Review: Waisted by Randy Susan Meyers @randysusanmeyer @AtriaBooks

Review: Waisted by Randy Susan Meyers @randysusanmeyer @AtriaBooksGenres: New Adult

In this provocative, wildly entertaining, and compelling novel, seven women enrolled in an extreme weight loss documentary discover self-love and sisterhood as they enact a daring revenge against the exploitative filmmakers.

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.

 


“Waisted peels back the layers of women’s feelings about their bodies, their relationships, and ultimately their self-worth. Readers will ride a tilt-a-whirl of emotions—fist pumping chief among them—as Alice and Daphne wage war on their inner demons and on the heartless filmmaker who would exploit their deepest wounds for his own gain.”
—Juliette Fay, author of The Tumbling Turner Sisters

I have read a couple of books in the past year dealing with weight and the struggles that follow. As a woman who struggles with weight issues I can look at this book through eyes of someone who has been there and done that.  I enjoyed seeing both Daphane and Alice’s relationship grow. As the story unfolds, I feel anyone struggling with body issues will find a piece of themselves in this book. The story was slow at points and had some structural issues that, for me, weren’t my favorite. It was positive to see how far both Daphane and Alice came by the end.  Over all I was happy I picked this one up. It’s wasn’t a top read for me but I still enjoyed the story nonetheless.


About Randy

I was born in Brooklyn, New York, where I quickly moved from playing with dolls to incessantly reading, spending most of my time at the Kensington Branch Library. Early on I developed a penchant for books rooted in social issues, my early favorites being Karen and The Family Nobody Wanted. Shortly after, I moved onto Jubilee and The Diary of Anne Frank.

My dreams of justice simmered at the fantastically broadminded Camp Mikan, where I went from camper to counselor, culminating in a high point when (with the help of my strongly Brooklyn-accented singing voice), I landed the role of Adelaide in the staff production of Guys and Dolls.

Soon after my brief stage career, I was ready to change the world, starting with my protests at Tilden High and City College of New York . . .

. . .  until I left to pursue the dream in Berkeley, California, where I supported myself by selling candy, nuts, and ice cream in Bartons of San Francisco. Then, world weary at too tender an age, I returned to New York, married, and traded demonstrations for diapers.

While raising two daughters, I tended bar, co-authored a nonfiction book on parenting, ran a summer camp, and (in my all-time favorite job, other than writing) helped resurrect and run a community center.

Once my girls left for college, I threw myself deeper into social service and education by working with batterers and victims of domestic violence. I’m certain my novels are imbued with all the above, as well as my journey from obsessing over bad boys to loving a good man.

Many things can save your life—children who warm your heart, the love of a good man, a circle of wonderful friends, and a great sister. After a tumultuous start in life, I’m lucky enough to now have all these things. I live in Boston with my husband.

http://www.randysusanmeyers.com/

 

 

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