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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
This book was okay. At some points I was totally feeling the character and writing and then the next chapter I would be wondering if this was the same main character. Not bad by any means but definitely not a favorite.
I must have read both of Liza Palmer's older books a couple of years ago, but I had forgotten this when I picked up her books at the library recently. I really liked this book. Maggie is a character that I think most women can relate to (struggling with weight issues, boy problems, and friendship woes). I found myself not wanting the book to be over so that I could peek into the characters' lives a little more and see how they ended up.
This book was a delight to read.
This book came our 14 years ago, and the themes within this book are still relevant today. I feel it has stood the test of time.
All of this story felt real, and I found myself relating very much to Maggie and her struggles.
This book did and up falling into some older tropes, but I enjoyed the writing so much it was easy to accept what was happening.
This is some great literature about body acceptance and self love.
This book came our 14 years ago, and the themes within this book are still relevant today. I feel it has stood the test of time.
All of this story felt real, and I found myself relating very much to Maggie and her struggles.
This book did and up falling into some older tropes, but I enjoyed the writing so much it was easy to accept what was happening.
This is some great literature about body acceptance and self love.
If you're looking for a book about an actual fat person (at a certain point it is revealed that she is able to squeeze herself into size small shapewear--that's not a fat person. She's a person who struggles with a specific area of her body) who is empowered in their life or becomes empowered in their fat life at home in their body--this is not the book for you.
This book and the hours and hours spent with the main character's negative self talk (to put it mildly) has really affected me. I'm not going to say that it undid all the years worth of effort I put into loving myself but I can say that I'm not doing great and I haven't been doing great the whole time I was reading this.
This book and the hours and hours spent with the main character's negative self talk (to put it mildly) has really affected me. I'm not going to say that it undid all the years worth of effort I put into loving myself but I can say that I'm not doing great and I haven't been doing great the whole time I was reading this.
3.5/5
i’ve got a lot of conflicting feelings about this book. some parts were really good, extremely relatable. and then maggie started trying to lose weight and that’s when she felt better about herself. that doesn’t sit well with me. however, i like the budding romance and how much maggie grew up, even though nothing really has a resolution- it all ends just as it’s beginning.
i’ve got a lot of conflicting feelings about this book. some parts were really good, extremely relatable. and then maggie started trying to lose weight and that’s when she felt better about herself. that doesn’t sit well with me. however, i like the budding romance and how much maggie grew up, even though nothing really has a resolution- it all ends just as it’s beginning.
Maggie and Olivia have been best friends forever and have one major thing in common: they’re both fat. That is until Olivia decides to have surgery and ends up a size 2 and with everything she’s ever wanted. Maggie on the other hand remains unfulfilled. She works in a coffeeshop, with a monster boss and has never shifted the weight. Now with Olivia’s wedding on the horizon the tension between the pair is strained. Can they stay best friends or is it the end of the road for the pair?
After reading the synopsis I thought the book was going to be written in the third-person, from both girls’ point of view, so I was surprised to find it was actually written in the first person and is from Maggie’s point of view. The first paragraph draws you right into Maggie’s world and it’s a very easy read after that.
Maggie makes a brilliant fat heroine. It’s so nice to read of a heroine who is genuinely fat rather than a heroine who just thinks she’s fat. I loved that we finally get a book about a fat girl as the main focus rather than as the best friend. I loved seeing it all from Maggie’s eyes. It really showed how skinny people see fat people and it was really true to life. That IS how skinny peole see fat people. I hate to get on a pedestal of any kind but I hate the fat/skinny divide. (I’m not speaking as a skinny or a fat person, either.)
I thought Olivia’s treatment of Maggie was terrible and again it showcases how it happens in real life. It seems that Olivia only wanted Maggie as maid-of-honour to make herself feel thinner than she already was. With friends like her, who needs enemies? What Maggie did in the end was truly justified. Olivia needed bringing down a peg or two and running up to the end of the book I hoped that Maggie would see Olivia for what she really was.
The other plot line seems to be Maggie’s issues with herself as a fat girl. Not neccessarily because she’s fat but more because she’s not happy with herself period. She gets walked over for much of the book and I found it really great when she eventually stood up to all the mean people. Just because she might be fat doesn’t mean she deserves to be treated like a doormat. I do admit though, I found the way Maggie constatly let herself get walked over irritating but I can see that Liza wrote that purposefully because that is just the way Maggie was; she didn’t think she was worthy of being treated any better, I could see that. Reading about Maggie’s decision to change her life was great. She didn’t want to do anything drastic like Olivia did but she made a conscious decision to change her life and the way she was living it. Maggie knew she was living half a life as she was and eventually realised she had to change if she stood any chance of realising her dreams.
One thing I didn’t like through-out the book was Maggie and Domenic’s “relationship”. It was neither here nor there through-out. I would have liked Domenic to be a bit more forward, because while their friendship developed more, I would have liked to also see their relationship itself evolve. It would have added another aspect to the story. I liked their interaction most of the time, don’t get me wrong, I just didn’t like how slow it all was.
I found Maggie’s family life to be quite sweet. I loved the way everyone in her family rallied round her to support her and help her out. I thought the mother/daughter relationship worked really well and enjoyed the interaction between the two. My favourite character of Maggie’s family was her sister Kate. She called a spade a spade and I loved how protective she was of Maggie, also. I also really liked Peregrine, who Maggie works with, she was like Kate in the way she told it like it was.
The ending, for me, was the best part because it finally clicked for Maggie just how much Olivia had changed. She’d gone from being a sweet, fat girl into a complete skinny cow and was just unlikeable. No best friend should treat a person the way Olivia treated Maggie. The thing that kept me hooked through-out the book was the writing. Liza’s writing is superb and really kept me reading. There were a few times I wanted to strangle Maggie and give up entirely but Liza’s writing kept me hooked and I realised that Maggie was a wonderful character. I was planning on giving the book a 3/5 because I though Maggie was like Marmite. I loved her dearly but I also truly hated her and I can’t explain why, but the last half of the book really picked up for me and it’s a well deserved 4. Conversations With The Fat Girl was a truly wonderful read and any fat person will undoubtedly see theirself in Maggie. I also have another of Liza’s books on my shelf and look forward to reading it.
After reading the synopsis I thought the book was going to be written in the third-person, from both girls’ point of view, so I was surprised to find it was actually written in the first person and is from Maggie’s point of view. The first paragraph draws you right into Maggie’s world and it’s a very easy read after that.
Maggie makes a brilliant fat heroine. It’s so nice to read of a heroine who is genuinely fat rather than a heroine who just thinks she’s fat. I loved that we finally get a book about a fat girl as the main focus rather than as the best friend. I loved seeing it all from Maggie’s eyes. It really showed how skinny people see fat people and it was really true to life. That IS how skinny peole see fat people. I hate to get on a pedestal of any kind but I hate the fat/skinny divide. (I’m not speaking as a skinny or a fat person, either.)
I thought Olivia’s treatment of Maggie was terrible and again it showcases how it happens in real life. It seems that Olivia only wanted Maggie as maid-of-honour to make herself feel thinner than she already was. With friends like her, who needs enemies? What Maggie did in the end was truly justified. Olivia needed bringing down a peg or two and running up to the end of the book I hoped that Maggie would see Olivia for what she really was.
The other plot line seems to be Maggie’s issues with herself as a fat girl. Not neccessarily because she’s fat but more because she’s not happy with herself period. She gets walked over for much of the book and I found it really great when she eventually stood up to all the mean people. Just because she might be fat doesn’t mean she deserves to be treated like a doormat. I do admit though, I found the way Maggie constatly let herself get walked over irritating but I can see that Liza wrote that purposefully because that is just the way Maggie was; she didn’t think she was worthy of being treated any better, I could see that. Reading about Maggie’s decision to change her life was great. She didn’t want to do anything drastic like Olivia did but she made a conscious decision to change her life and the way she was living it. Maggie knew she was living half a life as she was and eventually realised she had to change if she stood any chance of realising her dreams.
One thing I didn’t like through-out the book was Maggie and Domenic’s “relationship”. It was neither here nor there through-out. I would have liked Domenic to be a bit more forward, because while their friendship developed more, I would have liked to also see their relationship itself evolve. It would have added another aspect to the story. I liked their interaction most of the time, don’t get me wrong, I just didn’t like how slow it all was.
I found Maggie’s family life to be quite sweet. I loved the way everyone in her family rallied round her to support her and help her out. I thought the mother/daughter relationship worked really well and enjoyed the interaction between the two. My favourite character of Maggie’s family was her sister Kate. She called a spade a spade and I loved how protective she was of Maggie, also. I also really liked Peregrine, who Maggie works with, she was like Kate in the way she told it like it was.
The ending, for me, was the best part because it finally clicked for Maggie just how much Olivia had changed. She’d gone from being a sweet, fat girl into a complete skinny cow and was just unlikeable. No best friend should treat a person the way Olivia treated Maggie. The thing that kept me hooked through-out the book was the writing. Liza’s writing is superb and really kept me reading. There were a few times I wanted to strangle Maggie and give up entirely but Liza’s writing kept me hooked and I realised that Maggie was a wonderful character. I was planning on giving the book a 3/5 because I though Maggie was like Marmite. I loved her dearly but I also truly hated her and I can’t explain why, but the last half of the book really picked up for me and it’s a well deserved 4. Conversations With The Fat Girl was a truly wonderful read and any fat person will undoubtedly see theirself in Maggie. I also have another of Liza’s books on my shelf and look forward to reading it.
This was a wonderful first novel. I loved the characters -- Maggie (the narrator) in particular was just very vivid and real to me. I identified with her quite strongly, to the point where I was recognizing some of my own character flaws in Maggie's personality. I hope I have the strength to do what Maggie did at the end of the novel and take charge of my own life and change those things about myself that I don't like.
This is, as the title suggests, a book about what it's like to life as a fat woman in modern-day America. It deals with issues of appearance, weight, and self-esteem. But it also is a novel about friendship -- about why people become friends, what friendship means, and what happens when a friendship ends. The death of Maggie and Olivia's friendship is just as sad and bitter and slow as the breakup of a marriage -- and just as poignant and important and life-altering to the people involved.
Conversations with the Fat Girl was funny, sad, uplifting, and depressing, but most of all, it was honest. This was a conversation I both and enjoyed and needed to have, and I will no doubt be rereading this book many times in the future.
This is, as the title suggests, a book about what it's like to life as a fat woman in modern-day America. It deals with issues of appearance, weight, and self-esteem. But it also is a novel about friendship -- about why people become friends, what friendship means, and what happens when a friendship ends. The death of Maggie and Olivia's friendship is just as sad and bitter and slow as the breakup of a marriage -- and just as poignant and important and life-altering to the people involved.
Conversations with the Fat Girl was funny, sad, uplifting, and depressing, but most of all, it was honest. This was a conversation I both and enjoyed and needed to have, and I will no doubt be rereading this book many times in the future.
Title: Conversations with the Fat Girl
Author: Liza Plamer
Pages: 322
Genre: Romance, Relationships
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
This is an Advanced Readers Copy. That means that this is not the final version of the book. Therefore, facts and quotes are subject to change in the published book. This is also re-release of a novel written over ten years ago. Now with a better cover, this book tried to find it’s way in the popular YA genre.
We follow Maggie, a girl who is overweight who works as a barista at a coffee shop. When her best friend asks her to be her to be her maid of honor. Only problem is that her best friend wants to forget that she used to be overweight and lie to everyone around her.
Oh No’s
I disliked the ending. I thought this would lead up to a reconciliation between the two friends but do not be deceived. This book is about friends who fall out of friendship but it does teach that you shouldn’t stay in a toxic relationship if you’re not fully happy.
Yay’s
I really enjoyed how she worked at a coffee shop where they were all like family. It reminded me so much of my past job where I met some of the greatest people. Without my friends, I don’t know where I would be and this was very much like that.
This was a great read with the growing out of the friendship. Sometimes you just aren’t meant to be lifetime friends. And as I said, this is similar to a toxic relationship and show that you shouldn’t let yourself be used if you aren’t happy yourself.
Finally,
For anyone struggling to release themselves from a toxic relationship, remember that there are plenty of other people out there. Not only that but you have plenty of years to go through and you will find that’s the times change, we change.
My similar recommendation for this novel would be The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen.
Favorite Quote
“At one point she asked me at what angle it looked the most like a size 2. I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying The one staring down at the tag.“
ARC
│Goodreads│Instagram│Previous Post│
-PM
Author: Liza Plamer
Pages: 322
Genre: Romance, Relationships
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
This is an Advanced Readers Copy. That means that this is not the final version of the book. Therefore, facts and quotes are subject to change in the published book. This is also re-release of a novel written over ten years ago. Now with a better cover, this book tried to find it’s way in the popular YA genre.
We follow Maggie, a girl who is overweight who works as a barista at a coffee shop. When her best friend asks her to be her to be her maid of honor. Only problem is that her best friend wants to forget that she used to be overweight and lie to everyone around her.
Oh No’s
I disliked the ending. I thought this would lead up to a reconciliation between the two friends but do not be deceived. This book is about friends who fall out of friendship but it does teach that you shouldn’t stay in a toxic relationship if you’re not fully happy.
Yay’s
I really enjoyed how she worked at a coffee shop where they were all like family. It reminded me so much of my past job where I met some of the greatest people. Without my friends, I don’t know where I would be and this was very much like that.
This was a great read with the growing out of the friendship. Sometimes you just aren’t meant to be lifetime friends. And as I said, this is similar to a toxic relationship and show that you shouldn’t let yourself be used if you aren’t happy yourself.
Finally,
For anyone struggling to release themselves from a toxic relationship, remember that there are plenty of other people out there. Not only that but you have plenty of years to go through and you will find that’s the times change, we change.
My similar recommendation for this novel would be The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen.
Favorite Quote
“At one point she asked me at what angle it looked the most like a size 2. I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying The one staring down at the tag.“
ARC
│Goodreads│Instagram│Previous Post│
-PM