14 Memoirs And Fiction Books About Eating Disorders

Elena is seventeen and vanishing as she battles anorexia. This is a look at five years of fighting through school, treatment centers, and more.

I just read this one and thought it was really good. It was tough to read at times, as I but very good.

Lia and Cassie are best friends. They’re also competing in a deadly contest to see who can be the thinnest. But Cassie suffers the ultimate loss, her life, and Lia is left behind, haunted by her friend’s memory and racked with guilt for not being able to save her.

This seems to be the gold standard in this genre as more than one on this list are compared to Wintergirls.

This is one I would really like to read. Marya lost all sense of what it means to be normal after five hospitalizations, endless therapy, and loss of friends, family, and jobs as she lovingly embraced anorexia and bulimia. Until a particularly horrifying bout in college put the romance of wasting away to rest.

This is Wal’s vivid account of his troubled adolescence battling an eating disorder while he watches his family fall into turmoil as his brother turns to drugs.

This only has two stars (and two ratings) on Amazon but like, 4.5 I think on Goodreads with 70-some reviews so it still sounds worth a read.

Not only is Stevie trapped in her life and her body, but now she’s trapped in an eating disorder treatment center in New Mexico. Life here is an actual nightmare.

Her father signed her up for 60 days of treatment, but what no one knows is that she may only have 27 days left if she gets her way. Stevie’s plan is to end her own life on the day her brother Josh lost his, thanks to her.

This is a collection of photographs and stories from twenty girls and women suffering from various afflictions and eating disorders. Alongside the personal stories are essays on the sociology and science of eating disorders.

This is also a documentary on HBO Max and I’m going to watch it right now!

This one is a little different as it’s written in free-verse poetry. Annalise began battling OCD and bulimia in her childhood and this shows the struggles of knowing who you are and who you should be.

Anna was a professional dancer who followed the man of her dreams from Paris to Missouri where she was alone with her biggest fears, throwing her into a downward spiral of depression and anorexia. At 88 pounds, she was forced to seek treatment at 17 Swann Street where she lives with other women facing life-threatening eating disorders.

This is a fiction eating disorder book and probably the one I want to read most from this list.

Kelsey devoured magazine articles and memoirs to find out how to become the very best anorexic. While hospitalized at fifteen, she found herself in an existential crisis: how can I suffer from something I sought out?

Here, she unpacks the modern myths of anorexia while sharging her own story of rehabilitation.

15-year-old Ben had everything he could want but then he began to starve himself while his urge to exercise became extreme. Within months, he lost a quarter of his body weight.

This is his mother’s account of what it was like to helplessly watch her son transform into someone she didn’t recognize. With the help of his parents, his therapist, and his own determination, he slowly began to rebuild his life.

Stephanie grew up poor and hungry in the inner city with foster care, sexual abuse, and insecurity defining her early years. She doesn’t fit the stereotype of someone with an eating disorder. The biggest difference though: she’s Black.

She describes her troubles facing a disorder prominently described as a white woman’s problem, trying to escape self-hatred and a food obsession by never slowing down, and finally being trapped in a downward spiral. She can no longer deny that if she doesn’t get help, she will die.

I would love to read this one for a different perspective on eating disorders.

So far, Elizabeth has lost forty pounds, four pants sizes, a boyfriend, and her peace of mind. She is finally a size zero. And the newest resident at the eating disorder treatment center, Wallingfield.

She’s determined to make it through the program so she can go home and start restricting again. She thinks her mom, with her own size-zero obsession, may need treatment more than she does. Then she starts getting mysterious packages and has to get to the bottom of it.

I would also really like to read this one.

Jennifer can only keep up appearances while binging, purging, and starving for so long. After finally confessing her secret to her parents, she is hospitalized at the Samuel Tuke Center where she learns how all her relationships with food, friends, and family are healthy or unhealthy.

Pea always knew there was something wrong with the way she eats, avoiding certain smells, textures, and even sights of food. Finally, she is diagnosed with Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) and it all starts to make sense. She is hopeful that after her diagnosis she’ll get the treatment she needs to get better.

Things are starting to look up with therapy and the support of her family, but when she decides to go off her antidepressants, things start to get out of control.

This is a really good choice if you want a book about disordered eating that is not anorexia or bulimia. I would like to read this one.

Janie hates throwing up but makes herself do it several times a day. She must survive the day-to-day with barfers and starvers at Golden Slopes while the doctors and psychiatrists try to find out what is wrong with her as they dig through painful memories.

This is another good choice if you want a fiction book about eating disorders.