Take a photo of a barcode or cover
shereadstales 's review for:
Thin Girls
by Diana Clarke
Thanks so much to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the digital galley of this one.
Before we begin, I’d like to note that I devoured this one in about, uhmmm, fourteen hours? Maybe less time. I was enthralled.
Twins Rose and Lily Winters have always been inseparable and impossible to tell apart, until puberty when Rose starts losing weight and Lily seems to gain it. Over the years, the disparity between their weight grows and as Rose receives in patient treatment for her anexoria, Lily continues to eat for the both of them and makes increasingly bad choices in men. When things reach a critical mass, Rose is determined to get better so, for once, she can save her sister.
One of the charcters in this book says that she doesn’t think there’s a single girl in America/the world (?) who doesn’t have body related issues, and as someone who has a long and complicated history with my own body in more than one way (who doesn’t), this book really hit me in the gut. Clarke manages to vocalize some thoughts and feelings I have had over the years but had never been able to accurately describe.
I’ve never been on the Lily side of some of these issues, but as someone who could in some ways identify with Rose, I really enjoyed their relationship and how both of them were damaged and needed to help each other heal from opposite sides of the same overall issue.
One of my favorite motifs of the book was the descriptions of the different kinds of love and how Rose tried to type everyone she knew by the love she thought they craved. There are some twists and turns that I don’t usually forgive in such tales, but here, they don’t seem to be used merely as a plot device. These events play major roles in the lives of the girls, and it serves a real purpose in development and healing.
This book is not light and there are so many trigger warnings, including eating disorders, extreme fad dieting, internalized homophobia, and sexual assault. If you can get through those things, though, it’s a really gripping narrative of healing from trauma.
It’s out now, and if you haven’t already, add it to your summer TBR, then maybe add a romcom for a chaser.
Before we begin, I’d like to note that I devoured this one in about, uhmmm, fourteen hours? Maybe less time. I was enthralled.
Twins Rose and Lily Winters have always been inseparable and impossible to tell apart, until puberty when Rose starts losing weight and Lily seems to gain it. Over the years, the disparity between their weight grows and as Rose receives in patient treatment for her anexoria, Lily continues to eat for the both of them and makes increasingly bad choices in men. When things reach a critical mass, Rose is determined to get better so, for once, she can save her sister.
One of the charcters in this book says that she doesn’t think there’s a single girl in America/the world (?) who doesn’t have body related issues, and as someone who has a long and complicated history with my own body in more than one way (who doesn’t), this book really hit me in the gut. Clarke manages to vocalize some thoughts and feelings I have had over the years but had never been able to accurately describe.
I’ve never been on the Lily side of some of these issues, but as someone who could in some ways identify with Rose, I really enjoyed their relationship and how both of them were damaged and needed to help each other heal from opposite sides of the same overall issue.
One of my favorite motifs of the book was the descriptions of the different kinds of love and how Rose tried to type everyone she knew by the love she thought they craved. There are some twists and turns that I don’t usually forgive in such tales, but here, they don’t seem to be used merely as a plot device. These events play major roles in the lives of the girls, and it serves a real purpose in development and healing.
This book is not light and there are so many trigger warnings, including eating disorders, extreme fad dieting, internalized homophobia, and sexual assault. If you can get through those things, though, it’s a really gripping narrative of healing from trauma.
It’s out now, and if you haven’t already, add it to your summer TBR, then maybe add a romcom for a chaser.