Dead Weight: Essays on Hunger and Harm

Clein’s debut collection of essays, some of which have previously appeared in print, brim with the wry self-awareness she calls disassociation feminism, but for all their wit, she shows unironic compassion for “her sisters”—the folks, regardless of gender, who’ve experienced girlhood like hers, yearning for a body “that looks as hungry as your heart is.” Candid accounts of the author’s experience with bulimia become midnight confessions in narrator Karissa Vacker’s tone, balancing her clear professional enunciation with youthful urgency. When Clein was struggling with OSFED (other specified feeding or eating disorder, a diagnostic category that covers people with eating disorders who do not meet the criteria for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge eating), the anonymity of the internet was a haven for her and other sisters comparing notes; these quotations from mid-aughts Tumblr blogs and “pro-ana” forums appear in italics in the print text. Listeners can still pick up on their sourcing through the empathetic delivery and may even find themselves worrying when someone stops posting. Firsthand quotes emphasize the humanity behind the statistics, which Clein cites in droves alongside pop culture references to draw damning conclusions about the causes and (lack of) medical support for her underdiagnosed, unheard sisterhood.