Rating: 
Summary: A work of fiction
Review: ... Others ... have remarked that this diary doesn't seem like any thing a teenager would write...and with good reason. This cautionary morality tale is actually a work of fiction, NOT A REAL DIARY, written (not edited) by Beatrice Sparks. The 80 year old Ms. Sparks is also the author of "Go, Ask Alice" and many other alleged "diaries". This book does not offer accurate information on the causes and treatment of eating disorders.
Rating: 
Summary: Kim: Empty Inside
Review: An anonymous teenager's diary: 'Kim: Empty Inside' is a lesson for all teens. This powerfull book tells the true story of a weight conscience college girl named Kim. In the diary Kim starts believing weight is everything, and gets so caught up in wanting the "every teens dream body." She starts to lose herself mentally and physically. For being a fit gymnast, Kim's weight should not be an issue. But inside her mind it is. With incredible characters and a powerful storyline, this book touches many. Kim is homesick for her Arizona home when she leaves for UCLA. While trying to fit in, get her love life straight, and just make it through college, she doesn't even notice her dangerous eating disorder. This marvelous story touches all. The true storyline is superb. This novel is for mature 13 year olds and up. Other diaries by anonymous teenagers are 'Go Ask Alice' and 'It Happened to Nancy'.
Rating: 
Summary: A juvenile diary of a college bound teen with bulimia
Review: Disappointing in its redundant entries peppered with exclamtion points about the all consuming need to lose weight and not look fat. "Kim" would have fit emotionally into a juvenile book listing, but for a few adult material/entries. The highlights of this collection of fat obsessed rantings and sensationalized eating disordered stories include a brief side about the date rape drug and the care needed especially at public parties, a few pages at the close on eating disorders and where to find assistance, and a few brief entries on key causes and indicators of these maladaptive coping mechanisms. The lengthy redundant pitch about being fat just did me in. The fact that the title character's father was a physician lulled me into immediate apathy since it fits the stereotype of the poor eating disordered person. This detracts from the public need to know that eating disorders are true maladaptive coping mechanisms that typically stem from trauma. The book does not represent the truth of eating disorders. The most enjoyable aspect of "Kim" had to do with the sketchy entries on gymnastics and Kim's apparent love of it. For the most part, the book jacket contained the best material of this...diary.
Rating:
Summary: Not a good read if you want accurate eating disorder info.
Review: Here's yet another diary "edited" by Beatrice Sparks, this one about a seventeen-year-old girl's struggle with eating disorders and the pressure to fit in with the other girls on her college gymnastics team. The book opens up with Kim hoping to get accepted to UCLA, her college of choice. Not only does she get accepted, but she also has an opportunity to join their gymnastics team, something that Kim has always dreamed of. Faced with the pressures of roommates, soririty, gymnastics, keeping her grades up, and other things, Kim starts to feel as if she were fat, ugly and disgusting, so she starts to purge after every meal and occasionally fasts or starves herself at the end of every meal. She writes about the horrible feelings and depression associated with eating disorders, and how she always feels fat no matter what. This book would be a good read if you want to know an eating disorder from the point of view from someone whose been there. The back of the book also includes some basic information and Q&A about anorexia and bulima, although the diary itself does not really give you that much information about eating disorders. I think it would be a good read for anyone who has enjoyed Beatrice Sparks' other diaries, or anyone who wants to read about a fictional girl with an eating disorder.Brittany Marshalls
Rating:
Summary: review from a seventh-grade reader
Review: I found this to be a very strange book. I don't really see how a teenager could have written it- some of the events, such as Kim getting so hungry she ate out of a dog bowl (?), made me wonder how anyone, even an adult, could have written this book! I liked some of the parts about going away to college and coming home for Christmas, but the book dragged on so much I ended up not really caring what happened next. They skimped on most of the parts that could have been important, and you didn't really know she was losing so much weight until she ended up in the hospital. This could have been a great book if it had been written better, but aside from that, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone "serious" about reading up on eating disorders.
Rating: 
Summary: great reading
Review: I just got done reading this book. I have other books by ms. dr. beatrice sparks. I love them all. "Almost lost" helped me out a little with some of my problems i'm having lately with my personal issues.
I love reading about people's lives in their diaries.
I don't have nothing in common with "KIM", though, except that i'm fearing that i'm an "Over eater".
Great job, again, DR. B! Excited for your next book to come out... (If there would be any?)
Rating: 
Summary: boring........unfinished!!!
Review: I started reading this book then i put it down somewhere and totally forgot about it - it was that boring!!
It really confused me because the book wasn't really that much about eating disorders and i thought of Kim as being an average sized teen worrying about her weight like everyone does but then all of a sudden she was in hospital and everyone was worried - it was like she became ill overnight. Her illness was all covered in about one page and by the time i'd got that far in the book i was just flicking through it and so practically missed the page long hospital drama!!!
If you are going to write about eating disorders then i think you should cover all the really serious issues that go with them - this book didn't do that at all, infact i think it trivialised eating disorders. The book made it seem like eating disorders are cured in a day or two when they are not, there's a long healing process involved and its a shame the book didn't cover that.
Rating:
Summary: Waste of time
Review: If you are looking for a book that thouroghly describes anerexia or bulemia, dont get this one. It had like 3 major parts that described "Kim's" anerexia,thats about it...
I was looking forward to reading this book and when I was finished i was very disappointed. If you are looking for a good anexeria/bulemia book..DON'T read this one!!!
Rating:
Summary: attention seaking and eating disorders
Review: It just wasn't a believably written piece. It seemed to sensationalize aspects of eating disorders and behaviors, and point to the generalizations that sadly dominate this diagnosed mental illness. A mental illness that strikes mostly elite, upper class, white people? Book after book repeats the same drama. It's just another plug that supports the unfortunate generalization that all people with eating disorders have little financial concerns or someone else typically foots the bill, are self absorbed, spoiled, controlling and manipulative attention seakers who buckle when the possibility of failure or personal responsibility encroaches. I have yet to seen anything opposing this in print yet.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best...
Review: It would've been a better book if "Kim" wasn't so intensely immature and ignorant. It seems as if it is written by a 13 year old instead of 17 year old. (Actually, I'm 13 and don't write half as stupidly). Not only that, the writing styles and love for CAPITAL LETTERS, phrases like "Wow, that's SUPER!!!" and hundreds of exclamation points is the exact same as Beatrice Sparks' other books she "edited". Naturally, she wrote it herself, and I'm sure she doesn't realize that most teenagers actually don't sound as silly as Kim, the heroine of the book, does. The book does have morals and a good plot-line.. it's about a girl's descent into the world of anorexia, purging, and weight-obsession. Yet, I must emphasize, that the writing is so unrealistic, clumsy, and hyperly immature that I could barely look past the flaws to the book's inner depth.
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