novel to drop us all back into the intensity of our high school years, WEIGHTLESS is a startling and assured debut.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Jun 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781427261700

Sarah Bannan

Sarah Bannan was born in 1978 in upstate New York. She graduated from Georgetown University in 2000 and then moved to Ireland, where she has lived ever since. She is the Head of Literature at the Irish Arts Council and lives in Dublin with her husband and daughter. Her first novel, Weightless has been shortlisted for the Newcomer of the Year in the Irish Book Awards. @sarahkeegs

Reviews for Weightless

[bookstogetlostin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book took me on an emotional... well, it hasn't been a rollercoaster. It just went down, down, deeper down. It's really scary how cruel and thoughtless the characters were. Don't get me wrong, the behaviour's been totally realistic. That's why it was so scary.I haven't read a pluralistic first person point of view before and I don't think I want to read it again. While the we included the reader and made them feel as if they were a part of the group, I couldn't get a feel for those characters. I couldn't glimpse behind their facades, so the things I did learn about them... stereotype after stereotype. The characters didn't even really differ from each other. Everyone was obsessed with money, appearances and popularity.Nonetheless it was really interesting to read about the bystanders, instead of about the victim, which is done way more.If you are triggered easily by the following things, this isn't a book you should read: Bullying, slut shaming, body image issues, eating disorders, self harm, suicide.Droemer Knaur provided me with a free copy of Die Neue (which is weightless's german title) in exchange for a honest review. Thank you!

[chimocho · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was lucky enough to win a copy of Weightless through Goodreads First Reads.This is a powerful, mesmerisingly terrible story focusing on bullying within a high school. I will say here that I found the subject matter hit a little too close to home, I was friends with a girl exactly like Carolyn when I was 16. Thankfully her story had a happier ending, but I did find myself feeling quite queasy reading things that were so personal to my life on paper. I would not recommend this book for anyone who may find themselves triggered by reading about bullying, eating disorders, self harm or suicide.I found this book so interesting to read, particularly due to the telling of the story. Weightless reminds me strongly of Jeffrey Eugenides 'The Virgin Suicides' with its collective, somewhat anonymous 'we' voice, the story told from the outside perspective after the events. Those who haven't encountered this style before will enjoy its uniqueness.It's interesting that a book can make you feel so stale. You feel so little attachment to any of the characters, and yet become so involved within their story, and the use of 'we' plays to put you in the mix with them, and by the end of the book you share in the characters' guilt.Weightless is depressing, gut-wrenching, and a bleak reflection on high school life and teenage interaction. Particularly with the use of technology as a tool to hurt and humiliate others. And I think it's a masterpiece. Perhaps if every young teen could read this, and understand it, we would see a lot less bullying and a lot more compassion in schools.Five stars.