Reviews for Skinny Boy: A Young Man's Battle and Triumph Over Anorexia

The average rating for Skinny Boy: A Young Man's Battle and Triumph Over Anorexia based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-10-30 00:00:00 Bill Day What editing went on in this book?? It is "descent" not "decent" and "you" and "your" got mixed up at least once, if not several times. I had a hard, hard time getting over those typos. I did like his introduction/disclaimer. He explained that he compressed several hospital visits into two big ones and made it seem shorter than it really was. I think it's important to let your reader know how long your recovery took, or at least your memoir/autobiography spanned. The constant going back and forth between him and IT and then YOU later. While I argue with myself in a similar way like Gary, it seems a bit trite and overdone. Too preachy, too. I would have liked more insight into how he was before the book started and he was to start his first hospitalization. The back mentions him as a popular guy. I'd like some background on that, some examples. Also on what started his worry about his weight. I know he mentioned the ice cream incident with his mom, but other than that, I don't recall specific incidences. I think that would have made it easier for me to relate to him. The three memoirs I've read - this one, Wasted by Marya Hornbacher and Chalked Up: Inside Elite Gymnastics' Merciless Coaching Overzealous Parents Eating Disorders and Elusive Olympic Dreams by Jennifer Sey - had one thing in common that made me unable to relate to them. All three authors were fantastic or excellent in something. I mean, they say overachieving is a common characteristic shared by anorexics. Seems true in their cases. Gary was good enough at baseball to get an invitational to a tryout for big wig teams, and get Jim Gantner as a mentor. Sey was US National Gymnastic Champ in 1986. Marya was accepted into Interlochen and did big wig reporting in DC while at uni. I haven't done anything like that. Nor do I have a strive like that. If anything, I'm a big-time procrastinator. I was interested in Skinny Boy because I wanted a perspective of a male going through an eating disorder. I would have liked to know if he had a tough time facing "discrimination" or weird questions/taunts for being a guy and having anorexia. I don't know if he never faced it, being sheltered at home or the hospital (it seems like that was the case) or if he was, he didn't deem it important to include in the book -- so not true!! -- or he was too embarrassed to talk about it. Surely he must have been his final visit to the hospital and when he wrote the book!

Review # 2 was written on 2008-09-30 00:00:00 Bernie Johns I had a very hard time believing this book. I thought it would be original and intriguing to read the story of a boy dealing with anorexia, but this book fell far below my expectations. Although the book is non-fiction and written as a memoir, I felt that much of the dialogue sounded more like a self-help book than something a teenage boy in a psychiatric hospital would say. The story line was interesting but the dialogue, especially the author's internal dialogue, wasn't believable.