Status Updates From How to Disappear Completely...

Reading this as part of my research and agreeing with many here. I'm finding this book hard to read because it is so steeped in shame. On the way in which we talk about ED: "There has to be a way to do so productively, to shift the language we use, to defy the conventions of the narrative so that prospective anorexics are repelled and not drawn to the idea of illness." (35) Not quite convinced that *this* is the way.

DNFing this, because this author is fucked up and should never have written this. #sorrynotsorry >:(

She's been slamming Mary Hornbacher for the whole book and SUDDENLY she reveals that she's spoken to Mary, liked her, and Mary laments the way her book was interpreted and used. This book is throwing WAY too many curveballs in the final 20% good god.

Can an anorexic look back on their illness without, intentionally or not, romanticising it? Can they ever recover enough to truly accomplish the goal of writing the tell-all that damns the practices? Can they step outside of their singular experience? And on the flip side, can somebody who's never experienced it ever gain enough insight for their (non-scientific) writing to be anything other than triggering drivel?

'Her prepubescent lexicon not developed enough to do justice to the iniquity of what rumbled in her mind right then."
GOD this is inconsistent and heavy handed writing >:(

Did I mention she thinks EDNOS doesn't exist as a diagnosis because she didn't bother to do any basic googling and find out that it was changed to OSFED?

The way Kelsey spends a huge chunk of time describing "wannarexics" is shockingly out of touch with how a wannarexic actually tends to behave these days. This is a strong exploration of the illness, with lots of references and it touches on some really important elements of how our society feeds EDs but so far I'm seeing a startling lack of reference to genetic predisposition to EDs.

So far a very specific idea of what anorexia is and how people come into it and how they act with it. Painted as that very suburban white girl wishing for a problem stereotype that can be so harmful. References a lot of sources but seems kind of dismissive and already outdated to me. I am bored of having wannarexics (almost incorrectly) described to me. I'd had high hopes for this one!