This book had a tremendous impact on me as a teen and I’m thrilled to see it back in print. The author went through anorexia herself and a lot of this story is autobiographical, which makes it all the more powerful. Leslie Hiller is a privileged, white, uptown girl. Her parents live to please her, especially her mother. But sometimes she feels that her mother cares too much, and finds that attention smothering. When she can’t control her mother’s feelings for her, she decides to control her weight.The scene from this book that has always stuck with me is when Leslie’s mother takes a plate of pork chops to her room and begs her to eat them. Leslie swears she will as soon as her mother leaves the room. In the shadow of her mother’s anguish, she calmly walks over to the window and scrapes the food off the plate to the ground outside. Tough stuff that was ahead of its time and almost too painful to read. So, of course, you MUST read it.
Stick Figure by Lori Gottlieb
Finally! They said it couldn’t be done–but Lori Gottlieb has done it. She has written a memoir about anorexia that is FUNNY! Not to trivialize the seriousness of this disease, but Gottlieb’s descriptions of her shallow Beverly Hills family in high 70’s camp style is really hilarious. The downside to all that humor is the sad fact that Gottlieb became anorexic when she was ONLY ELEVEN. That’s way too young for anyone to feel fat. If you want to read a really DIFFERENT book about anorexia, check out Stick Figure.
Life Size by Jenefer Shute
Josie can’t figure out where it all went wrong. She was just being her usual, calorie-counting self when she ended up in this rehab for people with eating disorders. Hello?! It’s all those other people who can’t stop shoveling food into their mouths who have an eating disorder, not her. Josie is pure and clean and empty. Josie weighs 69 pounds. Try and figure out how Josie ticks in this insightful novel about anorexia. Flashbacks between her present hospital life and the past that shaped her disease really shed light on this girl trapped by her inability to eat. A great book that touches on all the social factors that can cause anorexia.
Wasted: A Memoir by Marya Hornbacher
This compelling biography reads like a novel. Marya paints a chilling portrait of how bulimia and anorexia took over her teen years, and how she still struggles with her eating disorder, even today. Dragging the reader through her highest highs (a great political internship in Washington D.C.) and her weight dropped to 76 pounds) Marya gives you the inside scoop on what eating disorders are really like — and it’s no runway model’s life! But the part that really sticks is when Marya discusses, without a trace of self-pity, how ravaged her body and heart are from the disease, and how many years anorexia has taken off her life. (She’s only 23 years old, but strangers guessing her age think she’s 36) A haunting book that will stay with you for days.
I am an Artichoke by Lucy Frank
15 year old Sarah is thrilled when she gets the perfect summer job — as a mother’s helper in New York City! She’s looking forward to fun and sun in the Big Apple, until she finds out that Emily, the young teen she’s in charge of, has an eating disorder. Sarah begins to feel like she may be in over her head as she tries to deal with Emily’s strange eating rituals, Emily’s crazy divorced parents, Florence and Elliot, and her own blossoming romance with Angel, a mysterious boy who lives in Emily’s building. One thing’s for sure — things are going to get worse for Sarah and Emily before they get better, but you can count on a happy ending with this somewhat lighter take on eating disorders. If you find yourself bonding with Sarah, read about her further adventures in Will You Be My Brussel Sprout?
Nell’s Quilt by Susan Terris
Nell’s problem is that she’s ahead of her time. A wanna-be feminist in 1899, Nell doesn’t get much sympathy from her traditional family when she tries to turn down her cousin’s marriage proposal in favor of attending college. To distract herself from the impending doom of matrimony to a man she doesn’t love, Nell immerses herself in the making of a crazy quilt. As Nell’s obsession with quilt grows, her body shrinks as she refuses both food and support from her concerned relatives. As the end of the book draws nearer, you’re not sure what will be finished first, the quilt or Nell’s life. An interesting historical novel that portrays anorexia in a way that has nothing to do with modern society and bikini-clad babes in Seventeen magazine.
Life in the Fat Lane by Cherie Bennett
My Sister’s Bones by Cathi Hanauer
Hunger Point by Jillian Medoff
My Sister’s Bones, this novel is about a girl with a sister who has an eating disorder. But unlike Billie, Frannie(the narrator of Hunger Point) is about as obsessed with food as her anorexic sister Shelley. After Shelley is checked into a hospital for her disease, Frannie discovers her own self-destructive tendencies (dating guys that she calls “Rat Boys”) as she tries to understand why her sister won’t eat. With an uncommunicative father and a mother who obsessively diets and counts the calories on everyone’s plates at dinner, its easy to see where Frannie and Shelley have gotten such backward ideas about food, love and perfection. It’s only after a long depression following Shelley’s death that Frannie can learn to deal with her situation and come back out on top. A sad and funny novel about redemption.
The Passion of Alice by Stephanie Grant
Take a trip back to 1984. Alice has just checked into a eating disorder rehab after suffering a heart attack because she has been starving herself. She weighs only 92 pounds. Along the road to recovery, Alice meets some seriously oddball characters. There’s Gwen, an shy anorexic who also obsessively pulls out her fine blond hair; Louise, a compulsive eater who always asks to eat Alice’s leftovers at meals; and finally, Maeve, the big, beautiful bulimic who will shake up Alice’s world and make her finally face the person she really is, and the person she has the power to become. This novel is slow getting started, but well worth reading through to the end as you watch Alice gather together the pieces of her life and try to figure out how to go on after leaving the clinic for good.