Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Review | Faded Denim: Color Me Trapped (True Colors, #9) by Melody Carlson

Title: Faded Denim: Color Me Trapped
Author: Melody Carlson
Series: True Colors, #9
Pages: 224
Date Released: June 15, 2006

Summary: All of Emily's friends seem so perfect: skinny and pretty and fun and flirty. Emily loathes her slightly overweight body, and as her secret bitterness begins to eat away at her soul, she faces the dark prospect of developing an eating disorder.

Faded Denim, as you can tell from the post title, is a part of a series. For future reference, I think the series is more like they relate to similar things, not that they are undeniably connected, if that makes any sense. Now about the book, it was unlike anything I've ever read. From the book cover synopsis, I could already tell that it would probably be about an eating disorder, a topic I've never read much about. It was also very, very, VERY Christian based, also something I am unused to reading. I was a little hesitant after discovering this for various reasons. Starting the story, I already knew what kind of person Emily was. I liked her, some out of pity and some out of understanding. Emily considered herself the "fat girl." That was the root of all her problems and because of it, her self-esteem was incredibly low. She needed others comments to feel good about herself and every characteristic of herself was just ugly, in her opinion.

Going to a modeling camp/retreat thingy, Emily is surrounded by skinny models and is let in on their weight-loss secret, Binging and Purging. Emily thinks she has found the holy grail and decides to try this "diet" until she loses ten more pounds, or twenty. As the book continues, Emily starts getting dizzy all the time and tired and she swears that its worth it because God wants her to be beautiful and thin, right? Emily and her friend Leah, are camp counselors at a youth camp and Emily is continually thrown into situations that make her question her decisions. Everybody has their challenges and it doesn't matter what they are, it's how you handle them and how much stronger you come out after them.
Emily grew so much in this book and she was so inspiring. She reminded myself of me, with my depression. Although, I am personally and admittedly, not as faithful as Emily was, I do believe that God had a big place in my recovery. Everyone should read this book. It targets everyone, struggling or living in the lap of luxury. Lessons can be learned from every page.