Staff Pick
The bond between twin sisters Rose and Lily, though palpably strong — they can taste each other's emotions and feel each other's pain — is more of a tangled knot than a taut line, and as their own struggles intensify, so does the complexity of their relationship. Thin Girls is by no means a comfortable read (and readers sensitive to discussions of body image and eating disorders should take extra care), but it’s an engrossing, beautifully narrated, and ultimately hopeful one that rises to the challenge of its fraught subject matter. Recommended By Tove H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A dark, edgy, voice-driven literary debut novel about twin sisters that explores body image and queerness as well as toxic diet culture and the power of sisterhood, love, and lifelong friendships, written by a talented protégé of Roxane Gay.
Rose and Lily Winters are twins, as close as the bond implies; they feel each other's emotions, taste what the other is feeling. Like most young women, they've struggled with their bodies and food since childhood, and high school finds them turning to food — or not — to battle the waves of insecurity and the yearning for popularity. But their connection can be as destructive as it is supportive, a yin to yang. when Rose stops eating, Lily starts — consuming everything Rose won't or can't.
Within a few years, Rose is about to mark her one-year anniversary in a rehabilitation facility for anorexics. Lily, her sole visitor, is the only thing tethering her to a normal life.
But Lily is struggling, too. A kindergarten teacher, she dates abusive men, including a student's married father, in search of the close yet complicated companionship she lost when she became separated from Rose.
When Lily joins a cult diet group led by a social media faux feminist, whose eating plan consists of consuming questionable non-caloric foods, Rose senses that Lily needs her help. With her sister's life in jeopardy, Rose must find a way to rescue her — and perhaps, save herself.
Illuminating some of the most fraught and common issues confronting women, Thin Girls is a powerful, emotionally resonant story, beautifully told, that will keep you turning the pages to the gratifying, hopeful end.
Review
"In Clarke's raw debut…the sisters' bond is strongly palpable….This page-turner makes for an illuminating, ultimately hopeful look at the constant struggle women face regarding their body image." Publishers Weekly
Review
"A stunning debut novel...gorgeously crafted...From one sentence to the next, Clarke leaves her readers splayed open, throbbing with the most beautiful, necessary ache. She writes with unyielding honesty and breathtaking tenderness. Thin Girls is a brutal, and unrelenting examination of what it means to be a woman in a body, wanting, needing, wanting, needing so much. With her assured, elegant prose Clarke makes you hope against all hopes that both Rose and Lily can find a way to satiate and save themselves and each other." Roxane Gay
Review
"Diana Clark has written a lightning bolt of a book, one that electrifies with its powerful insights into women, their relationship with their bodies and with each other. I was instantly drawn into Clark's dark vision of sisterhood, and emerged changed." Danielle Trussoni, bestselling author of Angelology and The Ancestor
About the Author
Purdue MFA (with Roxane Gay as her thesis adviser) and University of Utah PhD candidate, Diana Clarke is a New Zealander who now lives in Salt Lake City. Her work has been published in Glimmer Train, The Rumpus, Black Warrior Review, The Master's Review, and Hobart, among other places. Thin Girls was her first novel. The Hop is her second novel.