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The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting
- A powerful memoir of overcoming an eating disorder
- Narrated by: Evanna Lynch
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
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The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting
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Summary
Gradually, I began to feel this dawning awareness that womanhood was coming for me, that it was looming inevitably, and it didn't feel safe.... While those around me tried to expedite it, simulate it, exacerbate it, I tried to strangle it.
A raw and compelling new memoir from actress and activist Evanna Lynch about the battle between perfection and creativity.
Evanna Lynch has long been viewed as a role model for recovering anorexics, and the story of her casting as Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films has reached almost mythic proportions. Yet even after recovery, there remains a conflict at the very core of her being: a bitter struggle between the familiar, anesthetising pursuit of perfection and the desire to fully and fearlessly embrace her creativity. In her memoir, Evanna confronts all the complexities and contradictions within herself and reveals how she overcame a life-threatening eating disorder, began to conquer her self-hate and confronted her fear of leaving the neatness and safety of girlhood for the unpredictable journey of being a woman.
Revealing a startlingly accomplished voice, Evanna uses her book to delve into the very heart of a woman's relationship with her own body. Unwilling to let the darkness of her eating disorder eclipse her dreams, but afraid to fully release the certainty and safety of self-destruction, Evanna explores the pivotal moments and choices in her life that led her down the path of creativity and dreaming and away from the empty pursuit of perfection, and reaches towards acceptance of the wild, sensual and unpredictable reality of womanhood. This is a story of the tragedy and the glory of growing up, of mourning girlhood and stepping into the unknown and how that act of courage is the most creatively liberating thing a woman can do.
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What listeners say about The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Mrs
- 26-06-22
Hopeful
Brought to tears in the final chapter taking place in the circus classes with a new friend. Such hope and beauty.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- proctorfamilydmc
- 07-02-23
Truly breath taking
Such a well explained true life story. Sad and happy moments but expressed from a person who has dealt with such struggles. An amazing lady
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- Caaabr
- 21-10-22
Tenderly written, insightful.
I really loved this tenderly written and insightful account of Evanna’s life and experience with anorexia. It opened my eyes so much to the disorder with such vulnerability and raw insight. A powerful book, wonderful.
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- Anonymous User
- 23-07-23
Thank you
So eye opening. Yet full of humour. Incredible strength of character and honesty. I'm so grateful I've read this book right now.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Katherine Beckett
- 26-12-23
Honest and poignant
I found myself laughing and crying with the young Evanna on several occasions. Her struggles with anorexia brought back childhood memories of my own struggle with weight. Disordered eating is much more prevalent than we would like to admit. The author is very brave to lay her emotional struggles bare for all to see. This is a well written, moving, and honest account of a young girl's coming to terms with herself and the inevitable changes that puberty brings. Certain details might be triggering to those in the depth of anorexia's grip, however.
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- charlotte hall
- 18-05-24
The honestly, every word honest and real
Struggling with an ED myself I have never felt so heard but also made me laugh at how similar my thoughts spiral in the same way. I loved how honest are real these words are no sugar coating anything.
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- Amazon Customer
- 23-07-22
So helpful
Working with girls with eating disorders think has made me more compassionate and a little more understanding of how brutal this is.
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- lindsey cutler
- 22-01-23
Simply breathtaking
Evanna somehow finds away to inspire us all to love ourselves in whatever form that takes while also using her most painful memories to try and make a change to how those struggling with their mental health are treated.
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- Libby
- 18-05-22
Absolutely lovely, thought-provoking book
I wasn't sure how much I was going to enjoy this, but it was compulsive listening for me. Mostly what I feared were the usual pitfalls of eating disorder stories, which as it turned out Lynch hates more than I do, and skewered with acerbic wit. This book wasn't a huge boast disguised as shame and self-loathing, and wasn't hectoring or dripping in faux sincerity and trite philosophising. It was honest, engaging, genuinely moving and startlingly funny in places, as well as quite brilliantly observed. Evanna Lynch is a curious combination of a mild, gentle demeanour that radiates empathy, an absolutely wicked gallows humour wit, and a truly deep-thinking, writer who produces unexpected moments of flawless insight. It is not necessary to have suffered an ED to find her portrait of a teenage girl painfully familiar and relatable. I just loved this.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 21-07-23
Loved!
An amazingly honest and vulnerable read. I love Evanna and her openess about her journey with no frills. Thank you for writing this book. It feels like a big hug when reading !.
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