All That Fills Us tells the story of a twenty-four-year-old woman named Mel who is in the throes on anorexia athletica. Her condition is so severe that she has been forced by her grandmother and doctor to submit to in-patient therapy. While briefly released from the hospital to put her things in order before she goes, she instead rashly decides to embark on a cross-country hiking trip from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Mt. Rainer in Washington state hoping that the trip will help her confront her issues. The novel is the story of that journey and the mind of someone suffering from this mental illness.
The book is great in drawing you into Mel's story. For some, the details of anorexia may be quite triggering. A reader should use caution if this is an issue in their lives.
There are three areas where I take issue with the book. First is in the feasibility of the trip. This is a young woman who at the beginning of the book had suffered 3 hospitalizations in the matter of a few weeks for blackouts related to her anorexia. She suffers another early on in the book. There is no way it should have been possible for her to make the early stages of the journey.
Second, the journey's ability to heal her of her anorexia. While the author, who herself suffered from anorexia, acknowledges in the endnotes that Mel's journey is not a substitute for therapy, the story she presents does just that. Mel is magically transformed through the lives of the people she meets along the way. The blame for her anorexia is mostly blamed on Mel's mother, post-college stress, and the boyfriend who rejects her. Mel does not take responsibility for her choices that led to this path. An epilogue would have been a great addition to resolve these issues.
Third, Mel's approach to God is problematic. Mel's mother is portrayed as an incredibly legalistic Christian. Mel is wrestling throughout the book with the idea of not measuring up to God or anyone else. However, the solution is not rooted in the love of God or the gospel but rather the recitation of the prayers of Catholic saints and finding God in nature. This makes you just want to scream the truth at times in the middle of her disordered thinking. As this is a book being put out by a Christian publishing company, I question why this is being considered a work of Christian fiction.
Overall, the book is an engaging take into the mind of someone with this disease while also falling short in several key areas. I received an ebook review copy from the publisher.