Read July 20

CW: ED and SH

Changing Ways follows 16 year old Grace who is struggling to cope with the stresses of school and starts to fall into patterns of restricting her food intake and self-harming. A classmate sees her cutting in the locker room and she’s hospitalised. Though initially in denial Grace gradually realises that she does have a problem. Overcoming it though, that is another matter entirely.

I thought that the hospital and recovery sections were very realistic, especially as it showed relapse, recovery isn’t linear. I loved Grace and Lou’s relationship. I wish we could have learnt more about James, especially his gender non-conforming tendencies, he was cute though! My main criticism was that the early chapters and the onset of Grace’s illness was a little bit rushed. At one point Grace mentions pro-ana websites but it never shows her being interested in or accessing those types of websites. Also in another section we see her worrying about the calorie content of her meals and snacks when again this isn’t shown previously.

Overall I feel like the novel needed a bit more show and not tell but I understand that the author is still only a teenager and herself is in recovery so I guess some aspects of an eating disorder are going to be hard to write about. Other than that I also wish we’d had more throughout about Grace’s dad rather than a mini info-dump at the end.

I DNF'd this book 25% in. Unfortunately, I am not in the right place (mentally) to be reading this book. Maybe in the future, but right now, it's a no go for me.

Grace is 16 and a junior at Chuck L. Everett High School (“Chuckles”) in western Connecticut. She lives with her mother and younger brother, Jamie, and misses her father. She’s trying out for Varsity soccer this year.

“I’ve never been satisfied with how I look - even when I was younger, I was self-conscious of my appearance. Now that I’m older, those insecurities are more profound than ever.”

Recently Grace has secretly been self harming and restricting her food intake. When another student catches her self harming at school Grace winds up hospitalised.

“I don’t know what’s making me do it. That’s the problem.”

Grace is fortunate that her treatment begins a lot sooner than it does for most people but this doesn’t mean recovery will be easy. I appreciated that recovery from eating disorders and self harm were portrayed realistically. Grace’s isn’t a success only journey. Recovery isn’t linear and there are setbacks along the way.

Grace’s best friend, Lou, is “bold and strong-willed and brutally honest”. Lou’s mother is undergoing treatment for stage 4 breast cancer, although the gravity of this didn’t hit the mark for me.

The way Grace’s mother’s boyfriend was introduced made it seem like he was going to be detrimental to their family dynamic but this didn’t really go anywhere.

While the conversations between Grace, her family and Lou flowed well, those that took place in a treatment setting tended to feel more like therapy speak than what you’d expect between a group of teenagers dealing with such difficult issues. I found most of the other patients interchangeable, not really getting a sense of who they were outside of their diagnoses.

I think I would have gotten into this book more if I’d read it as a teenager. It may also have helped if I hadn’t already read other books that have addressed eating disorders and self harm in a way that grabbed me more on an emotional level. Unfortunately, while I applaud the author for tackling such difficult and personal subject matter, I never forgot that I was reading a book written by a teenager. If I’d written a book while I was a teenager I expect it would have much the same feel to it. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but I am interested to see how the author’s writing develops over time.

Content warnings include bullying, eating disorders, mental illness, self harm, slut shaming, suicidal ideation and mention of addiction, conversion therapy and sexual assault.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wicked Whale Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.

An excellent narrative, which will engage all readers. A wonderful voice which communicates a clear message. A great read.

This was incredibly difficult to read at times but I think a valuable story to tell. I can't personally speak to the representation but I did enjoy the reading experience.

Changing Ways
by Julia Tannenbaum
Wicked Whale Publishing


Teens & YA
Pub Date 02 Sep 2018


I am reviewing a copy of Changing Ways through Wicked Whale Publishing and Netgalley:


Grace Edward tries to deal with the constant stress of school, her Mother and her confusing Social Life through dieting and self harming a classmate catches her self harming when she believes she has everything under control and her life is turned upside down. She's faced with the unthinkable a stint in the psych ward where the kids seem so much worse than she is.

She doesn't believe she's sick and certainly doesn't believe she has an eating disorder, but as she gets to know these kids she realizes they aren't so different than she is.


I give Changing Ways Five out of Five Stars!

Happy Reading!

This book obviously has its trigger warnings, may it be for self harm, depression, suicide, eating disorders, psyche ward treatmeants etc.

And with that comes my issues... I suffer from depression, I’ll have these days I literally want to throat punch everyone and can’t stand to be around people because the words they are saying in my eyes make no sense and don’t matter. More often than not I don’t get the lets go cry for an hr depression it’s that rage that no one listens to you and your not paying attention and it frustrates me. With this I kinda felt she had those ideas. No one truly noticed or listened to her except surface value so she turned to things she could control. I’m sure in some point of all our lives we’ve had thoughts I can’t do this anymore, one cut won’t be so bad, not eating. And all are not ok that’s not what I think the book or this review are saying but sometimes even the ones helping you really aren’t. Treatment centers can be great places but the one in the book I felt they lacked highly? Seriously these teens/people have far to many opportunities to get away with not eating so they escalate farther and then it’s damn near to far gone. So I found that mildly believeable.most of the sick patients you lacked more of a surface intro to them but they aren’t but mere passings of our leading characters life, just stepping stones of rocks skipping water till the next one is thrown.
I recommend it on a just for fun reading, not something I’d pass on to my die hard trigger readers. And probably won’t reread anytime soon.

Raw, honest and upfront about the struggles of a teenager with a mental health illness. It tackles some many taboo subjects such as self-harming, eating disorders it shows and demonstrates the kind of pressures teenagers go through to fit in especially within social or peer groups.
It is an emotional read but it is in relation to the subject matter.
The written style is not amazing.
Thank you to K R Conway publishing and NetGalley for my ARC. In exchange for my honest, unbiased review.

I appreciated that this book felt like a realistic depiction of a teenager who was struggling with mental illnesses and an eating disorder.

Trigger warnings: self-harm, restrictive eating, psychiatric hospital stays

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

"Changing Ways" is a really emotional and intense novel and I liked that the author didn't portray recovery as easy. The protagonist's struggle felt realistic and her attempts at recovery were portrayed as a struggle and as difficult, which I feel is way more realistic than the portrayals in most YA novels that just gloss over the struggle. I was especially impressed when I saw how young the author is.

Unfortunately, the dialogue felt rather stilted at times. Overall, the relationships between Grace, her friend, and her family are really well done, but, especially towards the end, the dialogue felt really artificial at times, like the characters were reading from a manual on how to talk to someone with an eating disorder.

Still, this is an important novel and I will definitely read Ms Tannenbaum's next novel when it comes out.

This book should be read by so many more people!

I always feel like I learn more about mental illnesses by reading books on that topic and this was no different, I never read a book that portrayed anorexia. Grace didn’t want to admit she was anorexic because she didn’t think she was, she didn’t think she needed help, so while you understand her frustration you also want her to get better so badly that you get some frustrations yourself!
I just loved this so much and I think it should be read by many.

Oh, and is it too bad if I say that while reading a book about anorexia I was also getting hungry by all the food that they talked about? Because I did… ups.

You definitely felt Grace’s frustration at what was happening to her but you also felt frustration towards Grace because she needed to get better.
I kinda want to see what happens with her and Isaac and her relationship to everyone within the school and how she goes with soccer, I guess that’s just something to conjure up.
I loved the included helpline at the end, it’s such a necessity with any book dealing with mental health.