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Summary: The Best Book on Eating Disorders I Have Ever Read!
Review: This book is honestly the best book on eating disorders I have ever read. I feel I can relate to Marya very well, we share many similarities from being the only child in a theratrical family, attending the same school (Interlochen Arts Accadmey), and starting eating disorder at a very young age. But even if your life is very different from hers, I feel that almost anyone can relate to how she felt. Never being good enough, never measuring up, always feeling that there is more to be done, more room for improvement. I also liked the fact that this was not a sob story, it was not a :my life was so hard, my parents were mean, feel bad for me story. I admire her for that, it is very easy to point the finger of blame at someone else, and very hard to point it back at yourself to admit that this is something that you choose (at first at least) to do to yourself. It is a book that I feel must be read by anyone who is having trouble coping with or figuring out what eating disorders are really about.
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Summary: Amazing book, and I've met her
Review: Wasted has to be one of the most moving, electrifying books I have ever read. I know many people who have or have had eating disorders and this has helped me understand this disease better. Her writing is straight to the point, no-apologies, take-me-as-I-am writing, which I absolutely loved. I also had the opportunity to meet her recently, twice and she is an extrememly powerful human being and wonderful speaker. Thank you, Marya for sharing your journey with us. I, for one, am glad you made it through.
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Summary: NOT TIME WASTED
Review: This book takes a look at the irrationality of eating disorders and how those of us with eating disorders can find the rationality in what we do. Marya tells about her unique journey in poignant detail and uncensored truth of her perceptions in a world controlled by anorexia/bulimia, drug abuse, promiscuity, and an etheral world of chaos, despair, and unrelenting mind control. The thing about her story is the uncanny similarities of others living in this world of affliction and suffering. As Marya points out, once you jump head long into the rabbit hole it is a struggle to find your way back out. Marya's use of language and descriptive verse is exceptionally engaging and masterfully created. I reread just to see how she put the words together in such uncanny perfection. I have never read anything that compares in simplistic complexity. It is a given that Marya is a very complex person. I especially enjoyed the last chapter when she wrote how stupid all of it really was and that she had more important things to do with her life when she decided to give it a time limit and go back to disappearing if health didn't work out. This section of the book is what is most beneficiary for those in recovery. At least it was for me. I have a long way to go, but it gave me something to think about. The criticisms of it giving secrets away in order to be more effective at dying may be true, but to dismiss the positive qualities the book presented is a fallacy, like shedding light on the anorexic mind set to those in the dark and giving a true account of the experience-it achieved its purpose.
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Summary: the best
Review: I have read many books on anorexia and this is by far the best. It tells it like it is and isn't glossed over. It took me a while to read it as it is quite heavy going and it stayed with me the whole time - I couldn't get it out of my mind.
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Summary: sad..
Review: the thing that strikes me most is that people forever search for the catalyst. the epiphany. the end of the story, amen. you wanted marya to tell you: okay, this is the hell that i went through, here is how i recovered, let me tell you how i got my life back.and of course she can't, and you all should know that. there is no end to the story. she can't tell you how to get back on the road to recovery..when it comes to an eating disorder, there's really no such thing. of course she's not a "model of recovery"..she's still going through it. rumor has it she's just recently been released from yet another hospital. which is proof that no matter how good life may seem to someone on the outside, proof that no matter how lucky someone appears, they are simply human. no matter how many books she writes and sells, no matter how many people are infuriated and hurt by her behaviour, it remains the same. an eating disorder is an addiction. a terrible, maddening addiction. if it's something you've lived with your entire life, it's not as though it's something you can just up and drop. and of course her book (that's why it's called a memoir, honey) would contain nothing but information and details about her life. think about it. go on. go write your own autobiography. sort of difficult to not mention your own life, huh? something else that shocks me is the way people can be so cold. over and over i'm seeing "self-absorbed, selfish, self-induced", as if she's flaunting the serious damage she's done to herself, as if she's beckoning you to join her. to quote myself, because it needs to be stated again: "i think she had to be candid and personal, or else the point would not have come across so harshly and therefore truthful. of course it was dangerous and perhaps even unwise for her to write so openly. but you've got to take into consideration that there's danger in writing any book. discussing drug abuse, self-mutilation, eating disorders..they can all be risky, triggering subjects. ms. hornbacher wrote the book because she felt she needed to get her voice out. she is not responsible and not in control of the way her book affects others, she is not in control of other people's minds". i certainly hope that you didn't expect marya (or anyone else writing about their own experiences with an eating disorder) to paint a pretty picture, soften the edges of a horrifying disease. it makes me wonder what you expect of people. it makes me wonder what it is you consider as compassion and empathy for a person so obviously in a lot of pain and living a life of madness. it makes me wonder if you've even read the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Compelling, yet chilling book
Review: In my opinion, this book would be a great source of information for those not familiar with eating disorders. However, if someone has an eating disorder or has the tendencies towards an eating disorder, this book may not be the best for them to read. Throughout the book you just want to reach out for Marya and give her the strength that she lacks in herself. You feel the longing for love that she feels as she leads you through her strenuous process of battling bulimia and anorexia. This compelling story is emotional and informative at the same time. If I were to write a research paper on the subject, this is one book I would definitely turn to.
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Summary: Eloquently Written, Will Teach Tricks
Review: I read this book with the hope of learning new tricks. It worked like a charm. I have read it time and again and each time, I learn something new. I am nowhere near the point of recovery in my eating disorder and while I can't blame the book, it certainly wasn't "theraputic" for me. This book is practically my new Bible. I want to BE like Marya Hornbacher. Much as it pains me to admit it, the idea of growing that thin does not disgust me, rather it tempts me. This is a dangerous book, but it is extremely well-written and gripping. You will not be able to put it down and it will ultimately change your views on food and weight forever.
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Summary: Insightful!
Review: In WASTED Marya Hornbacher invites the reader to see the thoughts and feelings behind her personal struggle with eating disorders. This book shows her deep, intense, and personal insight of what she had to deal with "growing up". I believe the book is, at least, magnificant work. Afterall it is her story! She does not hind the facts or oversimplify the reality of a life with an eating disorder. What she reveals is shocking and at some times grotesque. I did not want to put the book down, but there were times I just had to take a break. Her detail exhausted me! I feel it is impossible to grasp all the book has to offer only reading it once. I plan to read it again soon.
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Summary: an honest look on eating disorders
Review: Marya Hornbacher's book kept me awake a couple of nights, reading. It's a terrifying book, an honest, brutal, personal account of her eating disorder, an eating disorder that came close to killing her. What I specifically liked was that eating disorders are not seen in a simplistic way in this book. They are seen as the complex & dangerous problems they are. Reading this book, you'll probably feel disgusted, angry, and surely sad at times. But mostly you'll take a deep look into the image that society makes us strive toward: the image of the perfect, beautiful, succesful, thin at all costs, calm & controlled individual. I think these stereotypes are extremely dangerous, & they make people (such as the author herself) get caught up in their image & forget about their soul & their true needs. Killing yourself, slowly, just to achieve the "perfect" body, the perfect image, is a trap that unfortunately many, many women (and men,too) fall into nowadays. It's probably society's way of keeping women "in their right place". Hornbacher's book is very disturbing because it's very personal. It doesn't hold anything back, it describes the lies, the self-deceit, the ignoring of friends & family that love you, the secret pride in the identity you've achieved, even though it's a fundamentally problematic identity...& of course the actual medical danger that comes with eating disorders. I think it's an intelligent look on the subject, useful for anybody who wants to learn more about it. I especially appreciated the fact that nothing was black or white, not even recovery: Marya Hornbacher accepts that recovery is an ongoing process, an everyday struggle that she'll have to live with for the rest of her life, & this makes the book even more honest & real. The ending of the book is not really an ending in the way we usually mean the word: it's more some kind of conclusion, the beginning of new things, & the slow but steady change that has started to happen in her life.
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Summary: Loved this book!
Review: I have to admit, I loved this book. It was definitely disturbing and frightening . . . a no-holds-barred look at eating disorders. I am amazed at the clarity and honesty the author shows throughout. At times it made my stomach turn, and the thought of being so thin people could see the outline of her teeth through her skin . . . it definitely gave me a pretty vivid mental picture. I have never had an eating disorder, but have always had "issues" with food and my body image, so I consider myself to be kind of teetering on the edge of experiences like these . . . books like these definitely make me think twice. It's difficult to imagine why someone would willingly starve themselves, but Marya shares her brutal insight and honesty in a truly effective manner. This book should be mandatory for junior high and high school students . . . maybe then everyone would see the truth about this terrible disease directly from a survivor. Maybe then young girls would pay less attention to models on t.v. and in magazines and pay more attention to being happy with themselves.
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