These days, there are a lot of women that deal with low self-confidence due to overweight. In 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, author Mona Award describes the life and evolution of Elizabeth as she struggles wit her weight, eating disorders and health. The theme of obesity and health is a theme often talked about in mainstream media, but not often in fictional books.
Elizabeth has long, funny and quirky monologues with herself when she is around people she dislikes. Early on in the book her hate was centered at the people that treated her badly, or didn’t respect her, but the hate is later turned on herself. She describes the hate as “electric,” nearly the same feeling as love. This is where eating disorders begin becoming a theme.
Eating disorders are not often written about in fictional books either, but it is a very real problem in the lives of many people. Elizabeth tries to juggle her life, her husband and becoming “thin and beautiful”, which ultimately ruins her life. The book comes to a conclusion stating that life is not about being perfect, and that the search for perfection should never come at the cost of a life.
