Dead Weight

Starred review from January 8, 2024
Essayist Clein’s stellar debut collection probes the inciting factors and effects of eating disorders in young women. “Autobiography in It Girls” recounts how Clein imbibed damaging body standards from such tabloid stars as Kim Kardashian, whose Skims Solutionwear line “implies the customer’s natural form is a problem to be solved,” and Tyra Banks, whom Clein remembers watching on the reality show America’s Next Top Model (“As a viewer in the fourth grade, I saw a direct line between extreme slenderness and attention, admiration”). In “On Our Knees,” Clein meditates on how bulimia affects friendships between girls, discussing how Jane Fonda and her childhood friend used to binge and purge together, how the 2009 film Jennifer’s Body allegorized the disease as demonic possession, and how Clein herself found community in online eating disorder forums. Throughout, Clein envisions sisterhood as an antidote to sexist social expectations and imagines “a feminism of attention” in which women bear witness to each other’s stories. Clein skillfully weaves together pop culture anecdotes, personal reflections, and analysis of social media posts (“Starving in the Cyberverse” surveys the complicated motives behind pro–eating disorder content on TikTok and Instagram), in prose that’s vivid and sharp (“I learned to find something sacred in skeletons and something profane in the way my skin folded”). This announces Clein as a talent to watch. Agent: Monika Woods, Triangle House Literary.