Rating: 
Summary: My review.
Review: I love this book because I can relate to it so well. I am female, competitive and have low self esteem issues. Marya Hornbacher writes about the same characteristics she has herself but on an entirely different level. Ms. Hornbacher has the ability to describe things EXACTLY as they were and exactly how she feels at that moment in the Interlude chapters. This book gives the reader an insight on how eating disorders can erode a ridiculously talented young woman (I am still amazed that she was only 22, 23 years old when she wrote it). It is not a snapshot of all eating disorder victims (quote: "So I get to be the stereotype: female, white, young, middle-class. I can't tell the story for all of us.") and should be read with the thought in mind that eating disorders can happen to anybody- the disfunction of the mind can happen to people you love.
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Summary: A MUST READ! I SWALLOWED IT WHOLE
Review: I have a friend who was diagnosed with anorexia before we met. She's like a sister to me, and she is now complete over it.
A while back she handed me this book and she told me, "three years ago i read this and strengthened myself that what i was doing is the right thing" her anorexia was much deeper than wanting to loose a few pounds. she asked me to read it and said that after I do she'd want to tell me something. I didn't know much about anorexia and i learned a lot from tis book. it tells this girls story so vividly and so well. it's fair and honest and real. In the introduction the author says that she wishes it will drive everybody away from eating disorders or to get help or help someone else. "when a normal person reads this they see hope and rebirth, I took it as a ride deeper down, starved myself one more day and another," my friend said to me. "I read this again before i gave it to you, I am amazed! some parts made me think what i had thought before but others where what the author said, disuassion." that was about 18 months ago. last week she handed me a folder. i opened to the first page and asked her what that was "to give you a rough idea what MY book is going to be like" anyone who reads this book or who was present when a close person had an eating disorder would have an idea as to how happy i was.
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Summary: i loved this book
Review: this book is one of the best books that i have ever read. it took me inside the life of a person that had anorexia and bulemia and it showed me how she lived. i never knew all of the struggles that someone went through just to feel that they look good. i recommend this to anyone and everyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Wasted, but not over...
Review: Wasted was a book I couldn't put down, but at the same time I could not stand to read it. The details of her life were very clear and real. It was an amazing autobiography that I think everyone should read. It was a good way to learn about something I knew little about. Marya Hornbacher's story was not about romance or have a 'happily ever after' ending, it was the truth of her life. Anorexia and bulimia are becoming more and more noticed, but still it is hidden in every day life. This story brings it to life and shows the reader what it is really about.
Hornbacher explained her thoughts in such a detailed way it was almost hard to read at times, although, I found myself not wanting to put the book down. It was a like roller coaster; there were many climaxes in the book so it was always keeping my interest. Details of her thoughts and of her dreams, all of her different lifestyles that she lead, and her being placed in and out of different hospitals were very clear specific. The true story was very real to me that I found myself connecting to her in some way. I, like many women, have issues with food and my body. I don't like the way I look, but yet have done little to change that. I have not reached that point to think it is okay to have that possibility of bulimia and anorexia.
I believe that everyone, at some point, should read this eye opener. I learned a lot and am more aware of certain issues that I had never noticed before reading this book. I would not recommend this book to recovering patients. This book gives detailed thoughts as to why it is okay to be anorexic or bulimic. Hornbacher felt very strongly about her life and was very blunt when getting her point across to her audience. Her struggle has finally paid off.
Rating:
Summary: Striking
Review: I couldn't put this book down. I was completely mesmerized by it and I felt every word on the page register as I read through it (this is not common for me, I tend to skip parts). The book is beautifully disturbing. I would not recommend it if you are looking for answers--Hornbacher does an exceptional job of portraying the confusions and contradictions experienced by a person with an eating disorder. It is frightening and comforting at the same time, as you realize the horrors of anorexia and bulimia, but you realize also that you are not alone. Hornbacher is a gifted writer--her frequent use of the future tense to describe her experiences gives you an idea of the dissociation an eating disordered individual feels from herself and from reality. My favorite quote from the book, which makes the anorexic feel calmer about her own behaviors, and which outsiders don't seem to understand is, "Anoretics do eat." I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a deeper understanding of what an eating disorder is, whether for understanding themselves or for a friend/family member.
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Summary: i've been wasted, too. she just puts it better than i could
Review: All girls with an eating disorder of some kind will probably at some point, driven by innate self-interest and self-obsession, sneak to a library or secretly buy a book online about another girl with a similar eating disorder. We want to read things like this, and Wasted is the best. An obvious lover of Anne Sexton, Marya writes with a admirable flare and honesty. This is an incredible book.
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Summary: TRUE DETAIL CAN BE SCARY BUT SO IS THE WORLD!
Review: MARYA DOESN'T HOLD BACK ANYTHING AS SHE SHARES HER JOURNEY THROUGH TWO EATING DISORDERS. SHE STARTS OUT AT CHILDHOOD AT THE MERE AGE OF FOUR OR FIVE LOOKING AT SUGAR CONTENT AND WORRYING ABOUT HOW SHE SHOULD BE ON A DIET. AS THE YEARS PROGRESS THE TORTURE SHE PUTS HERSELF THROUGH IS AMAZINGLY VIVID. I GIVE THIS MEMOIR FOUR STARS ONLY BECAUSE IT AT TIMES CAN BE HARD TO KEEP READING ONE TORTOUS ACT AFTER ANOTHER THAT SHE DOES TO HERSELF. THIS BOOK TAKES OUT ALL THE STOPS TO LAY THE TRUTH ON THE TABLE. AS A READER YOU WILL JOURNEY IN AND OUT OF HEALTHY TO SICK TO NEAR DEATH. THIS NOVEL IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART OR PEOPLE THAT BELIEVE EATING DISORDERS ARE VEIN AND SELF PITY TRIPS. THOUGH THE HEART ACHE MARYA TAKES YOU THROUGH A VALUABLE LESSON CAN BE LEARNED AND APPRECIATED FROM THIS BOOK I RECCAMEND IT TO ALL WANTING TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT TWO EATING DISORDERS WITH ANY SUGARCOATING.
Rating: 
Summary: Overhyped and overwritten.
Review: I picked this book up as I was requested to do so. People have been telling me for ages that Wasted is a wonderful, mind-opening book. I will admit, that some of the information the author gives is good. Some things I wasn't aware of. However, the book was boring. Within the first few pages in the footnotes, she sets out to tell the difference between anoretic and anorexic. However, she uses the same wording in examples. This leads me to believe that she has no idea what she's talking about, or she isn't very good with words. In turn, this tells me to be cautious while reading this book. I did enjoy the book at some points, but other times it was a drag. She's a boring writer, and does too much to defend her own actions and neuroses.
Rating:
Summary: Minus the sugar coating
Review: As a blatantly honest tale of one woman's struggle to be okay with herself, Hornbacher keeps it that way. She writes so honestly, holding nothing back. She even speaking sarcastically on occasion of herself and the life she has led, as if to say, "I was such an idiot." She can speak now, in retrospect, of the things she did and her eating disorder with brutal reality. She describes the way she felt while starving herself to death as a feeling of power and complete control, but also with the knowledge that that was a cop out of life. I would agree with critics who say that she writes without signs of pity or sorrow. She writes not with a sense of closure, but with a sense of existence and a will to keep on living through her morning struggle over a bowl of Cheerios and the voice in her head telling her she's fat. In my opinion, her honesty is the strength of the novel. Her honesty lets story be more than just another sob story or happily ending triumph, but an account of one life under the stress of an eating disorder. I appreciate the way she does not try to defend or excuse her behavior, nor does she point fingers at her parents or lay blame to society. Her tone of realization that she is a "victim, primarily, of myself, which makes victim status very uneasy and ultimately ridiculous" gives the novel a reality that held my attention long enough to make it the only novel I have read from cover to cover since middle school. I believe that says a lot for the novel. This novel should be valued as a tool of awareness.
Rating:
Summary: The Raw Truth
Review: Marya Hornbacker shows that eating disorders are not a lifestyle in her autobiography. She tells the truth about what anorexia and bulimia can do to a person. She does not give a romantic tragedy to the story, as so often many authors tend to do. You follow her through hospitalization to hospitalization, see her waste away, almost die, and all without a false optimism that everything will turn out okay. She speaks about what so many others are afraid to. She is not embarassed to admit some of what most people would consider "disgusting" habits, nor her want to be the most ill. Marya brings into the light what has been so oppressed, including the severe competition to be the sickest in treatment centers, and how in college eating disorders run rampid.
This book can be very triggering. I would not recommend it to someone in recovery because it speaks of practically every weight Marya was, and every calorie consumed. However, it can also be a reality check for those who are in the "pro-ana" movement, or people who think eating disorders are selfish and easy to overcome. If it wasn't for the triggering content I would have given it five stars.
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