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emmareads013's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder
fschulenberg's review
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
4.0
A deep dive into the eating disorders that defined Susan Burton’s life , and the changes that diverted her from this trajectory.
annatl4's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
empty was so beautifully written. although the main theme was regarding eating disorders and overall mental health, Susan did a wonderful job at telling her life story at the same time. as someone who grew up in connecticut and moved to boulder colorado, it was easy for me to picture her teenage years and college years. she described her struggle with such honesty, it was truly a heartbreakingly beautiful read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Eating disorder, and Mental illness
Minor: Infidelity
lemondropshot's review
slow-paced
3.0
Well written, but redundant. I almost dropped it, and I heavily skimmed after page 200. Susan skirts around most of her life and problems, never really addressing anything in depth. She spends a lot of time mentioning how great she is -- straight A student, on the swim team, always winning awards, accepted into prestigious boarding school, went to Yale, etc etc. Yet she's also apparently always partying, always drained from being preoccupied with food, and always busy having a fake personality. She doesn't ever explain how she juggled everything and came out of it with a successful academic life and career.
She also spends over 200 pages on just high school and college, treating the rest of her life with a magic wand wave. Even though she's a real person writing about her own life, it felt like I was reading a flat Mary Sue who, even at her worst, wasn't that bad because she never purged (Susan has strange fixation on not being bulimic).
Overall, the book felt like a never ending essay to nowhere. I give it 3 stars due to the overall quality of her writing, but the content itself is closer to a 1. It felt like a waste of time. Susan writes a lot about how important the secret of her having disorderer eating had always been to her, but it's clearly still a secret in the end, as she doesn't ever let the reader get close to her.
She also spends over 200 pages on just high school and college, treating the rest of her life with a magic wand wave. Even though she's a real person writing about her own life, it felt like I was reading a flat Mary Sue who, even at her worst, wasn't that bad because she never purged (Susan has strange fixation on not being bulimic).
Overall, the book felt like a never ending essay to nowhere. I give it 3 stars due to the overall quality of her writing, but the content itself is closer to a 1. It felt like a waste of time. Susan writes a lot about how important the secret of her having disorderer eating had always been to her, but it's clearly still a secret in the end, as she doesn't ever let the reader get close to her.
montigneyrules's review
2.0
#readingchallenge2024 (my book about a writer/author)
I appreciate the author putting herself out there- working through her personal struggles, coming to terms with her illness, sharing personal memories- however I feel she stepped around the behaviors, not really getting the the core honesty of it all- I kept waiting for her to go a bit deeper, but right when she would mention something, she would move on- adding there was no arc-
There was just a lacking in-depthness- as much as she shared, the story was more about the ordinary aspects of her life, than the disorder- it felt as if this was a first therapy session-and there is real depth in there, but not quite there yet. As someone who struggles, and is very open about it, I felt like the author was still hiding a lot from the conversation.
I appreciate the author putting herself out there- working through her personal struggles, coming to terms with her illness, sharing personal memories- however I feel she stepped around the behaviors, not really getting the the core honesty of it all- I kept waiting for her to go a bit deeper, but right when she would mention something, she would move on- adding there was no arc-
There was just a lacking in-depthness- as much as she shared, the story was more about the ordinary aspects of her life, than the disorder- it felt as if this was a first therapy session-and there is real depth in there, but not quite there yet. As someone who struggles, and is very open about it, I felt like the author was still hiding a lot from the conversation.