Julie's Review: Waisted

Author: Randy Susan Meyers
Series: None
Publication Date: May 21, 2019
Publisher: Atria Books
Pages: 288
Obtained: Great Thoughts, Great Readers Book Salon
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: 
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Alice and Daphne, both successful and accomplished working mothers, harbor the same secret: obsession with their weight overshadows concerns about their children, husbands, work—and everything else of importance in their lives. Scales terrify them. Daphne, plump in a family of model-thin women, learned only slimness earns admiration at her mother’s knee. Alice, break-up skinny when she met her husband, risks losing her marriage if she keeps gaining weight. The two women meet at Waisted. Located in a remote Vermont mansion, the program promises fast, dramatic weight loss, and Alice, Daphne, and five other women are desperate enough to leave behind their families for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The catch? They must agree to always be on camera; afterward, the world will see Waisted: The Documentary. The women soon discover that the filmmakers have trapped them in a cruel experiment. With each pound lost, they edge deeper into obsession and instability...until they decide to take matters into their own hands. ~amazon.com

Review: Waisted is a thought provoking novel about how women view themselves regarding beauty but the true focus is on weight. How far will each of them go to attain her ideal weight? How will it effect her psyche? Her relationships?

Alice is a smart, loving woman who struggles with her weight and her ass of a husband doesn't help. You see he met Alice when she was getting over her first real heartbreak, so she wasn't eating and at her thinnest. So after having their daughter, she gained weight and was having trouble keeping it off. He never complimented her and seemed embarrassed to take her anywhere. His image was very much tied to external beauty and therefore she didn't fit that image. So instead of losing weight for herself she does it to please him which leads her to binge.

Daphne is a brilliant make-up artist that doesn't live up to her mother's sense of beauty because she's overweight. Her mom is always making comments and cutting her down. It has penetrated every inch of Daphne's being and is affecting her marriage to her wonderfully supportive husband.

Alice and Daphne meet when they join a "camp" to get themselves in shape. Pretty quickly they lose the weight but what else are they giving up? Will they lose their sense of who they really are?! How do you reconcile yourself when so much of yourself has been wrapped up on a number on the scale?!

Ms. Myers has written a novel that every woman should read. She hits this subject matter on so many levels that it will resonate with everyone, thin or not so thin. It made me cry at some points because it hit home. I don't think weight is a strictly female issue but it is strictly female in how society views women with a few extra pounds on her frame.

This will be a book that I will push on people to read. I really can't recommend it enough.

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