There was a LOT going on in this book, and I think it would have been more compelling if it had focused in on one or two pieces. The various mother/daughter, husband/wife, mother/daughter relations; Alice's work at the community center; the program itself; the racial dynamics; the cosmetology work; the documentary; the drugs... It was just all a lot, and I think the breadth meant that the author didn't dive as deep or create as strong plotlines as she could have. The creation of the documentary at the end felt especially rushed, and I wanted more about the reaction to it. ( )

Received via NetGalley for review.

I wanted to like this - I was expecting a sharp satire like Libba Bray's Beauty Queens, but instead got this self-serious novel that wasn't sure if it wanted to be a parody or not, about race or weight or society or not.

In broad strokes, the characters are well-developed, and Meyers does a great job really putting you in Alice and Daphne's heads and seeing the loathing and self-destructive behaviors they put themselves through daily. Immediately, I felt for these women and how unhappy they were. Though they were surrounded by loving husbands and family (more on this a little later...), they couldn't move past how trapped they felt, and needed extreme measures to break out.

What they went through in the Waisted mansion was truly horrible and abusive, no question, and nobody deserves that, even if they "signed up for it." But Meyers brings up a huge issue and then leaves it unresolved, teasing the reader. Alice and Daphne went through this so they could get thin; they got thin. They learned self-control and appreciation. Does that mean it worked, even though the methods were terrible?

If Meyers had really wanted to discuss society and weight and women's self-worth, she would not have left such an important question (however unintentional) examined. She even has a reporter ask the women this question, only for them to brush it off! While some of the women gained the weight back (interestingly enough, special mention is made of the two women who still live with their parents gaining back even more than they had lost), Alice and Daphne remain "thin," but in a way that still leaves them unhappy. They use the extreme self-control they learned in the "fat mansion" to constantly watch what they eat, and both women use their new sense of self to push back against their mothers and the agenda they've been pushing.

With all this, my issues with the novel can be broken down into two main categories: 1) Meyers spends too much time thinking about race issues and multiculturalism. This is as big an issue as weight and women's self-image, and trying to combine the two results in an unnecessarily novel that slows down every few pages to discuss something serious. While I am mixed-race, I am not black, and neither is Meyers. It felt intensely strange to read a white women talking about Alice's beautiful skin and eyes and ability to pass for anything she wanted, while having absolutely no experience with anything she describes.

I understand wanting to increase and promote diversity in novels, so that they reflect the real world, but there is absolutely no reason for Alice to have a Jewish mother, and Southern Catholic grandparents, AND be married to a non-american, AND have a lesbian sister who, of course, is married to a black woman. AND for Daphne to be similarly multi-cultural AND for the "fat mansion" to make sure at least one women of very race is represented (AND for Alice to take specific notice of it!)... it all feels too much, and like Meyers tried too hard.

And 2) I had no idea how fat any of these women actually were. Maybe this was an intentional choice - many women feel as though they are fatter than they are, and no amount of love can convince them otherwise. But if you're going to write a novel about weight loss, specifically, you cannot ignore actual data. Alice's mother has no problem at all with her weight, giving me the impression that, while she's fat, she's probably not obese. But is she smaller than Daphne (besides the fact that she's taller)? And Daphne doesn't see herself as obese, and clearly neither does her husband, but she's very short, and one of her final weights mentioned (139) still seems like a lot. And how does Hania compare to them? Despite her amazing beauty, which Meyers never fails to mention, how tall is she? She apparently looks amazing after the "fat mansion," but she was never as fat as Alice and Daphne to begin with. And then she gains it all back! I'm sure all these women are lovely, but I couldn't picture them consistently, and this hurt my immersion.

I understand what Meyers was going for, and if she had trimmed down a lot of the "big issues" and discussions that they women had amongst themselves (and maybe some of the characters... there are a lot of people to keep track of!), she might have almost had it. ( )

I have very conflicting emotions about this book. Waisted focuses mainly on two women, Alice and Daphne, who meet at a weight-loss camp. The very first sentence of the book angered me so much that I almost stopped right then and there -- "Everyone hated a fat woman, but none more than she hated herself." I stopped, took a breath and told myself to keep going.

The camp turned out to be hell on earth. Severe caloric intake, grueling and excessive exercise and over the top cruelty were the methods used to force the women at Privation to lose weight. I cringed throughout much of the parts at the camp but I also know that was the point. To what end will people go to be skinny? Turns out, they'll go pretty far as we see in the book.

Alice and Daphne, along with their friend/roommate Hania, embark on a quest to escape the camp and expose the evils behind the scenes. What they find on the outside was not at all what they were expecting. This is when the book began to win me back over. We follow Alice and Daphne as they start to focus on who they are outside of the number on the scale. They begin to see themselves through the eyes of their family and start to learn how to speak up and out and examine the messages they send to others by focusing solely on how much they weigh.

Once the turn around began, I loosened my shoulders and exhaled out some of the anger. I was convinced the author hated fat people but as I exhaled, I realized that this is often how fat is portrayed in the world. As Meyers began to develop the characters in their new post-camp realities, some messages about self-love and body positivity began to appear, redeeming the story for me.

However, I can't really recommend the book to anyone who reads for fun. It was difficult to read about how much the world hates fat people and as someone who has had weight issues my entire life, I don't need to see it when I'm trying to relax. The synopsis calls the story provocative and wildly entertaining. I'll give it the provocative because woah nelly but the entertaining part I fail to see.

Waisted is out tomorrow, May 21, 2019. I give it an overall 2 out of 5 stars and am not recommending it. ( )

Such a powerfully written book about how women perceive themselves in relation to their weight. Very eye opening and thought provoking. 5 Stars. ( )

This book just didn't work for me. I think that this is a very sensitive and important topic that should be discussed but I didn't find that this format worked in this situation. I found many parts of this book came off as insensitive and judgemental. People struggle with weight and body image issues for a variety of reasons and I felt that was not reflected here.. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books for a copy of this book, all opinions are my own.