Reviews

Malaya and her family had more issues than just her weight. At times I felt that her parents used her weight as an excuse for why things weren’t working between them. Percy was into the gentle parenting style and also spoke positivity into Malaya. It was sad when she said her father was the only one to ever call her beautiful before she started losing weight. Nyela was harder on Malaya but she genuinely just wanted her daughter to be healthy but struggled to effectively communicate that with Malaya and Percy too tbh. I did wish that we got more of Malaya’s story because at time I felt she was a secondary character and plot to her parents failing marriage and issues.

Thank you to Hear Our Voices Tours for the opportunity to read this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

bookishpenguin's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

bestofkit's review against another edition

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3.0

The heart of this book is Malaya, a funny and resilient young girl growing up in Harlem in the 1990’s. While the book covers hip hop, race, gentrification, and Malaya’s sexual awakening, the vast majority is about Malaya’s relationships with her parents, grandmother, friends and most of all food. This book was moving and wonderfully descriptive, but extremely stress inducing for me.

Warning, if you have any kind of eating, dietary, or body image issues, this book could be very triggering. I found myself disturbed by the way Malaya’s mother and grandmother talked about food, their bodies, and women’s bodies in general, though nothing surprised me considering the way society scrutinizes women's appearance and choices. I will say the writing was great and the end was very moving and hopeful but it was a real challenge to enjoy the ride.

Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for this ALC!

Content Warnings: Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Addiction, Death of a family member, Rape

ohdeeawn's review against another edition

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3.0

beautiful story about a young black woman navigating fatphobia, gentrification, patriarchy, and grief. but only giving it three stars because parts of the book felt like trauma porn, which I did not like

shelleyanderson4127's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Big Girl by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan is an extraordinary coming-of-age novel. The reader first meets protagonist Malaya Clondon when she is eight years old. She's thinking of French fries and on her way to a weight loss meeting for Black women.

We follow her life through to age 14--a life shadowed by her parents' increasingly rocky marriage, by her high achieving mother Nyela and her bitter, undermining grandmother Ma-Mère. It becomes increasingly clear that Malaya hungers not just for cookies and Chinese take-away, but also for recognition and love. Malaya navigates the world in a body constantly being judged for its increasing weight and Blackness. She's attracted both to a boy at school and to her best friend Shaniece. She loves art, her father and food.

This is a sympathetic and insightful look at modern girlhood, at how female bodies are inhabited and how femininity is both embraced and rejected. We root for Malaya throughout the novel as she struggles with both self-acceptance and society's expectations.

Harlem, where Malaya lives, is also a character in this book, as changeable and unique as Malaya herself. The writing is inventive and observant, full of delicious metaphors. I defy anyone to read the luscious descriptions of food and not want to eat something right away. This book is a quiet tour de force and well worth reading.

silk4k's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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