Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Purge, by Sarah Darer Littman


When Janie ends up in a psychiatric hospital because of bulimia, she has a lot of time to reflect on what drove her to purging. Going through denial and grief, she eventually ends up in acceptance, but not before learning a lot about herself and her fellow sufferers.


The plot on this one is fairly predictable and follows a slew of other girl-in-mental-institution books. Littman brings in a few original elements (boys with eating disorders -- who knew?) and the characters are distinct and engaging enough. The dialog sounds good. Littman avoids preaching. This is all very good, but the story is so formulaic and concluded so smoothly that I didn't see the pooint of the exercise. We've had a fair share of these books already and this doesn't break new ground. So, if you've never read a book about bulimia, this is not a bad one to start with, but there are lots of fish in the sea.

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