Library Journal - Audio
06/10/2024
Sunday Times journalist Freeman (House of Glass) documents her struggle with anorexia nervosa and describes being hospitalized at various facilities from the age of 14 through 17. In this gripping, self-narrated memoir, Freeman traces her difficult recovery, sharing experiences with family, friends, and teachers—some noticed her rapid weight decline, and others did not. Influenced by culture, gender roles, societal expectations, and self-hatred, the author discusses how she developed the eating disorder that would shape the rest of her life. She offers an approachable look into studies that show how the diagnosis, treatment, and recovery from the disease have changed in the 30 years since her hospitalizations. She also links the disease to her own experience with OCD and autism, sharing research that suggests that the two are linked. Throughout the book, Freeman resists overgeneralizing, acknowledging that there are many experiences of anorexia, and that this memoir represents her personal experience and understanding. She also provides a list of resources for those who want to learn more. VERDICT A brave and timely memoir, enhanced by the author's authentic, heartfelt narration.—Elyssa Everling
MAY 2023 - AudioFile
Hadley Freeman's British accent and strong sense of pacing make for easy listening on the difficult subject of anorexia. Her transitions, both in writing and in narrating, are flawless as she merges 30 years of personal experiences, interviews with professionals and patients, research about treatment and causes, humor, horror, and heart. The views she presents are thoughtful, stereotype-busting, surprising pictures of what anorexia is and is not. She dispels the typical explanation--"it's the mother's fault"--instead focusing on quiet trigger moments when girls fear womanhood and the sexuality and performance issues that it portends. Descriptions of her experiences are studded with poignant imagery, and her meaning is often expressed with humorous disgust--for example, when she recounts the many reasons given by professionals for her anorexia. S.W. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
04/03/2023
Sunday Times journalist Freeman (House of Glass) chronicles her struggles with anorexia in this illuminating memoir. At 14, a classmate referred to Freeman’s body as “normal,” which sent her spiraling into disordered eating: “A black tunnel yawned open inside me, and I tumbled down it, Alice into Nowhereland.” To better understand the disorder that gripped her for more than two decades, Freeman interviews patients she came to know during her own hospitalizations, talks to doctors about treatment, and traces links between eating disorders and autism, depression, and—rather dubiously—gender dysphoria, which she suggests may be rooted in body hate the same way eating disorders are. Freeman also posits that anorexia is, in part, a way for girls to rage against enforced passivity: “It isn’t really about the food.... It’s about trying to say something without having to speak; it’s about the fear of sexualization and fear of womanhood; it’s about sadness and anger and the belief you’re not allowed to be sad and angry because you’re supposed to be perfect.” The most poignant aspects of the book, though, are personal, as when Freeman recounts her lack of close friends in adolescence. For readers wishing to understand this disease, Freeman offers valuable (if sometimes questionable) insight. The result is affecting, though uneven. Agent: Georgia Garrett, Rogers, Coleridge & White. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
"Though there is no shortage of memoirs about anorexia, the sharp storytelling, solid research and gentle humor in Good Girls make it especially appealing. And Ms. Freeman has some good advice for parents." —Wall Street Journal
"Riveting" — The New York Times
"This searing memoir from a recovered anorexic, which explores the warped thinking around the illness, should be required reading....Freeman is a brave, illuminating and meticulous reporter and uses her experience wisely." — The Guardian
"Freeman evokes the mental processes of anorexia extraordinarily well, and her candor will make a great many people feel less lonely...It’s impassioned, a sort of manifesto, and we should take it to heart." — Los Angeles Review of Books
"Blending autobiography and journalism, Freeman sheds light on a dark subject – anorexia and self-hatred among teenage girls. Written with her trademark verve and wit, Good Girls is sure to provoke debate—and maybe some serious thought as well." — Katha Pollitt, Poet and The Nation columnist
"Recounting her years of anorexia with uncommon honesty, Hadley Freeman makes a powerful case for finding the will to live." —Lauren Collins, author of When In French
"For parents of girls with eating disorders, this is vital, revelatory, and deeply moving." —Caitlin Moran, New York Times bestselling author of More Than a Woman
"Hadley Freeman writes unsparingly, harrowingly and profoundly about her life with this disorder, which feels so brutal and unnavigable for sufferers and their families. But she also writes with hope. An intensely vivid memoir that turns out to be an escape story." — Marina Hyde, author of What Just Happened?
"Someone who fought the beast and won uses her own experience and thorough research to explain what anorexia is—and isn’t... Freeman's insights are essential... If you need to understand anorexia, look no further. This is the book for you." — Kirkus Reviews (starred)
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2023-01-24
Someone who fought the beast and won uses her own experience and thorough research to explain what anorexia is—and isn’t.
Longtime Guardian columnist Freeman, author of House of Glass, is a talented writer and researcher whose personal history with anorexia as a young woman required numerous hospitalizations. She remembers her trigger moment with absolute clarity. It was just after her 14th birthday when a classmate with very skinny legs said, "I wish I was normal like you." Having reconnected with several women she met in hospitals along the way, she pulls in their experiences, as well, explaining that "anorexia was a bomb inside us, just waiting for the right time, the single flame, the trigger." The author’s thorough explanation of the disease and its treatment completely debunks many myths—e.g., “all that was needed to cure anorexia was for Kate Moss to eat some chips.” A chapter called “The Theories” is a simultaneously hilarious and horrifying three-page poem that lays out “an incomplete list of reasons doctors, therapists and outsiders have given over the years for why I became anorexic.” Freeman is sharp, funny, and literate. In discussing her school reading during that transitional 14th summer, she writes, "I don't blame John Fowles for my anorexia, but he did make an effective soundtrack for it." She also labels Roald Dahl "the Anna Wintour of children's literature when it comes to fatphobia" and shares crucial life wisdom from Spaceballs and Lethal Weapon. With several sources indicating an "epidemic of extreme anxiety among girls"—a 2019 study showed rates of self-harm had tripled since 2000—Freeman's insights are essential. For mothers of daughters in crisis, she offers a wise message: “Get professional help as soon as you can, and don't become her caregiver."
If you need to understand anorexia, look no further. This is the book for you.
