Customer Reviews

Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: How the Quest for Perfection is Harming Young Women

5 star:		(5)
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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Martin brings an intelligent, spot-on, and completely fresh analysis to the issues of eating disorders/disordered eating, body image, and self-esteem in young women. She seamlessly weaves true stories of women and girls she personally knows and/or met and interviewed for the purpose of writing the book with facts, statistics, and quotes from tons of other sources. Her research is meticulous, and the personal stories are interesting and compelling. Martin's writing is also fantastic. I tore through this nonfiction book faster than I can read a lot of fiction - her writing flowed so well and the content was incredibly fascinating.

Also, if you read other reviews of the book, not everyone agrees with me about how fantastic it is. So, yeah, the book resonated with me and with my personal experiences. A lot. I do not have an eating disorder, but I have plenty of experience with disordered eating, feeling like crap about oneself, comparing oneself to others constantly, etc. Personally and otherwise. So I get it. I get what the book is saying and I truly related to the stories within it. That is most likely a large part of why I liked it so much. But regardless of your personal experiences, I believe Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters is a terrific read.

I absolutely, 100% cannot recommend this book enough. If you are female, and/or if you have a daughter, Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters is a MUST-read. Truly. This was one of the best non-fiction books I've read in a long time.

I found the author's insights to be a little vacuous. Her angle (for a large portion of the book) is that there haven't been many books about eating disorders in 'our generation.' That is, most of the other books (autobiographical or otherwise) aren't up to date.

I can agree with that, but she falls short of saying much else that hasn't already been said (for example, "Gaining: the Truth About Life After Eating Disorders" has a lot of the same study data, and gives pretty similar personal accounts).

She references contemporary problems, cites works like "Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture," (a book I would recommend), but doesn't go much further than that.
My overall impression of "Perfect Girls" was just, 'hey, I'm a 20-something, I'm aware there are cultural, social, psychological and physiological issues related to the prevalence of eating disorders, and here's some data from other people that may or may not be relevant.' I don't think this is a badly written book, or that it doesn't provide solid information about eating disorders, but the only NEW thing it has to offer is it's publishing date.

This book feels really personal, as though you're having an intimate conversation. The research is also top notch. It's a great book to read if you are a woman and have ever been insecure about your body, especially if you are under 30. While the author and I would have run in different social circles in school, I really identified with the issues facing young women today.

I bought this book on a whim after reading a blog post by Courtney Martin. I think its a must read for twenty-something women. We spend so much time critiquing ourselves on things that are not our sole value, and this book really opened my eyes to my own behavior and that of my friends. I plan on sharing this book with all my female friends as a way to remind them of their own power and the power of negative thoughts.

This may be one of the most life-changing books you will ever read. You may think you know what's in the heads of girls everywhere, but Martin puts our thoughts and our fears into words. She writes what so many of us are afraid to admit but so desperately want to hear. Her work is amazing and inspirational for women everywhere. She will make you want to love yourself again.

This book is clearly brand new, but it took longer than I would have liked to arrive. Otherwise, thanks very much!