Caragh Reviews // Believarexic by J.J.Johnson

Published - 6th October 2015
Publisher - Peachtree
Format - Kindle
Synopsis - Jennifer can’t go on like this—binging, purging, starving, all while trying to appear like she’s got it all together. But when she finally confesses her secret to her parents and is hospitalized at the Samuel Tuke Center, her journey is only beginning. As Jennifer progresses through her treatment, she learns to recognize her relationships with food, friends, and family—and how each relationship is healthy or unhealthy. She has to learn to trust herself and her own instincts, but that’s easier than it sounds. She has to believe—after many years of being a believarexic. Using her trademark dark humor and powerful emotion, J. J. Johnson tells an inspiring story that is based on her own experience of being hospitalized for an eating disorder as a teenager. The innovative format—which tells Jennifer’s story through blank verse and prose, with changes in tense and voice, and uses forms, workbooks, and journal entries—mirrors the protagonist’s progress toward a healthy body and mind.

My review for this one is going to be pretty short. Partly because i'm swamped right now but mostly because I don't think it's really fair and i'm not sure how ethical it is to review someones semi-biographical book. Particularly on a subject like this.

The writing style for Believarexic took a little while for me to get used to. Sometimes Jennifer is talking about Jennifer and sometimes she's talking about 'me' if that makes sense. There seemed to be a lot of switching of views. It makes perfect sense when you think a lot of this book was taken from J.J.Johnson's real life personal diary that she wrote when she was an in-patient for Bulimia and Anorexia.

I don't suffer from an eating disorder but I still felt inspired by the patients within the book. The strength and courage that I can only imagine about was exhausting to read, never mind live through. Each voice on the pages was an individual and it really felt like that. You know how sometimes you read a book and without names, you wouldn't be able to tell one character from another? In Believarexic I think you'd be able to tell. It's a wonderful journey to read about, and an insanely good success story. It's definitely not a quick light read but if this is something that you enjoy reading about or feel like something new, i'd definitely recommend.