Slip

Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery

De: Mallary Tenore Tarpley

Narrado por: Jennifer Jill Araya, Mallary Tenore Tarpley

Written by journalist and professor at the University of Texas-Austin Mallary Tenore Tarpley, Slip offers a groundbreaking framework for understanding eating disorder recovery and interweaves poignant personal stories, immersive reporting, and cutting-edge science.

When Mallary Tenore Tarpley lost her mother at eleven years old, she wanted to stop time. If growing up meant living without her mother, then she wanted to stay little forever. What started as small acts of food restriction soon turned into a full-blown eating disorder, and a year later, Tarpley was admitted to Boston’s Children’s Hospital. With honesty and grace, Slip chronicles Tarpley’s childhood struggles with anorexia to her present-day experiences grappling with recovery.

This book tells Tarpley’s story, but it also transcends her personal narrative. A journalist by trade, Tarpley interviewed and surveyed hundreds of patients, doctors, and researchers to provide a deeper understanding of eating disorder treatment. She draws on this original reporting, as well as cutting-edge science, to illuminate what has changed in the years since she was first diagnosed.

As Tarpley came to learn, “full recovery” from an eating disorder is complicated. And that idea provides the basis for the groundbreaking new framework explored in this book: that there is a “middle place” between sickness and full recovery, a place where slips are accepted as part of the process but progress is always possible.

With new insights and an uplifting message, Slip brings much-needed attention to an issue that affects many. It offers a beacon of hope with its revolutionary perspective on recovery. This inspiring and life-affirming book is a must-listen for individuals with eating disorders, their loved ones, educators, medical professionals, and anyone seeking to understand eating disorders and the path to recovery.

©2025 Mallary Tenore Tarpley (P)2025 Simon & Schuster Audio

Entertaining and informative

Great read. Enjoyed the book, and learned a lot about eating disorders. The author had many challenges growing up, I’m glad to see she made it through and is now thriving.

Inner Thinking

The author revealed her thoughts and internal conversations which helped me begin to understand her struggles with such illogical behaviors. Trying to understand the causes and factors which triggered these behaviors and relapses.
Maybe someday we can discover gene editing which can help which might be more likely than changing our cultural obsession with thinness.

Great perspective, refreshing message

It’s so nice for someone to discuss recovery in a realistic way. So many professionals in the industry use binary terms that push so many people to believe the rigid definitions of recovery, who end up determining recovery is just not possible. Old rigid views do not consider the views of those with lived experience. This book is refreshing, and provides realistic hope.