Jen Petro-Roy

A young girl with an eating disorder must find the strength to recover in this moving middle-grade novel from Jen Petro-Roy Before she had an eating disorder, twelve-year-old Riley was many things: an aspiring artist, a runner, a sister, and a friend. But now, from inside the inpatient treatment center where she's receiving treatment for anorexia, it's easy to forget all of that. Especially since under the influence of her eating disorder, Riley alienated her friends, abandoned her art, turned running into something harmful, and destroyed her family's trust. If Riley wants her life back, she has to recover. Part of her wants to get better. As she goes to therapy, makes friends in the hospital, and starts to draw again, things begin to look up. But when her roommate starts to break the rules, triggering Riley's old behaviors and blackmailing her into silence, Riley realizes that recovery will be even harder than she thought. She starts to think that even if she does "recover," there's no way she'll stay recovered once she leaves the hospital and is faced with her dieting mom, the school bully, and her gymnastics-star sister. Written by an eating disorder survivor and activist, Good Enough is a realistic depiction of inpatient eating disorder treatment, and a moving story about a girl who has to fight herself to survive.

Good Enough: A Novel

Hannah Yang

TW: eating disorders.

I have never experienced inpatient treatment, so I can't comment on the accuracy of Riley's experience, but I think Good Enough objectively does many things right: no numbers, no naming of rules/methods that could be triggering; portrays ups and downs throughout the process of recovery as normal; acknowledges a variety of eating disorders and discusses them as mental + biological illnesses rather than being based on image/w*ight; *addresses the influence of parental behavior/dieting/etc on children!!*; portrays the necessity of therapy and how beneficial it can be to seek help from mental health professionals; and generally angles towards body neutrality rather than body positivity. 

Riley's voice feels realistic for a 12-year-old suffering from an eating disorder, and a lot of the things Riley learns in therapy and throughout her treatment (especially in re adjusting her mental self talk) are practices that I find helpful as well. Part of me is glad that a book like this exists for middle schoolers who may be bordering on unhealthy relationships with their bodies, who could learn from how Riley reacts to different 'trigger situations' and how she learns to move forward. I also appreciate Riley pointing out how some disordered eating habits have been normalized, because I think many people have adopted 'behaviors' without even seeing them as unhealthy (or even believing that they are healthy). I do think that middle schoolers, in reading this book, may be able to recognize thoughts or habits that are concerning and that Good Enough could serve a preventative function. 

At the same time, I think 7th grade Hannah would have loved this book for the wrong reasons (as in, feeling validated and/or pressured by the existence of a character like Riley; adopting the unhealthier behaviors that are necessarily part of this plot rather than the healthy mindsets that the story advocates for). I have never even had an eating disorder - just a rather tumultuous relationship with food over the years - but during 'bad phases' I have tended to obsessively consume ED content (books like Paperweight / Never Enough / others that I'm sure are still sitting on my Goodreads to-read list, movies/TV shows/videos, etc.). While Good Enough is a much healthier and less-triggering take on eating disorders, I am unsure what effect it would have on me if I read it during a bad phase.

In general, my takeaway has been that eating disorder media can be extremely helpful and illuminating for understanding how to help someone you love through an eating disorder (especially if you have not struggled with one yourself) - but I think it is almost always unhelpful to those who are currently recovering or who have recovered (which is advice I will try to take myself).

Angela Jison

it was really moving and a realistic depiction of living with an ed but it’s aimed at younger people (9-11) 

Jacklyn O’Brien 

I read this book because the premise reminded me of "Paperweight" by Meg Haston, but did not live up to my expectations. Was a very standard portrayal of young teen needed help feeling good enough. I guess I should have expected that, but I didn't bond with the characters, so it just fell flat for me.

Good Enough: A Novel

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