Review: "Shrink" by Heather Morrall

Shrink by Heather Morrall
Published 2010
★★

There were four years between the publication of The Echo Glass and Shrink, and (from what I can remember of The Echo Glass) not much improved in that time. I genuinely appreciate the effort to portray a version of anorexia that is not The Worst Case Doctors Have Ever Seen, but the execution just isn't there. Flat writing, choppy dialogue, limited character depth, and truly, truly terrible therapists. (The first one tells Eloise that she's not a priority because she's not inpatient; tells Eloise—who is seriously underweight—that she'd have to lose a ton of weight to be a day patient, let alone be an inpatient; and on it goes. The second one also tells Eloise that she's not anorexic because she's never been hospitalised and that she's good at 'pretending' to be anorexic because she's maintained a dangerously low weight as opposed to continuing to lose weight.)

There's probably a point to be made in the book about the lack of training that many medical professionals and counsellors receive regarding eating disorders, but they're portrayed as such nasty, horrible creatures that they're hard to take seriously.

Points for effort and intent, but I can't recommend this.