Wow. This book is not quite what I had expected but it is something a lot deeper and darker, both super raw memoir weaving in literature, including many books I read when I was younger, such as Little Women, the Little House on the Prairie series, and Jane Eyre. The author writes from her own perspective but also gives voice and perspective, a whole POV, to the shame, to the critical internalized voice, contradicting her own narrative, beautifully illustrating how painful it is to be in our own bodies in this world. I really relayed not necessarily to the specific details of her childhood, but to the overall tone, and the internalized messages about the size a woman is meant to be.

Like many women, I have struggled with undiagnosed disordered eating my entire life. Like the author, when it began (and for me, still now), it wasn’t ever seen as disordered because of my size. I have a critical voice in my head that chides me for not having the willpower of the author, who describes herself as being good at not eating. I was never good at not eating, and fainted the first day I really tried to not eat at all. The author, of course, is not really good at it, she has an eating disorder. She developed anorexia as a teen. Later, in adulthood, following recommendations from “experts,” her foray into intermittent fasting leads her right down that path toward raging anorexia again.

It was a really fascinating book to listen to and think about how much I related, but also, how much I didn’t. There is such a wide spread of experiences that women have and yet, one of the biggest takeaways that we hear is to take up less space, to be as small as we can. I do think I would have a better time at an all-inclusive resort than the author did - the way she described it, I did hear why she struggled with it, but wow, I also heard, “babe I gotta get to one of those places like nowww!”

Overall, I truly enjoyed this book and felt I gained some real thought and insight from it. I hope that the author is able to find peace!

What a stunning memoir. I loved the writing style and the parts about eating disorders in particular really took my breath away. So stunning and transparent, I love this author.

As a fan of Sarah Moss' fiction, I was immediately drawn to this book, but I was still blown away. There are three aspects of the craft of this book that I especially appreciated. First, the use of "you" and "she" to describe her past self in many cases, which can be interpreted in so many ways, but which I understood both to be a way to force herself to look at her childhood self compassionately, and a nod to the disassociation she experienced as an adult. Second, the literary criticism and discussions of food, girlhood, and white feminism. As a big nerd, I enjoyed them intellectually so much, always looked forward to them. From a craft level, they allow the reader to breathe during some of the most harrowing portions of the book, mirroring how the books themselves might have functioned in the writer's life. Third, the inclusion of the voices in her head while recalling her trauma, the voices of shame, contempt, and abuse. The audiobook narrator did a fantastic job differentiating the multiple narrative voices. I'm so thankful for the chance to listen to this book pre-publication because I will be shouting about it wherever I go.