I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

I really loved this book. At first I balked and felt suspicious and critical but as the essays progressed I was really impressed by Clein's ability to not repeat herself. She really did her research! I have read a lot on this particular subject but this book covered new ground. So often, these kinds of books repeat information and anecdotes to a frustrating degree but Dead Weight was clean and well organized and thought through. I also found that Clein deftly handled issues of gender, race, and class that are obviously brought up in studies of weight obsession in America. It is so easy (and common) for these discussions to feel pat or insincere or forced but this book honestly and openly considered complications and complexities. What a relief! I found myself thinking about the book when I wasn't reading it and talking to people about the content within. I really look forward to following Clein's writing and thinking in the future. It cheers me to know that the generation below me can be so sharp and analytical.

Dead Weight was an excellent read. Anyone that has dealt with food or eating issues, is interested in psychology, or wants more understanding of the messed up diet culture we live in will appreciate this book. Clein's writing is cutting and doesn't pull any punches.

This books is HEAVY, but, strangely, in a lighthearted way. And the lightness made it hard for me to read. As someone who’s been irreparably damaged by EDs basically my entire life, it’s hard to read anything that seems almost jokey on the topic. Dead Weight also doesn’t really commend EDs - it’s more just stories and pop culture references and feels very breezy about something very detrimental. I had a hard time getting through this and even tried listening to the audio. If you’re fresh out of your ED or still active in it, I can’t imagine this book would be good at all… maybe it’s a good book for, like, ED voyeurs or people studying the topic versus someone looking for guidance. I’ll hold on to the copy I was sent, but I’d have a hard time recommending it, really.

Emmeline Clein's harrowing essays explore the cult of thinness and its rippling effects across our culture. She delves into how women and girls constantly strive to shrink themselves as a result of the messages that proliferate on social media, in TV show and movies, in novels, and in the way we talk to each other. An uncomfortable and necessary read.

Clein spent years entrenched in eating disorders, and in "Dead Weight" she examines some of the personal and societal obsessions that influenced her illness, and that of so many others.

Structured as a series of essays, "Dead Weight" leans heavily into pop culture, with an occasional academic bent. Clein has clearly read extensively—and consumed large amounts of other media—on the subject, and she quotes heavily. In places this works well, giving a sense of just how pervasive an issue is or in how many works it's reflected. I did end up wishing that fewer of the chapters/essays had taken this rapid-fire structure, with quotation following source following quotations, because it can feel very much like a montage, and I usually prefer to dive deeper into a topic or source (more analysis and fewer examples, I think). The pop culture parts have a very American lens; as someone who is American but is other things as well, I drew some very different conclusions (e.g., from the discussion of "Girls" vs. "Fleabag") than Clein does, but there will be resonance for those whose media consumption is primarily American.

One thing that readers should be mindful of: While Clein makes a concerted effort to avoid potential triggers in the form of numbers and certain details of eating disorders and so on, I'm not sure she ever really manages to write past a level of latent ambivalence about her eating disorder. It's understandable but still a risky place to be writing from, and in places the compulsion to write, or perhaps just to delve into this in a sanctioned way, overrides caution. "I don't know how to write about her without making her struggle into a manual or a vision board," writes Clein in a chapter that I can only describe as highly ill advised (and one of the most triggering things I've read in years). "But I am going to try to write about her anyway..." (loc. 3947*) An interesting read, but one I cannot recommend to anyone with anything other than a very healthy, uncomplicated relationship with their body.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

This book was definitely way more than a memoir - yes, the author discusses her relationship with food and the obstacles she’s had to overcome but she also dives deep into the history and science behind eating disorders. With each chapter there was a different lens / influence to eating disorders - pop culture, religion, pharmaceutical, etc. which I found very interesting.

Factual in nature but also personal, I found the book to be important. It’s definitely a TW book, if you’re not prepared to discuss eating disorders on every page, this is probably not the best book to read. Additionally, it was rather hard to get through, it is non-fiction after all.

Emmeline Cline takes the reader to the very heart of eating disorders. This is well researched and the writing on point. Prepare to be informed and maybe a little shocked. Trash eating is a new concept for me and with a social hierarchy of eating disorders, I imagine this is at the bottom. Anorexia taking the #1 spot. The need to be accepted and fit an ultra thin normal that is not realistic and perpetuated by the media is at the center of this issue. Skinny does not equal healthy and dieting causes eating disorders. When that sinks in, it makes a lot of sense. The rollercoaster of restricting food intake to reach a desired weight only to binge and gain it all back. Cline described it best as chaos and control. The most frustrating part was insurance. It certainly feels like insurance companies are focused on the dollar and not the burgeoning epidemic of eating disorders. Like a revolving door, patients are admitted and released, but the problem is not addressed, and the patient is deemed uncurable to be released and fend for themselves which often leads to death.

The essays in this book hit a number of topics pertaining to eating disorders and each one of them are informative. I highly recommend if this if the topic is of interest, or you know someone or you are dealing with an eating disorder.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Intensely researched and covered a number of really interesting topics, woven through with personal memoir which made the stories and points very impactful. The author thanks Leslie Jamison in the acknowledgements and was her student, I noticed this often had a Leslie Jamison-esque feel to the writing (a very good thing, in my opinion). But I did feel that some of the data was a bit cherry-picked, especially around obesity, and I wasn't on board with what seemed to be an overarching thesis of the influence of media/entertainment on eating disorders. I think there's a lot more complexity to the entire topic than that hints at. But I really liked the modern angle of it in general, and it was a great blend of the personal and the scientific.

Overall, I felt this book was quite good. It’s an unflinching look at the reality of living with an eating disorder and how poorly our culture and medical field does with the treatment thereof. I think it’s a very useful book for someone who cares about a person with an eating disorder or just wishes to understand the lived reality. It also brings in scientific studies, lending gravitas to the work, as does the author’s own eating disorder experience.

I am, however, quite disappointed at the inclusion of the final essay, “Coda.” Not only is it a mess without a clear throughline, but the author uses it to critique approaches to feminism while clearly demonstrating that she does not understand what feminism actually is. It also doesn’t fit in with the rest of the book and nearly torpedoes the worthiness of what she otherwise has to say.

Rating 3.5
Extremely well written, insightful and full of pop culture references (normal cringe but honestly made it a fun read). They state it was written in a way to not be triggering, I would say if you have any type of disordered eating there are definitely aspects of this that will be triggering.

TW: Eating disorders

I simultaneously think everyone should read this book and that anyone who has experience with disordered eating tread very lightly. I've read many books mentioned in this text--from Marya Hornbacher's anorexia bible Wasted to Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation, and none of them radicalized me quite like this one. So much of this work is focused on how little control the individual often has; though we obviously choose what food goes into our mouths, we are constantly being influenced on how to look, how to live, and how to eat. Even for doctors enlisted to "help" us, we are little more than profit.

An example: many insurance companies won't cover inpatient treatment for eating disorders unless the patient falls below a certain threshold, despite the evidence showing that weight is 1). not an indication of health and 2). you can suffer from disordered eating at any weight. So women (yes, this text focuses only on women, though it does include nonbinary, Black, obese, and other subgroups that are often ignored by the eating disorder establishment) will purposely starve themselves to reach a weight covered by insurance, only to be thrown out of treatment once they gain weight, despite having no tools to survive outside of a controlled environment. When they inevitably relapse, insurance refuses to cover treatment because they are supposedly a chronic case with little hope. Even Weight Watchers is designed to profit from people failing and coming back time and time again.

Sometimes this book is a little all over the place--after focusing on eating disorders for 90% of the book, Clein transitions into girlhood and the "bimbofication" of women at the end, and it feels like we lost the plot a bit. But there's a lot of valuable information in here.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I am so thankful to aaknopf, Emmeline Clein, PRH Audio, and Netgalley for granting me physical, digital, and audio access to this bittersweet read before it hits shelves on February 27, 2024. Dead Weight hit me right in my feelings as a former teen who struggled with body dysmorphic and disordered eating. Emmeline Clein details her experience with these diets and self-made restrictions and how the media, the internet, and society placed pressure and support on her mental illness.

I wanted to hug the author so many times because, in reality, she was looking for a friend and a support system, and ultimately, that's what I was looking for as well. I had Tumblr, which did more harm than good for me, leading me down darkened paths and constantly comparing my looks to those online, but for many, the Reddit threads, forums, and Tumblr posts were a positive place for disordered eaters everywhere.

Clein dives into how politics and the healthcare industry affected people with eating disorders, mainly as we breach into the world of fad diets and celebrity-endorsed products such as Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and even SSRIs as a form of weight loss - a slippery slope. I felt I was able to reminisce upon the tough times with this book, but I also learned a lot and we as people have to do better.

Urgent, important, tender, and utterly real, this is maybe the best book I've read on eating disorders in America.

I think this was a very good collection of memoir true stories about the various eating disorders that can effect anyone, both females and males. I thought this book could be triggering for anyone going through this or has a history of eating disorders in the past. I do not think the authir had any empathy for her subjective matter.

This is definitely not meant to be a self-help book or for people to seek guidance. Again, I was disappointed by the author's lack of empathy for anyone present or past with this issue.

Cannot recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley, Emmeleine Clein and Knopf Patheon Vintage and Anchor for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 2/27/2024

This book was a little too intense/descriptive for me to read, unfortunately, but I really love the concept and think it is important subject matter to tackle.

“Dead Weight” by Emmeline Clein is part memoir and part expose on the realities of eating disorders (ED) for women in western culture. Clein’s lyrical prose of her life with ED and coming to terms with her sexuality are seamlessly juxtaposed with ED statistical blurbs from reputable journals and anecdotal evidence from others with ED. I recommend reading this work as short essays, in small bites, to better digest Clein’s thoughtful words and to truly meditate on the complexity of eating disorders through the various lenses that the author introduces through each chapter.

Wow. What an absolutely powerful series of essays Clein has provided... I was drawn in by the strength of her pros and the passion with which she presented it, and thoroughly enjoyed the mix of anecdote, evidence, and narrative that pulled together into such a moving and coherent whole. As the mother of a 10 year old daughter and stepmother of a 24 year old, I was fascinated and horrified and motivated by what I read here. It amazes me that we continue to live in a world that purports to deify but actually vilifies women's bodies and that girls and women continue to torture themselves, sometimes to death, in an attempt to balance these facts. This was a really powerful collection...

The most interesting part of this entire book on disordered eating is that a lot of the source material is so recent. I feel that a lot of popular books on eating disorders were written so long ago that a lot of them are outdated. In Dead Weight, social media is addressed frequently as it should with how much it can contribute to our reflections on body image.

The contents of this book are vital reading for anyone who wants a greater understanding of the way our culture actively encourages and supports disordered eating, but I would caution anyone in tenuous recovery about reading this book. Triggers abound. That being said, it is indeed vital reading. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.