As much as I don't like Michael Grant's depiction of autism in Little Pete until the last three books because it falls into the 'burden' stereotype of autism, I gotta admit that I love how he writes Mary Terrafino's disorders (depression and bulimia) and how they affect her. Like first of all, how despite getting better with therapy and pills, she unfortunately starts to regress when all that is taken away and goes back to the unhealthy coping mechanisms of her bad body image. Like, as someone who went through a similar phase in middle school until my mom talked me through it, where I would only eat dinner most days because that's when my family ate together, I could relate to and understand what she was going through. Even when she was starving and was basically skin and bones, she thought she weighed too much and refused to eat even when food was available until she passed out and her brother tied her to a chair and forced food into her mouth. Her clinical depression was also an important part of her character, and though it's not said, it makes you wonder if she's struggling to find more pills (any pills) because she knows how much worse she'll be without them, what about the other kids with mental disorders who can no longer get the medication they need to properly function. Hell, what about the kids with conditions who need medication to stay healthy, like kids who had to get transplants at a young age who need their pills to live?
Like, honestly, it's one of the reasons I feel so bad for her, especially with her fate once she finally gets out the FAYZ. Her clinical depression would definitely not be helped with everything that happens in there along with the trauma of the first book alone, and the responsibility suddenly put on her shoulder of running the daycare and taking care of all the littles with barely any break. She's basically destroying herself and slowly losing it (which is why, as much as I hate it, I can understand Astrid's decision to try and keep her away from the Daycare in Lies) but she's still trying her best to hold it together. She still takes care of the children to the point that when she snaps out of it after she gets out, she's devastated that she thinks she might have killed them all in her delusion.
I'm just—I have a lot of thoughts about the fact that she did so much while going through what she did, with almost no one to help her (Sam even feels guilty that he heard rumors of her mental problems but ignored them until it was too late), but she'll only be remembered for her last moments.
