Life is very grave for Anise. Hospitalized for anorexia, she wonders about the point of it all. Her frigid mother and ineffectual father seem oblivious to her struggle. Her beloved brother is too busy screwing up his own life to take note of hers. Living on the loony ward seems not to be making any difference at all, and Anise feels like a prisoner. Her only free choice is to turn to her journal-the place where she can make scathing observations about her family, other people, the world; the place where she can dream, and where she can decide whether to live or die.



Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Blog #1 - Initial Reaction

My first initial reaction to the book is that it is really interesting and seems like a good book to read, just by looking at the book cover it catches my attention. The book is about a girl named Anise who is 16 years old and weighs 44kg and thinks she is fat. She has been diagnosed with anorexia and she is the binge eating/purging type along with having symptoms of major depressive disorder. Anorexia is a combination of symptoms including amenorrhea, extreme emaciation, hypothermia, over-activity and lack of appetite.

When the novel begins Anise is in the washroom hurting herself and she is talking to her brother Marcel about being taken to go back to the hospital to be hospitalized yet again for the third time for her anorexia. Anise doesn't like being at the hospital she calls it her prison and often refers to the hospital as "4-phych-o" but while she is there she has to go to school and shes being taught by two teachers named Ms. Dobbin and Mr. Rowe whom she is really starting to like. She is learning English, Math, Science and French.


In this book the character is dealing with Anorexia right now as opposed to the book starting with her developing anorexia and it becoming a problem, it is a problem already. It doesn't help that her parents don't care about her, and that the only one who does care about her is her brother, but he too has made a huge mess of his life. The author holds on to my interest by the way she writes the novel. The story is being told by a third person perspective but along with that Anise has a journal and every time she writes in the journal it is from her point of view and it really captivates my attention when I'm reading and makes me want to continue reading.

Do you think Anise will become healthy again and be released from the hospital for good?

8 comments:

  1. I think Anise will get healthy again and be released from the hospital but i think this is going to be hard process for her because she dosen't have the support from her family that she needs.

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  2. I think she will get healthy and be released from the hospital and I agree with Melissa i think it's going to be hard without her family.

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  3. I think she will become healthy and get released from the hospital, and maybe help others dealing with anorexia.

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  4. I think she will become healthy if she accepts help from someone who had possibly been though anorexia, i personaly dont think she'll beable to make it on her own she needs to get help and it will most definalty be a struggle without family.

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  5. I agree, I think Anise will have to have support from others in order to overcome anorexia. I do believe she will become healthy and be released by the end of the book.

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  6. For some reason, my posting didn't work! So I'll do it again...
    I think Anise will have to struggle a bit before she will overcome this disease. So many people in society think that you can overcome this 'problem' by just eating! But there are so many other issues that go with an eating disorder. Her family seems screwed up, and she'll have to find another support system in order to conquer her fear and loathing of food.

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  7. I think it will be hard, and will consist of a long process but it isnt impossible for Anise to get better. It will be even harder for her to get better because of the fact that her brother isnt exactly helping and that her parents are reluctant towards helping her. Again it is not impossible so i believe that she will get better and she will be permenitally released.

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  8. i dont think she will because she thinks shes fat and shes only 44kg that aint fat shes actually under weight and should be seeing a councellor after she gets out of the hospital.

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