A review by cowmingo
Waisted by Randy Susan Meyers
2.0
I have very conflicting emotions about this book. Waisted focuses mainly on two women, Alice and Daphne, who meet at a weight-loss camp. The very first sentence of the book angered me so much that I almost stopped right then and there -- "Everyone hated a fat woman, but none more than she hated herself." I stopped, took a breath and told myself to keep going.
The camp turned out to be hell on earth. Severe caloric intake, grueling and excessive exercise and over the top cruelty were the methods used to force the women at Privation to lose weight. I cringed throughout much of the parts at the camp but I also know that was the point. To what end will people go to be skinny? Turns out, they'll go pretty far as we see in the book.
Alice and Daphne, along with their friend/roommate Hania, embark on a quest to escape the camp and expose the evils behind the scenes. What they find on the outside was not at all what they were expecting. This is when the book began to win me back over. We follow Alice and Daphne as they start to focus on who they are outside of the number on the scale. They begin to see themselves through the eyes of their family and start to learn how to speak up and out and examine the messages they send to others by focusing solely on how much they weigh.
Once the turn around began, I loosened my shoulders and exhaled out some of the anger. I was convinced the author hated fat people but as I exhaled, I realized that this is often how fat is portrayed in the world. As Meyers began to develop the characters in their new post-camp realities, some messages about self-love and body positivity began to appear, redeeming the story for me.
However, I can't really recommend the book to anyone who reads for fun. It was difficult to read about how much the world hates fat people and as someone who has had weight issues my entire life, I don't need to see it when I'm trying to relax. The synopsis calls the story provocative and wildly entertaining. I'll give it the provocative because woah nelly but the entertaining part I fail to see.
Waisted is out tomorrow, May 21, 2019. I give it an overall 2 out of 5 stars and am not recommending it.
The camp turned out to be hell on earth. Severe caloric intake, grueling and excessive exercise and over the top cruelty were the methods used to force the women at Privation to lose weight. I cringed throughout much of the parts at the camp but I also know that was the point. To what end will people go to be skinny? Turns out, they'll go pretty far as we see in the book.
Alice and Daphne, along with their friend/roommate Hania, embark on a quest to escape the camp and expose the evils behind the scenes. What they find on the outside was not at all what they were expecting. This is when the book began to win me back over. We follow Alice and Daphne as they start to focus on who they are outside of the number on the scale. They begin to see themselves through the eyes of their family and start to learn how to speak up and out and examine the messages they send to others by focusing solely on how much they weigh.
Once the turn around began, I loosened my shoulders and exhaled out some of the anger. I was convinced the author hated fat people but as I exhaled, I realized that this is often how fat is portrayed in the world. As Meyers began to develop the characters in their new post-camp realities, some messages about self-love and body positivity began to appear, redeeming the story for me.
However, I can't really recommend the book to anyone who reads for fun. It was difficult to read about how much the world hates fat people and as someone who has had weight issues my entire life, I don't need to see it when I'm trying to relax. The synopsis calls the story provocative and wildly entertaining. I'll give it the provocative because woah nelly but the entertaining part I fail to see.
Waisted is out tomorrow, May 21, 2019. I give it an overall 2 out of 5 stars and am not recommending it.