How to Disappear Completely

At fourteen, Kelsey Osgood became fascinated by the stories of women who starved themselves. She devoured their memoirs and magazine articles, committing the most salacious details of their cautionary tales to memory in order to learn what it would take to be the very best anorexic. When she was hospitalised for anorexia at fifteen, she found herself in a quandary: how can one suffer from something one has actively sought out? In this candid and emotionally wrenching memoir, Osgood unpacks the modern myths of anorexia, examining the cult-like underbelly of eating disorders in the young as she chronicles her own decade-long battle with anorexia and rehabilitation. A brave and important book, How to Disappear Completely explores the physical, internal and social ramifications of eating disorders. With attuned storytelling and unflinching introspection, Osgood subverts the popularly held notions of the illness and, most hopefully, suggests that a path to recovery is possible.