How To Be Eaten

There was a raw emptiness inside me, hunger beyond hunger, my stomach like a bag I kept flipping to the seams: still empty. I grew used to the hunger, came to think of it as power instead of weakness. I needed nothing, I could live off nothing. I could exist on willpower and air.

Five women meet in a weekly support group because, as it turns out, the events of our most popular fairy tales were extremely traumatizing for those involved.

Trauma manifests in different ways, and as an aspiring therapist, it was so interesting to read a book set around well-known literary figures in this type of setting (at the very beginning, it’s specified that the group will be utilizing narrative therapy to help the women process their own stories).

I don’t think that every element of this book worked perfectly, but those that did really carried their weight. My absolute favorite part of this book was the multitude of beautiful quotes to pull from. I always start my instagram posts with a line (or several) that stood out to me. This book was particularly difficult to choose from, though, because i wrote down so many. I eventually decided on the quote that starts this blog post…but it was a difficult call, with so much competition.

So, let me share a few of the other contenders that didn’t make the final cut:

To be honest, I thought Gretel, of all people, would get it. We both escaped being eaten for lunch, just to have the media eat us for dinner. We’re a rare breed, you know. Child stars of tragedy.

There was a raw emptiness inside me, hunger beyond hunger, my stomach like a bag I kept flipping to the seams: still empty. I grew used to the hunger, came to think of it as power instead of weakness. I needed nothing, I could live off nothing. I could exist on willpower and air.