Skinny - Diana Spechler (2011)

Twenty-six-year-old Gray Lachmann has counted calories all her life, adopting a similar dietary routine as her weight-obsessed mother. But with her father's death, everything changes and Gray finds herself developing an insatiable hunger for food. This subsequently develops into a binge eating routine, and she discovers that she might have a teenage step-sister. Deciding to deal with her food problem and to meet the child, Gray leaves her life and boyfriend in New York and enrols herself as a counsellor for Camp Carolina, a summer weight-loss program. This dark novel illuminates the deliberate association between food and body image, captured by moments of Gray's erratic cycles of bingeing and starving in relation to the different characters she meets throughout. I found some of the characters too stereotypical and while the story started strong, my interest waned as it progressed. (XT)

Diana Spechler's Skinny is about a woman who needs to make peace with her demons, her body and herself. The summary says: "After her father's death, 26-year-old Gray Lachmann finds herself compulsively eating. Desperate to stop bingeing, she abandons her life in New York City for a job at a southern weight-loss camp. There, caught among the warring egos of her devious co-counselor, Sheena; the self-aggrandising camp director, Lewis; his attractive assistant, Bennett; and a throng of combative teenage campers, she is confronted by a captivating mystery: her teenage half-sister, Eden, whom Gray never knew existed. Now, while unravelling her father's lies, Gray must tackle her own self-deceptions and take control of her body and her life." Skinny is out in April. Author Allison Winn Scotch says: "Skinny will be my go-to recommendation all year for anyone who wants smart, endearing, beautifully written women's fiction."

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