Reviews

Piglet by Lottie Hazell

edmwdm's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

steffany's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

taylorrolyat's review against another edition

reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

rudea's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

kgsavella's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

By all accounts, I should have loved this book. Themes of complicated relationship dynamics, class differences, body image and food, a complicated female protagonist. But this really fell flat for me. It seemed like the author was trying really hard to make this “literary” in style, but

the “hunger/food as metaphor for female deprivation as adherence to convention/desire” was somehow both too heavy-handed and not grotesque enough.

think this novel either needed to be way weirder or a lot more subtle/finessed. As others have mentioned, I felt a lot of the characters felt a bit flat and many of the relationships weren’t fleshed out (ie with Franny, Darren, Tori, Margot, even Kit). This resulted in the commentary only going an inch deep. Maybe it’s just me, but everything somehow felt predictable and like we were being spoon fed the conclusions by the author. 

Also, there’s a lot of underlying fatphobia that I don’t think is ever really adequately addressed or deconstructed, and at the end of the day, the thin beautiful white woman remains a thin beautiful white woman, just one who isn’t quite as thin as she wanted to be. 

Tl;dr is that I liked the concept, but the execution felt underdeveloped and predictable. It was engaging but much less thought provoking that I hoped. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia and Eating disorder

jacklynmary's review against another edition

4.0

Should have been weirder. 

juliettereb's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

mermiller's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

bookaddictpnw's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

lmyers98's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0