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A review by cupcates
Paperweight by Meg Haston
3.0
I wanted to like this book. I really, really, really did. While I think there are some aspects of it that are well-written and well-researched, there are some that fall short.
I've been in inpatient treatment before for my own eating disorder, and I know just how horrible and how hard it is. I know how we saw threats everywhere we looked—our treatment teams, the eating table, each other, therapy sessions. I know it all, but I was treated at a hospital, not at a facility, so I can't really give my opinion on how well it was handled in the book.
I liked Stevie. I liked how flawed she was, and how realistic her evolution was. It wasn't too fast or too long, as eating disorders can easily become chronic and it's not something you develop or get cured of overnight (which was touched in the book, during a group therapy session through a dialogue between Cate, Stevie and Anna). Her inner monologues really hit me hard, especially her relationship with Ashley at the beginning of the book, because i saw myself in her thoughts. I've thought stuff like that from my fellow 'inmates' in treatment—that I had the upper hand, that I was sicker, that I was the youngest there, that I ruled that place. In retrospective, I truly hate how despicable this thinking is, but there are times I don't have the luxury of analyzing my thoughts. With that being said, I see myself a lot in Stevie, even if our backstories are very different.
The hardest part for me was having a character with the same name and same eating disorder as me—Cate. Of course it's not the author's fault, but I spent a lot of my time reading this book comparing myself to her (a fictional character!!!), and eating disorders are very competitive illnesses. You'll compete with everyone in your life, even people you don't know, even yourself. Nevertheless, her character was handled well and with care.
What I didn't like was the eating disorder dichotomy I've grown used to seeing and reading everywhere—and it utterly pisses me off. There are MORE than just two eating disorders, and not everyone suffers from either Anorexia Nervosa or Bulimia Nervosa. I've mentioned this before, but it really irked me when they changed Stevie's diagnostic from anorexia to bulimia just based on the weight criterion, when there's OSFED, another eating disorder, which includes atypical anorexia—which is what I feel like should have been stevie's diagnostic.
This book had a lot of good points, but, in the end, it was just that one thing that made me drop the rating from four starts to three. I'm sorry, I am.
I've been in inpatient treatment before for my own eating disorder, and I know just how horrible and how hard it is. I know how we saw threats everywhere we looked—our treatment teams, the eating table, each other, therapy sessions. I know it all, but I was treated at a hospital, not at a facility, so I can't really give my opinion on how well it was handled in the book.
I liked Stevie. I liked how flawed she was, and how realistic her evolution was. It wasn't too fast or too long, as eating disorders can easily become chronic and it's not something you develop or get cured of overnight (which was touched in the book, during a group therapy session through a dialogue between Cate, Stevie and Anna). Her inner monologues really hit me hard, especially her relationship with Ashley at the beginning of the book, because i saw myself in her thoughts. I've thought stuff like that from my fellow 'inmates' in treatment—that I had the upper hand, that I was sicker, that I was the youngest there, that I ruled that place. In retrospective, I truly hate how despicable this thinking is, but there are times I don't have the luxury of analyzing my thoughts. With that being said, I see myself a lot in Stevie, even if our backstories are very different.
The hardest part for me was having a character with the same name and same eating disorder as me—Cate. Of course it's not the author's fault, but I spent a lot of my time reading this book comparing myself to her (a fictional character!!!), and eating disorders are very competitive illnesses. You'll compete with everyone in your life, even people you don't know, even yourself. Nevertheless, her character was handled well and with care.
What I didn't like was the eating disorder dichotomy I've grown used to seeing and reading everywhere—and it utterly pisses me off. There are MORE than just two eating disorders, and not everyone suffers from either Anorexia Nervosa or Bulimia Nervosa. I've mentioned this before, but it really irked me when they changed Stevie's diagnostic from anorexia to bulimia just based on the weight criterion, when there's OSFED, another eating disorder, which includes atypical anorexia—which is what I feel like should have been stevie's diagnostic.
Atypical Anorexia Nervosa: All criteria are met, except despite significant weight loss, the individual’s weight is within or above the normal range.
from: Classifying Eating Disorders
This book had a lot of good points, but, in the end, it was just that one thing that made me drop the rating from four starts to three. I'm sorry, I am.