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italdabeda 's review for:
Thin Girls
by Diana Clarke
2.5 rounded down. this book has too many issues for me to recommend it to anyone else.
eating disorders are at the center of the book, but i felt like there was a lot of harmful representation of ED (disclosure: i struggle with body dysmorphia, but have never had an ED). the title itself implies that all people who have an ED are thin, and that's true for all characters. Rose's case is extreme in a way that made me regularly google if certain facts were physically possible. it seems like Clarke wanted to show Rose and Lily's connection through their weight--as one loses weight, the other gains weight, and the situation is eventually reversed. but i thought that tracking that by giving their respective weights in all flashbacks was an inelegant and honestly triggering way to do that. i almost wished Clarke leaned into the almost supernatural twin dynamics (like Lily and Rose can taste each other's emotions) and threw in some magical realism to communicate how their personal ebbs and flows are connected.
then there are the little issues. "kink is just cover for abuse" is a lazy take. from what we know about Lily, she wouldn't need the cover of BDSM for her to explain staying with Phil. also, the reveal that
the part of the book that i really enjoyed was the portrayal of how language of self love is co-opted by diet culture. all of the emails from Lara Bax were excellent.
update after reading other community reviews: multiple people used the word "exploitative"--as in, the author exploits ED and people with ED for her novel, writes about them without deep understanding and compassion--and i agree.
eating disorders are at the center of the book, but i felt like there was a lot of harmful representation of ED (disclosure: i struggle with body dysmorphia, but have never had an ED). the title itself implies that all people who have an ED are thin, and that's true for all characters
Spoiler
(while Lily is fat in the middle of the novel, she starts to rapidly lose weight once she start dieting)then there are the little issues. "kink is just cover for abuse" is a lazy take. from what we know about Lily, she wouldn't need the cover of BDSM for her to explain staying with Phil. also, the reveal that
Spoiler
Lily was raped at the very end of the book irked me. that's my personal pet peeve--authors throwing in rape as a shorthand for traumatized past without actually exploring its implications.the part of the book that i really enjoyed was the portrayal of how language of self love is co-opted by diet culture. all of the emails from Lara Bax were excellent.
update after reading other community reviews: multiple people used the word "exploitative"--as in, the author exploits ED and people with ED for her novel, writes about them without deep understanding and compassion--and i agree.