Inevitable

So I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree with a lot of the reviews I've seen that were disappointed in book two, because I thought this second book was just as stunning as the first. I thought it was both very tasteful in how it handled the heat scene, and very realistic in depicting Indie's recovery.

Why I think this was such a realistic depiction of Recovery:

Indie's recovery was motivated by a lot of things:

-Wanting to be strong enough to be independent

-(Vanity) Wanting to look good standing next to her pack
Even if someone's ED is not centered around their own body image, but instead motivated by control, OCD, or other mental health issues, an ED can turn someone into a very vain person, and is largely fueled by self hatred. It's not pretty, but sometimes the same demons that arise in the height of an ED can be the same force motivating you to do better for yourself.

-(A desire for Normalcy) Wanting to be able to eat, unbothered just like she saw the people around her do demonstrate.
Again this could also have been motivated by some “ugly” feelings. Vanity. Jealousy. Pride. “Why can they do it, and I can't”? This wasn't how Lyra Cole went about it, but either choice would've been realistic.

-She didn't have to fight for love and appreciation anymore.
Indie wasn't alone anymore. She had people that cared about her well being. They cared about where she was, if she was eating, how she was feeling. It may seem silly, but for someone who went from being ignored by everyone she loved, to loved deeply by both her pack and her friends, and cared about by the school staff. She went from someone living in a beta world with little physical affection, to the ABO world with an abundance of it. She was taught in this new world that she was allowed to give love and affection and that it would be reciprocated. Sometimes to be convinced you are worthy of love, it takes someone actually loving you.

Some people say they were disappointed that “Indie was healed by love, or by a guy” but I didn't feel like that was what happened. My interpretation was that their love motivated indie to do better for herself. Indie's whole ED was triggered by feeling like like no one she loved gave a shit about whether she lived or died. She found people who gave a shit, and she was motivated to change. It may sound simple, but coming from someone who is living in recovery and from what I know of others living or having lived with ED it can sometimes be “that simple.”

-Indie did recover quickly, but it didn't feel that way
While I do think the timeline was kinda quick, if it the book hadn't told us that the plot was spanning a couple of weeks, I would have thought months had gone by. Nothing felt fast. Emotionally it felt like we “hit all the milestones” to be blunt about it. Even in the epilogue we see that Indie has been weight restored, but still struggles. This felt completely reasonable to me.

We saw all of this happen over the course of the two books. In fact I highlighted several points which just resonated so strongly with me, and maybe I'll insert quotes in the future, but I think Indies ED was handled phenomenally. I honestly think the only thing that could've been done better here, is I would've liked to see more of a heart to heart between Indie and her friend who had Bulimia. I think that would've been very delicate and challenging to do (what type of tone would this conversation have taken?) but I would've loved to have seen it.




As for the heat scene:
At the time of her heat Indie still didn't see herself as a sexual being. Honestly, as a reader who connected very intimately with Indie, I would feel uncomfortable with a heat centered on sexuality. The heat instead felt centered on love, closeness and intimacy. To me, this was a perfectly emotionally satisfying way to handle this.

All in all, I'm disappointed that others were disappointed, but I loved these books so much, I'll definitely be buying hard copies.