Kas is a gifted artist who has been accepted into the exclusive Whitchurch School of the Arts. She boards with a local family as does budding musician, Jacob. Kas quickly makes friends with Marin, a beautiful young actress, and as a romance begins with Jacob it would seem that Kas' life is just about perfect. Kas is harboring a dark secret; she is both anorexic and bulemic. Her self-worth is the "zero" in the title and although the novel begins with Kas feeling fairly happy and content her inner turmoil soon takes over as she not only endangers her health and her very life, but her relationships with her two friends. She is spiraling out of control and no one seems to see that Kas is slowly killing herself.

This young adult novel is a very quick read and the author has added great information at the end detailing eating disorders, how to recognize them and how to help those who are suffering. Kas' story is well done except I don't feel that there is much depth to her background except that she has always wanted to be perfe
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Kas is a gifted artist suffering from low self esteem. While boarding with a host family to attend a school for the arts, she develops a serious eating disorder and spirals out of control. Very interesting, with a somewhat typical ending for this kind of story. ( )

honest look at a teen's spiral into an eating disorder following a move to a high pressure arts school, some harsh allusions to drugs and sex but not overt, graphic descriptions of disorder including mental distress ( )