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rosarachel's review against another edition
5.0
Puts words to what feels like a fundamental emotional truth about a certain kind of female life. It's damning in its insight yet shyly hopeful, and ends with a hard-won faith in the capacity for change. One more reason Caroline Knapp is one of my favorite authors and intellects.
monat2's review against another edition
4.0
Other than being a little too metaphorical and repetitive at times, I really enjoyed and appreciated this book. Part memoir, part social/cultural analysis, this is a powerful and insightful book extending the word “hunger” and “appetite” into multiple areas of life in which women feel empty and deprived by broader social, cultural institutions.
ryanpait's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
hollycouldhollywood's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder and Alcohol
kateraed's review against another edition
2.0
She wants it to be a general project about women's appetites and desires, but it's really a working out of her own story. Which is interesting, but it inhabits this nowhere space between memoir and broader journalistic work--it needed either more personal engagement and stories, or more research. Some gold nuggets throughout.
mishka432's review against another edition
3.0
A good book, not a great book for me. At moments it felt 15 years old, which is good news, because it feels like media narratives have started to shift toward being more empowering for women (or at least pretending to be to sell more stuff). There was a lot packed in and it was hard to delineate between themes across chapters, which I think is sort of the nature of the subject and how she chooses to tackle it. Also, this is the only full book I had to read for my first semester of grad school (albeit about a week and a half late).
kcmc59's review against another edition
5.0
I have always had issues with weight and body image. This book was one of the most helpful and insightful to me. I wept through the first chapter because I kept hearing myself described - and I didn't feel crazy because of it.