Wasted

"The first book i've ever read on anorexia and bullimia and quite possibly the best I'm going to ever read.
Not sentimental, but brilliant, sharp, open, honest, tragic and heart rendering. A story told to educate, rip apart the glamour of eating disorders.
I couldn't put this book down, and while I agree with some of the reviewers that this book could be perseived as a trigger, I think it needs to be read, and i'm sure the author needed to write it.
The author shows anorexia and bullimia in all it's horrors and the iron grip which it has on her to this day. To show us and help us understand that each day is a new day, but that we will always carry the scars of our past with us into the future.
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~ Written on 2008-04-26

"Love it or hate it, Wasted is an exceptional and quite extraordinary book. I read with interest the other reviews here, some of which claim that the book will act as a 'trigger' to those already suffering from eating disorders. Yes, I agree this may possibly be the case.. but this does not make Wasted a bad book. A good book will make you feel something, will make you empathise with the characters, will make you understand something more about yourself or about the human condition. In all of these respects, Wasted is a hugely significant book. This book is not just another book about eating disorders - far from it. It is an intelligent, engaging and well-written account of the search for identity and one person's struggle with a truly horrific and self-destructive addiction. Shocking the subject matter may be, but personally I consider this to be a real modern classic."
~ Written on 2007-08-11

"As someone who had anorexia & then bulimia for years, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who suffers from anorexia or bulimia - or even compulsive eating - an extremely prevalent issue among Western ( & probably non-Western) women. Marya discloses some very personal past issues - including the secret vomiting which is unfortunately a prevalent problem. Marya has a healthy cynicism about the medical profession, she is very hard on herself which a lot of us are, & as a privately educated 'Limey' I was quite interested to read about a state-school American suffering from the disease. Her book is a favour to many eating disorder sufferers - it certainly wasn't written for financial reasons. "
~ Written on 2007-08-05

"I found this book was a really interesting read. Suffering from anorexia myself I found it easy to relate to many of her feelings and experiences. well written and sad. "
~ Written on 2007-07-26

"This is not a sentimental book about a girl who finds out she has an eating disorder and over comes it against all odds. It's not a feel good book in any sense of the word.

The author is aware that she she still is a prisoner to her illness but what she has done is come to terms with it; Anorexia and Bulimia are still millstones around her neck but this book is her way of dealing with this burden.

Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher is not an easy book to read, not because the author makes the subject she is talking about complex, rather it is a brutally honest picture into a life governed by eating, puking, starving, eating, starving, puking, a vicious in which there seems to be no escape.

The author looks carefully into her childhood, her teenage years, her adult life, her relationship with her volatile family, her own detachment from herself as a woman in a man's world.

I couldn't read this book in one sitting, I had to do it in stages, it is powerful stuff, I have an eating disorder, and I can relate to some of the thing Marya is saying, especially about how you fit your sickness to suit your life and how you learn to be devious, to hide if from those around you, how the lies you tell are lies that you want to believe and so they become the truth.

This is another book that we should give teenage girls to read because I think that it just might sway some of them from taking the road that Marya took and barely survived going down.

An incredible, disgusting, compulsive, painful, and totally addictive read about a subject most of us would rather avoid if we could."
~ Written on 2007-07-19