Janie Ryman is like any other teenage girl.She lives day by day in the shadow of her older sister who is about to be married.She feels everyone is focussing mainly on the wedding instead of other important things.Janie has a secret she's a binge eater, who vomits shortly after she eats.Janie thinks she has no problem at all that everything she is doing is under control.On the day of her sisters wedding,her secret is discovered by witnesses who are the invited guests.The discovery leads Janie to attempting suicide,therefore the wedding is ruined by Janie's tragic secret.Days after they send her to Golden Slopes,a facility that treats people with eating disorders.There,Janie finds herself among the Barfers(bulimics) who have sort of rivalry with the Starvers(anorexics).
When the treatment program requires meals in groups(in which no one can start eating until everyone is present) and one group does everything to avoid showing up while the other just want to eat everything in sight as fast as they can so they can escape to do their business without the nurses in sight. The nurses whom take care of the anorexics and bulimics are required to ask the patients to write in journals,helping to understand why they are strugling with an eating disorder.Janie feels she has to write her past events.In her journal as described in the book she writes events that led to her suicide attempt,and why she used purging as an excuse.Childhood friendship with Kelsey,and their big fight was something that hit her right in the heart.
Janie also writes the lost of her virginity,who she gave to a boy who treated her badly,another secret she kept away from many of her surroundings.At the end she confronts her family with her tragic past events she felt it unecesary though it was a way to help her recover from her illness.I learned alot from eating disorders and how people live with it day by day.Knowing its not an easy thing to live with and something uneasy to hide.It was very interesting learning about Janie’s feelings whenever she puked.It amazed me how someone's past events led to an eating disorder.I give Purge two thumbs up!
