Sad Perfect

Sad Perfect is by debut author Stephanie Elliot.

The story of a teen girl's struggle with Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder and how love helps her on the road to recovery.

Sixteen-year-old Pea looks normal, but she has a secret: she has Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). It is like having a monster inside of her, one that not only dictates what she can eat, but also causes anxiety, depression, and thoughts that she doesn’t want to have. When she falls crazy-mad in love with Ben, she hides her disorder from him, pretending that she’s fine. At first, everything really does feel like it’s getting better with him around, so she stops taking her anxiety and depression medication. And that's when the monster really takes over her life. Just as everything seems lost and hopeless, Pea finds in her family, and in Ben, the support and strength she needs to learn that her eating disorder doesn’t have to control her.

The Breakdown:
1. I rarely say this, but I absolutely hated this book.  First off the entire book is written is second person.  It makes it really had to connect with a character when the author keeps saying you ate an apple or you had a rough day at school.  I am just like it was not me.

2.  I felt that Elliot never adequately explains what Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder is to me.  I wanted to know about it and the psychology to it, which I never got.

3. It was honestly such a struggle to get through this book.  Multiple times I almost DNF'ed it but I am not a quitter.  The writing was bad, the character was boring, and the main point of the character's issues was never explained.

To Read or Not to Read:
Avoid like the plague