An eye opening memoir detailing the intense struggle with an eating disorder that is sure to speak to and educate you.

TW: Anorexia, purging, self-harm, loss of pregnancy, suicide, death

Elena Dunkle aided by her mother, Claire Dunkle does an honest job at sharing her fight with Anorexia. It’s not east and it’s not short.

Everyone’s experience with an ED is different and their Road to recovery takes different paths. The author had a long and extremely daunting battle with FOOD that cost her almost everything.

How does one get to the bottom of that? Do we need to have reasons? Coming from a supportive family surely helps but how much can others help you unless you want to help yourself? The spiral of wanting to get better and realising that you are a lost cause is arduous.

‘Recovery is a path, not a destination.’

The inner-voice that keeps reminding of how you are nothing but a failure, of how you will always be a disappointment and how you will never see an end to this does not make it easy.

‘I’m part of you. I know what you’ve done. You’ll never get rid of me.’

One way to persevere is to find hope. Find something to hold on to. Find something that reminds you that you are loved. Find something that you love unconditionally.

Its not easy. It is not always at arms length. Elena vanishing shines light on the importance of finding the ‘Right help’. It’s a memoir that shows us the good and the bad, the boring and the interesting. It shows us what it is without glorifying any part of it and personally, that’s what spoke to me the most.

You will be left with knowledge and hopefully, empathy to help the brave souls like Elena on their journey after reading her story.




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I teach high school English, mostly to juniors and seniors. My students LOVE this book. It is constantly checked out of my classroom library. Of course, they like stories about real people--particularly the struggles that people go through.

An incredibly honest memoir about a young woman's struggle with her eating disorder. This book was so raw and heartbreaking that I could only manage to read small sections at a time. Overall, an incredibly inspiring and hopeful read that I would wholeheartedly recommend to the eating disorder community. ( )

This story brings the reader into the mind of a girl, Elena, struggling with anorexia. It is a great inside look on this mental disorder for mature age groups while it features explicit incidents and sexual encounters. Elena's story is inspiring to those struggling with mental disorders because she does fight the voice in her head and starts to take control over her life. This memoir has made me rethink anorexia as so much more and deeper than just an obsession with being skinny. Though this story can be good for some people, this memoir is not sugar coated what so ever. Elena tells it like it is and even gave the true reality of how this disorder can end in death. This is not easy to read and I feel as though people with this disorder or similar disorders would be triggered by some of the writings, but this book does portray this painful truth about suffering with a mental disorder. ( )

This book was truly eye opening. Of course, we all know about eating disorders and the pain they cause, but I've never read something this in depth and real about it. Elena mentions in her afterword that she was always reading books that were too sugar coated and hopeful or that glorified eating disorders, so she decided to write one from her experiences, and that's just what she did. I kept waiting for her to get better and recover, and as it got closer to the end I realized it wasn't going to be that easy, because life isn't that easy. The things she went through took so much strength and willpower and she was so brave to put it all out there. The book was well written and I'm so glad Elena and her mother took the time to write it because I think it's going to be important to someone in need, who thinks they're alone in their struggles, to see that someone else went through so much pain and came out on the other side that much stronger. Would definitely recommend this. It's something everyone needs to know more about. ( )