Book Blurb:
Alice and Daphne, both successful working mothers, both accomplished and seemingly steady, 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 at her mother’s knee that only slimness earns admiration. Alice, break-up skinny when she met her husband, risks losing her marriage if she keeps gaining weight.
The two women meet at Privation. 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.
My Review: 3.5 stars
Waisted has a title and cover art that totally drew me in. Knowing this is a book by the wonderful Randy Susan Meyers, was an added bonus. I very much enjoyed her last book, The Widow of Wall Street that came out in 2017.
The title itself, had so many meanings; an actual waistline, neglected, emaciated and useless. Each of these implications announced itself in this story about body image. It’s refreshing that popular authors like Meyers and Moriarty are writing books that deal with the pain that women of size deal with on an everyday basis.
As described in the blurb, women end up at a spiritual retreat for weight loss, but why are they there? Each of the characters had a different circumstance for why they wanted to make a change, but each situation was not fleshed out enough. Some characters showed up to change from within, others for approval, a few for their family members and some from social pressures. The reader gets to know the two main protagonists very well, maybe even too well, while the others we know very little about. In my opinion there were just too many characters involved.
Beside fat shaming, body-image issues or how to get out of a cycle, we saw how weight gain affected the people in your life: spouses, children, family, coworkers and friends. I liked that the author focused on the communication necessary to talk these feelings through with those you love. How these ladies became trapped in a documentary was utterly disgraceful. It did make me think about the no means no scenario can relate to more than just sex. The intent of this documentary made me sick to my stomach. The ending was a cross between far-fetched and no surprise, yet it totally made sense.
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