TW: Depression, Bulimia, Body Dysmorphia, Eating Disorders

This was a powerful and realistic story about a girl who deals with her depression and self-hatred by turning to a disordered eating pattern. It is a rather raw story and I in particular related to her body dysmorphia and her depression. I often feel the same as she did in the story like she has no particular purpose and like she is a disappointment to her family. I liked the premise of her eating a candy bar that helps her confront her issues, importantly the issues with her family, which were pretty toxic.
I did not like the ending of the book, however, which is why I feel I can't give this graphic novel the full 5 stars. First, I felt the ending wrapped up much too neatly and quickly for it to be realistic. While Mindy did start to realize that she needed help with her thought patterns and disordered eating towards the end of the story, she had a very convenient reemergence of Elliott into her life and seemed to be "cured" when he validated her body and said that he liked her.

I feel like this is an unhealthy way to end this book, especially for readers who may be struggling with similar issues. I feel like readers need to understand that validation by people is not a cure. Often times, eating disorders and mental illness requires that people get treatment, medicine, and therapy. And that is okay. We didn't see Mindy get any sort of therapy or treatment at the end of the story. We only saw her being "cured" because a man said he likes her body. I don't think that in itself would help her love herself fully, and so the ending left me kind of unconvinced.

In addition, we never see what happens with Mindy's other relationships, especially with her parents, who were very toxic but "only want the best", and with Shae, who could also be toxic at times.

5/5⭐️ for Eat, and Love Yourself by Sweeney Boo

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Boom! Studios for giving me early access to a digital copy of this graphic novel!

**Trigger Warning: eating disorder (specifically, bulimia) ~ explicit depiction of bingeing and purging of food**

Holy Crap! I freaking loved this graphic novel! I’m already calling it my #1 for 2020, and easily top 5 of all time! It is set in Canada (likely Montreal), and follows Mindy. Mindy has always been on the larger side, never has had a great relationship with food, and has to deal constantly with negative comments re: her body & eating habits. One day, she discovers a chocolate bar that takes her back to specific moments in her life. These moments have formed who she is, but reflecting on these moments and choices may give her the strength to change her life for the better and start healing.

Art Style: 10/10 - colour palette and character design were ON POINT!

Characterization: I loved the emotional journey our MC Mindy takes through this book, and how she grows from beginning to end. Side characters, especially BFF Shae help bring the story to life and convey the message of the story.

*Potentially Spoiler-y*
There is a scene where Mindy does see a psychiatrist to help with her eating disorder, but I think it would have been great to see her also confide in someone else who is a part of her daily life such as a close friend or co-worker. I do not personally suffer from an eating disorder, but some people I talked to say that it can be immensely helpful to have extra people in your corner supporting you. This may be because Mindy is not at a place where she’s ready to do that, but that’s probably the only thing I would add to this book.

Again, thank you so much to Sweeney Boo for creating this beautiful and important graphic novel and I hope this helps a lot of people ❤️

Great character design and movement through the panels. The colours give it a young and vibrant feel.

I read this in one sitting and it had me in my feelings, wow! Let start with complimenting the art style. It was so colorful and so pretty, definitely kept my attention through out the whole book. I will say that this book has trigger warnings for fat shaming, body dysmorphia, and eating disorders so tread cautiously. As a plus size young adultit brings me nothing but joy being able to relate to a character on a personal level. I’m definitely going to be purchasing this for my myself and I highly recommend.

Amazing! I loved this book about body dysmorphia, binging/purging, bulimia, and body/food issues told by Mindy. Seeing her journey and character growth was so inspiring and honest. The flashbacks really helped show who she was and how she got there. I’d love a sequel to see how she’s doing and if she finally chose to love herself and take a chance on love too. Very hopeful book. Thanks Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Well, I didn't need my heart anyway.
This story will impact so many people and I'm really grateful to have read this.

Mindy is a 27 year old girl struggling with an eating disorder and body dysmorphia. I don't suffer from neither things so my voice comes just from an outside point of view, but I had experiences with not loving my body, with feeling like nobody would ever love it and accept it, so it totally touched my heart. I can say the author touched these themes with extreme caution and realism.
The struggle of accepting themselves, of even realizing there's something wrong, loving our bodies and moving on from the pain of the past.

HUGE HUGE trigger warning for eating disorder, fat-shaming, bulimia, anorexia, body dysmorphia. If any of these things deeply affect you be cautious. It's extremely graphic and deep into these topics so if it's something that you can't read about, I absolutely advise you to not pick this one up.

Thank you Netgalley and Boom!Studios for the arc!

I really enjoyed this graphic novel, especially the art style. The story was also captivating and I would highly recommend this but I just have the feeling like not a whole lot happened. I kind of wish there was a little bit more to this graphic novel. I can't really say what I'm missing though but there's something. But yeah, for the rest I still highly recommend this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC !
This was my first graphic novel os this genre and I loved it !
It touched my soul and brought back so many memories...
But at the same time it was really good !
The characters were so well drawn and artsy, I loved the quality of it !
The story in itself was as raw as we can get, if you've dealt with something like this you will know what I mean...
It's a good read !
3.5⭐

This book had amazing commentary on what your mind goes through when dealing with an eating disorder. I loved the art style and was very surprised by the fantastical element. This book will be very important to slog of teens an i’m so glad that this will be there for people to relate to and get help from.

As someone who is in recovery for B.E.D., I appreciate this graphic novel and the main character’s journey to start loving and accepting herself for who she is, not who she believes herself to be. I love that the author uses the chocolate bar not only as a vehicle for revisiting the past but also as reminder that food isn’t the enemy. Beautifully illustrated and written!

TW: Depression, Bulimia, Body Dysmorphia, Eating Disorders, Fat shaming

This graphic novel deals with several heavy issues in such an interesting way when the main character, Mindy, eats a new chocolate bar that allows her to glimpse back at past moments in her life. Mindy is a very relatable protagonist and watching her deal with her body dysmorphia is hard but also inspiring.

The artwork in this graphic novel is stunning and the purple color palette is stunning. The flashbacks are also designed really well and easy to read.

You can tell that the author understands how it feels to experience shame and depression and handles the topic very respectfully. I would highly recommend this graphic novel!

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This comic focused on the main characters eating disorder and body dysmorphia. I felt like it was represented well and the flashback via magic chocolate bar was an interesting twists. In the little amount of time I got a good sense of her relationship with her family and best friend. I also really loved the art style. It was bold, colorful and cute.

As soon as I read the synopsis of this one I knew it was something I wanted to pick up, but also that it was going to be very hard hitting. It follows Mindy, who has a very hard time with her self image, as she takes a look back at her past and the things that shaped her.

Major trigger warnings for body dysmorphia, bulimia, low self esteem, depression and slight fat shaming. While these can be hard to read about, especially for someone who relates to the main character, they are very important topics that should be talked about more. The artwork style is bright and pops with color in all the right places. Mindy's journey is definitely multi-faceted and I love the touch of magical whimsy included in this story.

Eat, and Love Yourself is an awesome new story about Mindy, a curvy young woman who has an issue with self love. We follow along as Mindy eats a chocolate bar that allows her to go back and watch events from her past. She can't communicate with her past self, she can only watch. Each visit brings Mindy closer to the root of her issues with food and self love. All Mindy has to do is find her inner self that has been worthy of love all along.

I loved this story! It was such an easy read with a worthy message. Mindy is a bit of a downer, mainly cause by the way she views herself, however she is still easy to adore and makes a great main character.

The graphics are also wonderful. They are pleasing to look at and extremely well done. They add a lot to the storyline giving it life and depth.

Overall, I'm a big fan of this one! I'm looking forward to seeing what other masterpieces this author has in store.

<i>A huge thanks to NetGalley and BOOM for giving me a free ecopy in exchange for an honest review.</i>

I have been staring at this screen for about a full minute now, trying to think of a way to review this book. I am feeling very emotional about it, in a good way, but it makes it hard to formulate. So let's start with the easy bit:

The art.

The art is absolutely stunning! It was gorgeous, it was smooth, it was easy to follow.. I just loved everything about it.

I did feel like sometimes the art made it look as if she was (a lot) skinnier (I mean she has a serious waistline- mine is just gone forever, haha!) but perhaps that is kind of the point, as those times were mostly when other people were seeing her. The more I think about it, the more I think it was done on purpose, so really well done there!

And then for the subject matter..

Personally, I don't suffer from an eating disorder, unless you count morbid obesity as one. I do however suffer from chronic depression and a non-existent self esteem. I either don't eat, or I eat all the things; there is no inbetween. I feel disgusted with my body when I think about it too much. So even if I don't have everything in common with Mindy, I related to her so much. The final page, for example, had me sobbing, and I hope to one day be able to think like that, too. As mentioned, it is a long process. It takes time. It's hard.

I loved that about this novel- it wasn't downplayed, and the unintentional toxic/hurtful comments were hitting very close to home. I was glad they were put in there, as they are often a huge piece of the bigger picture.

This graphic novel could be so important for educational purposes, and I sincerely hope that no one will use this novel as a way to 'prove' why overweight people are just lazy etc. This can do so much for so many people, and I hope it gets the recognition it deserves.

Apologies for this weird review, but I just don't think I'll get it to be any more coherent than this.

I was given an advance reader copy of this from @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
Mindy struggles with an eating disorder and an skewed view of her own body, and is given a view into her past by "magic" chocolate! I loved the artwork, for this graphic novel! But the storyline was just ok for me. I wanted to like it, and I felt it's a story that needs to be told. But although it touched some deep topics, and some of the root of the problem (family who "means well" but frequently says hurtful comments), I felt like the resolution was very shallow! I mean we see in a flashback that she was given some professional help, but she seems to have been pushed into it and not willing to do it on her own. But suddenly she just decides she's going to change? And she has no health concerns after seemingly being bulimic for 10 years or more? I like what this is trying to do, just not sure it got there.

I did not particularly enjoy this book as much as I really wanted to. It started off okay but the story didn't seem to go anywhere. Characters drifted in and out without much development or reasoning. I appreciate a story about body dysmorphia and I think we need more of those because it is a thing many people deal with. However, the book didn't deliver on that. I did like the art style and found it visually appealing despite the fact character looks changed throughout the story.

This was an amazing graphic novel! I loved the art and the story so much!

This is a beautiful story about Mindy and her struggles with body dysmorphia. It does have a trigger warning for eating disorders so be aware of that going in. In this story she is eating a chocolate bar that causes her to go back in time each time she takes a bite. Each time she goes back in time, it takes her to a specific point where she can see important events that impacted the way she sees herself.

I really liked the whole concept of this graphic novel. The way that she is taken back to learn to love herself and to understand herself is really amazing. I really liked Mindy and totally related to her being in my twenties and all the things that go along with it. I do appreciate how Mindy grows throughout the story but I think if the book were just a little longer, the growth would be more satisfying. I didn't get quite the amount of growth that I would have liked. I didn't quite feel finished at the end because of this. But overall, I really enjoyed reading this book and look forward to more from the author!

*eARC provided in exchange for an honest review*

The story of Mindy is a case for so many people – it brings to light the relationship with food, eating disorders, expectations, confidence, self-discovery and self-acceptance. The writer creatively seeks to bring forth that understanding the problem and accepting oneself is where the healing starts positively.

The illustrations are vivid, bright and contemporary. It is interesting to see that the protagonist is drawn as a healthy woman with an unhealthy eating disorder; one may not even think of it as a major problem until they know the person closely and monitor their behaviour under different stressful circumstances.

In conclusion - I like the illustrations and the concept. However, the story felt a little incomplete to me. Though the problems were addressed in glances, I wish the book was longer!

Thank you NetGalley for lending me the digital copy!

I absolutely loved this book and it’s message. I read this in an hour. I related so much to Mindy and her view of resell and her body. I think that it is so important that this book is out there and that it is receive in the hype that it is. TW: depression, bulimia, body dysmorphia, and eating disorder. If you suffer from any of these things please proceed with caution. If not I think you should definitely give this book a try!