Book Review: ‘Waisted: A Novel’ By Randy Susan Meyers

by | May 11, 2019 | Books | 0 comments

Seven women join a reality documentary in an attempt to lose weight and change their lives. What they find is a living hell that is not what they were told. The story is told from the point of view of two characters Alice and Daphne, working mothers who are successful. The only things about their lives are their weight issues. Each is not what they were once and it weighs on their minds all the time. Their families aren’t much help when it comes to that. Daphne’s mother is constantly putting her down and making comments. Alice has a husband who she feels she will lose if she doesn’t lose weight.

They sign up for the documentary Waisted along with five other women, at a remote Vermont mansion. Everything they own is taken and they are assigned rooms and told the rules. They will exercise, see a doctor, have limited food intake and lose weight. The people in charge are hard asses. They shame the girls, make them weight naked, work them hard and give them little food. They are soon given drugs that include speed and sleeping pills. The weight is falling off but at what cost. When Alice and Daphne start a little investigation they find more than they bargained for and learn that they are being duped. They have to escape this hell and form a plan.

When they are out of there they decide they have to go public on the documentary and form a plan to get ahead of it. They also have to deal with their lives now. Each has lost a lot of weight and they want to keep it off. They also have to deal with their personal lives and people around them and it’s not easy. Each has choices to make that will effect their futures.

Author Randy Susan Meyers takes a tough subject and writes with honesty from each characters point of view. For anyone that has struggled with weight issues (and I am one of them), this is a great read. She never preaches, just writes an honest look at the issue of weight. The question she does ask is how far would you go to lose weight and try to keep it off? It also looks at fat shaming and support of the people around you that say they love you. They should be helping you with support not saying don’t eat that roll in a way to make you feel bad about yourself.

You can pick up the book in stores on Tuesday, May 21st from Atria.