about the book
Seventeen-year-old Elena wakes up panicked in the hospital. Acid churns in her stomach. How long has it been since she last touched up her make-up?
Elena is in a constant battle with her conscience, a voice that won’t let her settle for anything less than perfect…a voice that defines perfection by the number on a scale.
A nurse had entered the room just before she woke up. He scolds Elena for not eating her lunch. “So, if I leave it, will you eat it now?” he asks. Elena only manages an “I don’t know,” knowing the answer is no. He’s concerned with Elena’s heart, but this only angers her. She’s convinced her heart is fine, though tests show otherwise.
After the nurse leaves, Elena’s conscience is angry that she let him see her looking like a mess. She can never be less than perfect. But the pain in her stomach is excruciating.
Suffering from anorexia nervosa, Elena is vanishing. Each day, she battles with her anxiety, and her determination to win grows each day. But winning against this anxiety means eating fewer and fewer calories. How will Elena emerge from this lose-lose battle with herself?
about the author
Elena Dunkle is happily married and living all across America. Her husband’s work keeps them and their chihuahua on the go. However, her life hasn’t always been this bright.
In high school, Elena Dunkle was hospitalized with anorexia nervosa and heart damage called cardiomyopathy. Though she didn’t think then that she had a problem, she now says that she “absolutely” did.
Her eating disorder started at the age of thirteen when she was violently raped, but it took her six and a half years to tell anyone—just to say the sentence—that she was raped. She told her parents over the phone and hung up. By then, Elena had been to four schools, two countries, six therapists, three psychiatrist, two treatment centers, and four hospitals.
Elena survived a great trauma that led to a painful and fearful life. She wanted to write this book because she didn’t see her experiences in other books she read—what she experienced was more complicated, and she needed that to be reflected. She says it would have been impossible to type the entire book herself, beginning to end, so she did the remembering, describing, answering questions, and writing of some paragraphs, and she asked her mother—YA novelist Clare Dunkle—to write the book.
Elena is still recovering. She has made years of progress on her mental process and on facing her trauma. She continues to work on her physical self. Still struggling, Elena is working towards her future.
Sources:
Author website
Author Q&A
Article: Huffington Post
about the author
Clare B. Dunkle, born and raised in Texas, earned a B.A. in Russian with a minor in Latin from Trinity University in An Antonio, Texas, and a master’s degree in library science at Indiana University. She is married to Joe, an engineer at a Texas Air Force base.
Elena worked as a university monographs cataloger from 1990 to 1999 before leaving work to home-school her two daughters, Valerie and Elena. She then lived with her family in Germany from 2000 to 2007. Clare started writing books from April of 2001 to March of 2004 while her daughters were at a German boarding school. Her first four books were a series of letters from home for her daughters.
Clare returned to Texas with her family in 2007. Her children are now grown, and Clare and her husband have moved back to Germany. They enjoy biking, wine fests, and traveling. Clare has now written and published nine books.
Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Wikipedia
Article: Daily Mail
Also by Clare B. Dunkle:
The House of Dead Maids. Henry Holt & Company (BYR). 2010.
In the Coils of the Snake (Hollow Kingdom Trilogy, Book 3). Henry Holt & Company. 2005.
Close Kin (Hollow Kingdom Trilogy, Book 2). Henry Holt & Company. 2004.
The Hollow Kingdom (Hollow Kingdom Trilogy, Book 1). Henry Holt & Company. 2003.
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