In her memoir "Empty", Susan Burton casts a light on a topic seldom broached in memoir-writing. Her honesty about her anorexia and binge-eating disorder and how they both became entwined with (often times defining) her girlhood is candid, refreshing and like nothing I have read before.

I felt a connectedness with this story from the beginning and I feel confident that countless others will too.

Empty was a tender and engulfing memoir of one woman's struggle with binge eating and disordered eating.
I think one of the most prescient aspects to Burton's story is how she demonstrates the ease in which eating disorders can exist in someone's life, without others truly knowing. Burton also delves into the pathology of thinness and employs dense details that reveal how an obsession with thinness can rule a person's life. The resounding feeling Burton's writing left me with is that of quiet devastation; likely because her story is so similar is unique and her own, but her story is also that of many women: seeking their true identity, healing from familial trauma, lack of self-esteem, isolation, and searching for fulfillment.

I felt some sections of the book were a bit dense and in need of editing, but I was felt feeling recognized and gutted by Burton's story. Recommended to any woman feeling alone in the struggle of acceptance.

Hands down one of the best memoirs I've read. On the surface, this is the story of one women's struggle with disordered eating. And it describes that poignantly, drawing the reader in. But this book is so much more. Burton captures her own motivations so clearly that readers can identify with life's temptations and struggles, even if eating is not your personal issue. And she establishes such a clear sense of place with her cultural descriptors, I felt like I was back in my own teen years, watching this story unfold in her life as a friend. (She nails the experience of being a teen in the '80s brilliantly). This will be my go-to recommendation for the foreseeable future. Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I want to thank NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, and author Susan Burton for providing me with an ARC of this novel!

I was so drawn to this book as soon as I first saw it. It did not disappoint!

In Susan’s memoir, we follow her journey through adolescence and adulthood during her trials and tribulations with food. She finds herself developing anorexia while she is in high school; her life has been utterly changed by her parent’s divorce and she has also had to make a big move across the country. The anorexia becomes binge eating (not to be thought synonymous with bulimia).

This is such a fascinating read that offers you a window into someone’s struggles with multiple eating disorders. Susan’s writing pulled me in, and I found it incredibly hard to put this book down once I picked it up. I loved the vulnerability shown, and also the relationship between women (men, too) and food. How easily it can become very, very toxic.

A wonderful read that will open your eyes!

Thank you to those named above for the opportunity to read and review this memoir!

Hard to read in its relatable vulnerability; an expansive exploration of female eating relationships, and how they can become so toxic.

I've been excited about this book since I first heard about it, and it did not disappoint. The characters sucked you into the story and the story kept you turning pages as fast as you could. I devoured it in a day. I loved it.

"Ask yourself why you are trying so hard to be a child again." This is a question posed by Susan's mother after she observes her daughter in the grip of anorexia.

Susan Burton's memoir explores her adolescence through adulthood via her struggles with food. She first develops anorexia during high school, a difficult time in any teenage girl's life, but her life has also recently been uprooted by her parents' divorce and a move halfway across the country. Susan's eating issues swing from not eating to binge eating.

Binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder, but is rarely highlighted in books, so this was a rare insight into binge eating that was not a part of bulimia. When Susan was dealing with her binge eating issues, there was very little information out there on the condition. She does highlight several facts about the disorder as she learns more about it and begins to recover.

While this memoir reads very similarly to other memoirs I've read of individuals struggling with eating disorders (e.g., childhood upheaval, begins of eating issues while young, intensifying troubles in adolescence/college, recovery), I did appreciate the highlighting of an eating disorder that does not get as much attention and the author also writes well, and gives the reader nice insight into her thoughts and behaviors.

This memoir centers on a woman with binge eating disorder which she has never gotten acknowledgement nor proper help for. There isn't a lot of triggering material in the book. There is a lot of philosophical discussion, as she is trying very hard to figure out the reason for her food addiction. She explores incidents from her childhood and the relationship to food she was brought with in her family. She develops an alcohol issue which she hopes will lessen the food issue but serves only to exacerbate it. A very introspective book with new ideas. A welcome addition to the literature on food addiction.