Reviews

Big Girl by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan

bookishpenguin's review against another edition

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

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

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

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

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

megoates's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming and Fatphobia

Moderate: Addiction

celesteleila's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective tense 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

This book spoke to me and resonated in ways I didn’t know a novel could. The foundation of the story will be familiar to those of us who have grown up partaking in or witnessing disordered behavior around weight and weight management. Malaya was an interesting backdrop of a character for this book and there was something so human about how she showed up completely differently throughout the ebbs and flow of her life. Malaya’s challenges also exposed a family dynamic that was delicate to unpack and almost vulnerable to witness. This book, told from the perspective of a 90s girl in Harlem, is worth a read if you want something sharp, engaging and insightful to read. 

enfiles's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

2.0

lingfish7's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

📖 This book is beautiful. Well written, emotional, woman centered, impactful. I didn’t know what to expect reading a book set in the 80’s and 90’s, focused on a morbidly obese black girl in Harlem. What surprised me was how this book is a commentary on all women: the ways in which body image and the patriarchy force us to both belittle women and diminish our self worth. The ways in which the measure of a woman isn’t in her weight and diet but in her confidence, spirit, and self-love. 

Big Girl is so well written and engaging that I finished it in under 3 days. I read the first 100 pages in a single session. It was a book that made me think, increased my empathy, and altered my perspective; a powerful book. There are so many quotes that I want to keep re-reading just to let the message of the book marinate in my mind. 

Big Girl should be a must-read for every woman, big or small, tall or short, large or thin. It asks us all to consider the important questions. What does it mean to be a woman? To feel comfortable in our bodies? To confidently assert our autonomy, independence, and freedom? What does it mean to be free from shame, to shout shamelessness from the rooftops? What would happen if we focused less on our bodies and more on our souls? The soul of a woman is more than what she eats or her pant size. 

📚Themes: depression ~ obesity ~ grief ~ racism ~ neighborhood gentrification ~ womanhood ~ diet culture ~ bullying ~ body shame

✨“In that moment, Malaya chose shamelessness.”

dinahrachel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I didn't want to put this down, one of those books where I didn't notice the writing, it just did it's job of taking me seamlessly close to Malaya and her world. Some parts were tricky to read and fitted less but there was lots in it to admire, I liked how the music and intergenerational issues were covered.