Truly moving

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Let me start by saying that mental health issues are of enormous interest to me - I have a BS in Psychology and an MSEd in Counseling. In addition, myself and numerous family members and friends suffer from different forms of mental health issues (anxiety & panic disorder for me). The stigma surrounding mental illness is something I strive to address, and work to dismantle, at every opportunity I get. So this book was something that spoke to me before I even opened it.

This book follows Anna, a girl from Paris who moved to the US with her husband, and suffered from a scary and nearly fatal case of anorexia. Eating disorders are one of those conditions consistently seen as a weakness, not a debilitating disorder that consumes everything about a person's life.

The way the book is written - almost in a conversational and "versed" style (short paragraphs peppered with intrusive thoughts and lines of speech from the characters) emphasized the scattered, panicked, and anxious thoughts of a mentally ill person. Truth: eating disorders and anxiety go hand-in-hand, so I think this was an incredible way to show this to the reader, particular the reader who isn't aware of this fact.

Anna's struggle is heartbreaking, frustrating, and almost hopeless throughout. You feel for her and want to slap her silly all at the same time. She has this amazing husband, Matthias, who never abandons her, and you see her pushing him away in parts. I actually rolled my eyes at her on more than one occasion while reading!

While reading this, you work with Anna through the struggle to eat, the inability to and immense fear of gaining weight, the constant worry of "refeeding syndrome" (which I had no idea existed until this book), the relationships she builds in treatment, and a few tragic incidents with other patients, which shall remain untold in this review 😉

So after all this gushing, why was this not a 5-star for me? I'm probably nitpicking here, but I thought there were a few shallow plot points that needed to be built up. Anna, despite a pretty normal upbringing, has a few tragedies in her past that are hinted at as contributing factors to her disorder. However, they were merely glazed over, and I think some serious elaboration was needed for these. Maybe it's me always needing to have all the answers, but I needed to know more about her past. Outside of that, super quick and moving read that I really enjoyed!