Empty Inside: The Diary of an Anonymous Teenager really fits its name because it was, well, EMPTY INSIDE. Instead of ravishing details and an insight into ED like I had hoped, it came up short with FLAT FLAT FLAT characters (and this is how Kim speaks) and minimalist descriptions of an obviously made-up diary of a teenage girl battling an eating disorder. It was very slow.... I'm talking SNAIL PACE. In fact I was 80% through my e-book version of it (and I had to look) when it started mentioning the seriousness of her condition, hospital runs, etc. The most horrible fact: it was ALL TELL and no SHOWING and only the help of coffee and by the grace of God was I capable of getting through this snooze-fest. This is my absolute LAST time reading a book written in journal entry style. Lesson learned. Thank you coffee!

Shelby~ ( )

loved it its a realistic book and also enjoyable and it may teach lessons to some people who are scared of who they are or more like what they do in this instance ( )

The good: it was a quick read.
Not so good: it was pretty simplistic. I'm not sure how realistically it is written. The girl is supposed to be 17 and a HS senior/ college freshman. But I'm thinking her writing sounds more like a 14-15 year old. The books consists of 'diary entries' so there isn't a lot of depth to them. Everything is in spurts. Kim seems to know she needs help, but doesn't let anyone one know. She is just hoping someone picks up her diary and reads it.
I'm also not sure who the audience is for this. Is it supposed to be for teens with eating disorders, or maybe their friends? Or for parents? There are a couple of pages at the back listing 'symptoms' of eating disorders, but I don't really think the book would hold the interest of a teen or parent long enough to get there.

( )

Written in diary format, this book follows the struggles of Kim through the last year of high school and the first year of college. The only thing Kim feels like she can control is her eating, which leads to her anorexia and bulimia. I struggled to follow this book. There were many parts that seemed inconsistent. On one page it stated she met her friend's parents, and a few pages later it said she was nervous about when she would meet them for the first time. I felt as though many parts just rambled on. This book does do a good job of getting the reader into the mind of someone struggling with an eating disorder, and it also shows how to get help. It also talks about the real struggles that kids face when they first go off to college, which is good for seniors to be aware of. I would recommend this book to girls who are in middle school or high school. It would also be beneficial for a health class that is studying the causes and effects of eating disorders. ( )

No bones about it, this book was so badly written it almost made me throw up!
It certainly was not very original. In fact, it seems like a lot of this was lifted directly from Cherry Boones' autobiography "Starving for Attention"---especially the dog food bowl incident. ( )