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.
Rating:
Summary: absolutely
Review: This was absolutely perfect, however, it can be very triggering. I felt like she was describing my experiences in methodist exactly. She used such amazing, gut-wrenching words, that I simply couldn't stop reading.
Rating:
Summary: the most acurate description i have ever read
Review: This book is by far the most accurate descriptoin of life with an eating disorder i have ever read. it is honest, brutal, and also remarkably not cliche. it gets to the pyschological implications of thinness, and discusses reasons the disease is growing. it makes the reader empathetic to those who suffer with eating disorders while at the same time driving away any appeal the disease my have for young women. i've read the book 4 times and i get something new out of it each time. as a former eating disordered girl, the author seems to be reading my mind and explaining ideas i never could. if you are struggling with an eating disorder i urge you to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Triggering, but honest
Review: An eating disorder sufferer myself for 7 years, I was very wary of reading this book, fearing that it would be too triggering during my periods of recovery. However, I finally recently read it, and while it was indeed very triggering in some aspects, I also found that I could relate to Marya frighteningly well. I think that many ED sufferers will feel this way upon reading this book.Her descriptions of treatment methods that she had experienced rang particularly true to me. Her account of hospitalization on an ED unit was amazing. It seems that we could have almost been hospitalized in the same place. The timed meals, the patient-staff interactions, the fear of facing the dinner plate...all so familiar and honestly rendered. Marya's interactions with ED specialists, therapist, and other doctors are also all too familiar...the phrase "you don't look like you have an eating disorder" that sprinkles the book will be familiar to anyone who has approached their "healthy weight" while still struggling. I would recommend this book to other sufferers, but with caution. There are some very triggering passages, such as those describing Marya's frightening descent to her low weight of 52 lbs. But if a sufferer is doing well in recovery, this can be an interesting and insightful book on the dangers of what we do to ourselves with these horrible disorders. This book is also good for family or friends of sufferers. While Marya's disorder is obviously of a very severe nature, she exhibits many of the same thoughts and behaviors of sufferers at any weight or stage of their disorder.
Rating:
Summary: perfectly articulated
Review: I read it in a matter of days! I don't even know that you have to be anorexic or bulimic to relate. Her writing is just AMAZING, and puts into words so many of the thoughts floating around in my head. Anyone who has ever felt "different" should read this. and I did NOT find it triggering, I think because while I have had periods of restricting, etc. I was certainly never down near as low as the weight she got to, while I b/p I did not start at 9, I did not try to diet at 4...her story is much more intense than mine. I identify with the feelings of being too much, and needing to tone yourself down, make yourself smaller, have your needs met by self-destructive methods such as eds rather than depend on people...
Rating:
Summary: finally a book that understands
Review: The first time I recall going on a diet, I was about eight or nine. At twelve I learned how to make myself throw up. By my fourteenth birthday I was a full blown anorectic. Now 21 and with the knowledge anorexia and bulimia are problems which never truly become "cured" in a person, I spend a lot of time trying to better understand possible causes and what makes me such a victim to myself. Many books I have read never seemed to reflect the mental and emotional turmoil these diseases entail; frequently, literary works tend to focus on the physical changes and common medical perspectives on these problems. Hornbacher's work is entirely different though - by the end of the first chapter, I was nearly about to cry. Someone finally understood. I am not certain that reading this would help someone without ana/mia to understand - it's hard to "logically" explain why anyone would intentionally throw up or starve themselves - but for those who have e.d.'s, it is well worth reading. I have not found it highly triggering - but I have already gained a great deal of insight and explanations i had not even considered for why I am not "normal" like my friends.
Rating:
Summary: Frightening and Honest
Review: I first read Wasted when I was 18 years old and in the throes of an eating disorder myself. I will admit that yes, I was looking to find "tips" or "tricks" to use in my disorder, and at first, it seemed that I had found them. (Many a negative review has been written about this book for this reason.) However, as you continue reading this book, any ideas you have about anorexia or bulimia being glamourous and a means of self-control are erased. I have never before read anything so raw, real, and honest as this book. Hornbacher does not bother "sugar coating" eating disorders by avoiding topics such as, health problems caused by starvation or the toll they take on your life personally and professionally.
Sure, a young or impressionable reader could use the author's story as inspiration for her own illness if she so desired. However, if you choose to do this, be prepared to encounter some of the consequences Hornbacher did. The title, "Wasted", did not simply mean that she looked like she was wasting away. She lost jobs, friends, relationships with family, and years of her life. The book truly lays the entire eating disorder process out in front of you. She basically says, "here's how I starved myself, binged, purged, and exercised my way to thinness. And here's how I wasted my youth spending time in hospitals and doing drugs. And here's how I now have heart problems, can never have children, and I screwed up my digestive system permanently. My body will never work the way it should."
To those readers looking for inspiration, "Wasted" will give you more than you bargained for. You will learn tricks, but you will also be inspired to recover as quickly as possible in order to avoid a life marred down by eating disorders that ultimately take over your entire life.
Since I first read this book several years ago, I have come a long way in my struggle with anorexia and bulimia. Now, when I pick it up, I am still looking for inspiration--I read it to inspire me to stay in recovery to avoid returning to a life like Hornbacher's. I recommend this book to almost anyone--from current sufferers of eating disorders to recovered sufferers who want to be reminded of the hellish road they had to travel to get better, to people who wish to better understand a loved one with anorexia or bulimia.
Rating: 
Summary: Borrow it from the library
Review: My feeling about this book is neutral - sometimes it was hard to put down and other times I had to skip paragraphs because it was dragging. Although her story is an interesting and well written one, the endless footnotes and numerous digressions about how inconsiderate and/or insensitive someone in her life was, etc. are a bit distracting. Definitely a good book for someone doing research because she includes a long list of references in the back of the book. Note: Do not expect a book that glamorizes eating disorders because this DEFINITELY does not.
Rating: 
Summary: totally unbelieveable
Review: This is book isn't just a memoir, it's fairy tale version of a eating disorder. There are moments in this book where are supposed to be frightening and shocking but they come across as a cliche scene from a tv movie about bulimia and drug abuse. Hornbacher explains to her audience how she delighted in destorying herself and how she "out smarted" everyone and was nearly able to destory herself entirely but somehow, Hornbacher isn't sorry or a bit remorseful for what she did to her parents and all those who knew her, only she seems to remember it fondly like a little girl remembers a amusement park ride. In fact, threw the book, she seems to talking herself into a relapse before the reader's eyes. She also expects us to believe she can recall things back from the time when she was five and was already self conscience about food. In fact, most of the book reads like fiction and it probably is, considering if Hornbacher had gone threw all of the sex, drugs and binging and purging (all three combined), surely, she would have either died from AIDS or beside a toliet.
|
