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A review by energyrae
Waisted by Randy Susan Meyers
4.0
Alice has struggled with her weight throughout the years. She struggles to find her place in the world where she feels she has a lot of things to over come. While her father is black, her mother is white and she raised Alice to understand her culture, to give her a piece of who she was because she wasn't able to. While she didn't feel the pressure from her parents about her weight, she did feel smothered. After a horrible breakup, she was at her lowest weight. Skinnier than ever she met her husband Clancy and he has let her know he doesn't find her attractive with all the extra weight. I'm not sure how I feel about Clancy, because to me, he treats Alice poorly. He doesn't really help her in her weight loss goals, and he's a bit controlling.
Then we have Daphne. Her husband Sam loves her for who she is and to everyone that meets him, he's pretty close to sainthood. Daphne's mother is the source for a lot of her angst. Daphne could never be thin enough for her, and the constant jabs are more hurtful than anything. Daphne's daughter especially doesn't treat her the greatest. But Daphne's desire to raise her daughter the opposite of how her mother raised her, might be causing more harm than good.
These two women meet when they sign up for a program called Waisted. They know they're going to be filmed for a documentary, and they signed away their rights to being recorded. But things go from bad to worse. They are humiliated and verbally abused. They are being given pills that they have no idea what is in them. While they are losing weight, it's not in a healthy way, despite the fact there is a doctor in the building. As Daphne and Alice's friendship grows, they decide to find out what is going on with their trainers.
I liked Alice and Daphne and I felt bad for their struggles. There were some great supporting characters such as Daphne's mom because she made a really good bad mother. Hania, another woman in the program, was a good character though I would have loved to see her developed more before she teamed up with our two main characters.
Overall, Waisted was a fun read, there were moments where your heart broke for the characters and then other moments where you were cheering the women on. Their struggles with weight were portrayed well and I think accurately. Anyone that struggles with their weight has a constant internal dialogue, and I think that Meyers did a great job in portraying this in the characters. I liked Alice's fighting spirit and I think she was a great character to carry the book. Nicely done.
Then we have Daphne. Her husband Sam loves her for who she is and to everyone that meets him, he's pretty close to sainthood. Daphne's mother is the source for a lot of her angst. Daphne could never be thin enough for her, and the constant jabs are more hurtful than anything. Daphne's daughter especially doesn't treat her the greatest. But Daphne's desire to raise her daughter the opposite of how her mother raised her, might be causing more harm than good.
These two women meet when they sign up for a program called Waisted. They know they're going to be filmed for a documentary, and they signed away their rights to being recorded. But things go from bad to worse. They are humiliated and verbally abused. They are being given pills that they have no idea what is in them. While they are losing weight, it's not in a healthy way, despite the fact there is a doctor in the building. As Daphne and Alice's friendship grows, they decide to find out what is going on with their trainers.
I liked Alice and Daphne and I felt bad for their struggles. There were some great supporting characters such as Daphne's mom because she made a really good bad mother. Hania, another woman in the program, was a good character though I would have loved to see her developed more before she teamed up with our two main characters.
Overall, Waisted was a fun read, there were moments where your heart broke for the characters and then other moments where you were cheering the women on. Their struggles with weight were portrayed well and I think accurately. Anyone that struggles with their weight has a constant internal dialogue, and I think that Meyers did a great job in portraying this in the characters. I liked Alice's fighting spirit and I think she was a great character to carry the book. Nicely done.