In Tyranny, author and illustrator Lesley Fairfield documents the struggle of a teenage girl who falls victim to the thinsanity of popular culture. Despite evidence to the contrary, Anna thinks that she’s fat, and what starts as a diet to lose “just a few more pounds” soon turns into an uncontrollable spiral of anorexia and bulimia.

Though geared toward girls aged 11 and up, this graphic novel’s artwork and subject matter would be very shocking and affecting to readers of any age. There is only a sparse amount of text, making the disturbing images all the more powerful. Images of, for example, a dangerously skinny girl bent over a toilet bowl or collapsed on the sidewalk are likely to frighten young women wishing to shed their womanly curves.

Still, what happens to Anna is a tad overdramatic. Within a very short period of time, Anna drops out of high school, moves out of her family home, and gets dumped by her boyfriend. It seems unlikely that Anna would suffer these three major blows in such short succession, and some young readers may mistakenly see Anna’s move into her own apartment as a glamorous result of the disorder. The pace of the story also feels rather awkward – often the plot jerks forward without giving much lead-up or context to the events.

In its attempt at a fresh take on the story of a young girl with body issues, the book’s most interesting feature is the personified character Tyranny, which is used to represent Anna’s struggle. The drawings of Anna’s inner demon are crude and spare, giving Tyranny the force of raw emotion.

Although Anna tries several times to break the cycle of her disorder, Tyranny always pulls her back in. It’s this struggle to regain her will to live that makes Tyranny a powerful read.