Reviews

Love that Abby, the main character is actively fighting diet culture and embracing fat positivity, but the relationship with Sebastion feels really icky especially while she is dating someone else.

maggymah's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced

4.0

A solid read! Super easy but super good. Definitely enjoyed it. Would have loved a prologue a few years out to see where Abby and Sebastian ended up though.

bookph1le's review against another edition

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2.0

I really wish this book hadn't included the romance, because that was what ruined the book for me. Otherwise, it had a lot going for it that I was interested in reading about. Spoilers behind tags, so read at your own risk.

I have mixed feelings about Abby. On the one hand, I empathized with her a lot, and I liked what this book had to say about living in a fat body in a world that hates that body and wants to do everything in its power to make that body shrink. Ever since I started thinking deeply about diet culture, I've been dismayed to realize how much anti-fat bias is baked into so many, many books, so I would love to see more of what Weiner is doing here, work to tear down that bias and reinforce that fat people are people too, and that variations in body size are no more sinister or in need of fixing than variations in height, hair color, skin color, etc. Because Abby does live in a world built on anti-fat bias, though, I found her struggles to be a realistic depiction of how someone living in a larger body has to deal with the bias flying at them from all directions. I appreciated that she had a complicated relationship with her mother, and that she had mixed feelings about Mark's eating habits. All of that made sense to me.

What did not make sense to me was Sebastian, both as a character in his own right and as the person Abby latches onto.

Spoiler

I thought Sebastian was an utter asshole during the trip. He constantly goads Abby about how Mark doesn't ride a bike, and while this critique is fair, he was using it as a weapon and not out of concern for Abby's feelings. He keeps saying he wants to be her friend but then keeps coming on to her, even when she initially resists those advances. That's a big, ol' no as far as I'm concerned. Making a mistake is one thing, but if a man repeatedly ignores a woman's boundaries once those boundaries have been made clear to him, then he's in desperate need of cancellation.

I also found Abby's behavior extremely unprofessional. Sure, there's no rule against her hooking up with one of the paying clients, but that just felt icky to me. Had I been on a bike trip where there'd been a public spectacle like the one that takes place when Mark is waiting for Abby at the end of the ride, I would not have been satisfied with my vacationing experience, let me tell you. Abby's personal drama had no business taking place during her work time. And then, of course, the novel ends with Sebastian showing up during one of her rides for her new club for girls. These two clearly do not understand the concept of maintaining a firm line between their personal issues and their professional endeavors.

Lastly, while I wasn't Team Mark because it was clear to me Abby's relationship with him was not working for her, I was turned off by the way she treats him. There's nothing wrong with her realizing he's just not right for her, even if he seems perfect on paper. What was wrong was her continuing in a relationship she knows she doesn't want to commit to, and when she says at the end she feels like she was wasting his time, I was like, Yep, you sure were! The minute she started fooling around with Sebastian during the trip, she should have called off her relationship with Mark for good. She's under no obligation to stay with someone who doesn't work for her (and I would also, frankly, find it hard to deal with his eating habits, even though I understand the reason behind them), but I was disgusted that she kept stringing him along. That simply wasn't fair to him, and he deserved better.

The romance was also a flop for me because I couldn't stand Sebastian as a character. He's supposed to be this great romantic hero, but so much of his behavior is off-putting, and I'm not talking about his actions before the trip. This is clearly a man with some serious issues who isn't at all interested in dealing with those issues.

Spoiler

Granted, we do find out in the final chapter that he did end up going to therapy and unpacking his problems, but I couldn't for the life of me understand how Abby would be so attracted to someone who is clearly so not ready for anything serious. Yeah, Abby's mother tells Abby that maybe she doesn't need something serious, but I think it's obvious that serious is what Abby is looking for. Moreover, I think the hugest red flag for me was when Sebastian insisted on riding during the thunderstorm. I found it more than a little bit hypocritical for him to needle Abby about how Mark won't learn to ride bikes with her when Sebastian is hellbent on doing something that is clearly putting Abby's safety at risk. The moment he realized she was going to ride with him, he should have called the whole thing off and found some other outlet for his frustration, but because he's selfish and immature, he insists on dragging her into an unsafe situation. Wow, dude, you're *so* much more considerate than Mark!

Because of all the romantic drama, there's so little room for other issues that I would have liked to see take up more space in the book. I would have like to see a little more depth between Lily and Morgan. I would have liked to learn more about the other riders, some of whom are given no more than a paragraph or two of description. That didn't make sense to me, given how much time Abby was spending with these people during the course of her trip.

I also would have liked more development of the relationship between Abby and her mother. I think it would have been good to see them hash their issues out more.

So I'm giving this novel two stars because I was so disappointed in it. I felt like it could have been so much more than it was if the terrible romance plot had been jettisoned. There are some truly affecting parts of this book, but they were mostly drowned out by the drama between Abby and Sebastian.

a_obrien55's review against another edition

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hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

4.0

Fun, fast read. I really enjoyed the side characters and side plots. They felt fleshed out and added to the story rather than distracting from it. The main character’s struggles with body image and self esteem were written with care and nuance. In a story where her weight is a central part of the plot, it’s not the most important thing about her character.

hailey_alexis's review

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.5

tara_valeria's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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