Review: Letting Ana Go by Anonymous

Title: Letting Ana Go
Author: Anonymous
Genre: Young-Adult
Series: N/A- Stand Alone

Hardcover, 304 pages

Publication: June 4, 2013 by Simon Pulse 

Source: I received a review copy from the Publicist in exchange for an honest review. 

Buy the book

|AMAZON|B&N|

In the tradition of Go Ask Alice and Lucy in the Sky, a harrowing account of anorexia and addiction.She was a good girl from a good family, with everything she could want or need. But below the surface, she felt like she could never be good enough. Like she could never live up to the expectations that surrounded her. Like she couldn’t do anything to make a change.

This is my first ‘Anonymous’ book, having never read any of the other similar books published in the previous years (Go Ask Alice, Lucy in the Sky or Jay’s Journal). LETTING ANA GO is the diary of a 16-year-old girl chronicling how a simple task of keeping a food journal for track turned into an uncontrollable obsession to be thin. At the beginning of each journal entry Ana jots down her weight trying to retain the daily suggested 2,200 calories intake. As the story progresses, Ana’s best friend Jill convinces her to start losing weight with her. Ana’s usual 2,000 calories went down to 1,700 calories, 1,200 and then 1,000 calories a day. 

LETTING ANA GO gives readers a glimpse into the mind of someone who suffers with anorexia nervosa, a person who loses weight that would be consider unhealthy for their age and height. I don’t know anyone that suffered an eating disorder, but this book shows how easily and scary a person can develop an eating disorder and not know it. It was sad to see how far Ana, and her friend Jill went to obtain the ‘model’ figure. This is a real problem that many women have suffered for a long time, thanks to the media, magazines, and celebrities some women believe that in order to be considered beautiful they need to weight a certain amount, or their waistline needs to be certain size, etc. Ana’s account is very real and disturbing, and though she’s blinded by her own actions…it was also heartbreaking to see everyone that loved her unable to help her. Her parents checked her into a rehab facility, hoping that she’d get better and her boyfriend would always tell her how much he loved her and how beautiful she was but it was never enough. 

LETTING ANA GO is an amazing and at the same time heartbreaking story. It highlights the issue of anorexia and how it can become an obsessive-addiction that can lead to serious health consequences. The ending had me floored. I was completely in shock. I don’t really remember how I expected it to end, perhaps a happy ending like most book but I guess the way it ended made sense. This is a book everyone should read, not just teens. This book is the type of book that will stay with you long after you read it, I’m really glad I got the chance to read it.