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lucyjunee's review against another edition
1.0
**Extremely controversial and probably offensive things are said in this review (although I did attempt to be as polite as I could) but may I just remind you that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and if you don’t agree, that’s okay but please be respectful of everyone's views. Thank you :)**
‘BIG BONES’ by LAURA DOCKRILL is a young adult novel following Bluebelle (also known as BB) who is instructed by a nurse at the beginning of the summer to complete a food diary but BB has a lot to say and tells her story of navigating the world when she’s overweight, documenting her love life and a traumatic accident which turns her family upside down.
Discovering this in my library was beyond exciting as I’ve had this novel on my radar for a while as it seemed incredible and inspiring. Being anti-diet culture and promoting body positivity and self-love is something I am insanely passionate about so I was beyond excited for this one.
However, I was severely let down.
From the messages delivered, to the writing style, to the characters, I found myself struggling to find something I liked because this book was, in my opinion, terrible.
Firstly, our protagonist, BB, was horrid. She was selfish, judgemental, rude, one-dimensional and quite frankly, insufferable.
My main issue with her was how self-absorbed she was throughout the entirety of the novel in which she fails to develop, grow or change by the end. Everything needed to be about her, which several of the characters highlight. When the accident occurs, BB begins to mourn and mope about and when her best friend, Cam, asks BB about it, her response is ‘Look, you have no idea what it’s like to have this happen to you.’ Apparently, Cam was as shocked as I was as she responds with ‘It hasn’t happened to you. It’s happened to your sister...you’re being selfish.’ In which BB doesn’t take this onboard and instead victimises herself and doesn’t change.
This selfishness is repeated on several occasions. One of the characters is poorly and throws up everywhere. Is BB concerned? Worried? Or even remotely fazed by it? Nope. Instead, she says ‘Wish she didn’t have to be doing being sick right now because I need to ask her to apply to my apprenticeship. Jeez’ Almost if she is shocked at the audacity for this poor girl to be unwell at the time she wants something from her.
This isn’t the only thing which irked me about BB. Her judgemental and nasty attitude towards everyone in her life made her incredibly unlikeable in an unreedemable way. She’s constantly internally being mean about people, from saying things like ‘Alicia is always very dehydrated; her lips are always crusty and looking like shrinking fried cod. Maybe that’s why she’s always a moody cow, cos she’s so thirsty?’ to her Dad endeavouring to be nice to her and he says: ‘She [The mother] didn’t go to college, neither did I, and look at us!’ and BB internally says ‘yeah, LOOK at you’ with a tone of disgust and shame...towards her caring, employed, loving parents! She had absolutely no respect for her parents, she literally called her mother an ‘attention-seeker’ to her face, whilst she was sobbing, for suggesting she has something to do with BB’s weight. It honestly disgusted me.
BB constantly goes on at how amazing and pretty she reckons she is but only gets her confidence from putting others down, from saying mean things like I’ve previously mentioned, to body-shaming her ‘skinny-minnie’ sister, I personally find it appalling that she gets her confidence from taking it away from others.
BB was the only developed character in the book, despite there being a wide cast. There wasn’t enough effort put into developing the love interest so I didn’t care at all about BB’s romance.
The family plays a major role in the book as they are the ones we see most frequently but I had issues with those too. Firstly, the mother seemed so ridiculously unrealistic. In the opening chapter, BB is overtly verbally abused by a nurse for being overweight, told she ‘eats like a feeding machine’, told she is ‘being selfish for being so fat’ and she’s going to end up in a grave. Yet, the mother completely ignores this and starts crying saying that it’s her fault her daughter is fat because she’s divorcing her husband? I am perplexed.
The mother and father are also experiencing a dreadful divorce but they’re dragging their daughters into it? The Dad is constantly asking BB what the mother is doing and who she’s being seeing and the mother refers to the father negatively in-front of her children, calling him an ‘old rat’. How is that fair to the children?
The little sister, Dove, was initially intolerable as I found her so rude, calling her sister a ‘fat-ass’ but I grew to like her a little and her bond with BB was cute. I also appreciated how she did parkour, it’s a hobby I’ve never read about in literature before so that was refreshing to see. However, that’s the only thing I seemed to like.
Moving away from the characters, the overall message that the book was trying to promote was poorly executed. Pitched as a body confident book about feeling comfortable in your own skin, I found this was completely unsuccessful. Controversially, I believe this was stepping over the line because there’s a difference between loving your body regardless of its size and lack of conformity to unachievable and toxic societal standards and glamourising childhood obesity. The book begins with BB having an asthma attack triggered by her weight, which nearly killed her. Am I supposed to feel empowered by that? This child almost died because of her weight. When a medical professional then tells her she’s at high risk and needs to lose weight, BB refuses because she thinks she’s pretty like that. She is pretty, but she’s also unhealthy. When it gets dangerous, you have to draw the line. Yes, all bodies deserve respect. All bodies are worthy of love. But loving yourself is taking care of yourself, and if that looks like losing weight to save your life, then that’s okay. That is what I’d feel empowered by, not deliberate ignorance of medical professionals, neglecting your body and respecting and loving yourself to save yourself.
Some of the execution was good though. BB completely rebels against diet-culture, something I am extremely passionate about and dismantles the ‘thinness equals happiness’ myth which has completely destroyed my life but this takes over such a small percentage of the message as the rest is completely overshadowed by glamourising morbid obesity.
Another thing which I found to be incredibly offensive was the overt ableism. After an accident occurs, leaving one of the characters disabled, BB mourns her like she’s died and this is used as a way to propel the plot forward and allow the protagonist to learn something which is that we must live life to the fullest incase ‘we end up in a wheelchair’. No. Disability does not mean life isn’t worth living. It doesn’t mean your life is over. To imply this was absolutely disgusting to me.
Furthermore, the writing style was just as horrible as the rest of the book. Understandably, it is epistolary and it is supposed to mirror the writing of a sixteen year old child (who barely passed her English GCSEs) but it was fragmented and choppy and hindered my enjoyment of the novel and was horrendous to read.
The plot was so bland. For the first half of the book, nothing occurred. Boredom crept in as I wasn’t engaged. After two hundred long, tedious pages, do we finally get a pivotal moment which was handled terribly. This book could have easily been condensed.
Moreover, it seemed like the author was trying too hard to be funny and quirky but it came off as weird and disturbing. For example. ‘Bum tills’? I don’t have words. Also, the overly descriptive section of a diarrhea attack? That wasn’t funny. It made me feel physically sick to my stomach. BB’s pets are called ‘2B’ and ‘Not 2B’. In what universe is that humourous?
Another thing I absolutely despised was the failure to recognise and respect certain things and instead give into ludicrous stereotypes and societal stigma. There’s a quote which reads ‘We have a nursery across the road and some of the nannies that come in are so fat, that they’d make you [BB] look anorexic.’ Not only is this problematic because of how cruel and rude it is but it’s also conforming to the stereotype that anorexia is just being thin. It’s 2019. Get educated. Anorexia is a MENTAL illness, not physical and not everyone with an eating disorder is underweight. This honestly enrages me because the ignorance is inexcusable in my opinion. How did this mess get published? It’s disgusting. Overall, it contributes to the stigma we already have and any young, impressionable readers will believe comments like this are appropriate and I lack words to express how shocked I am by this.
Overall, in my opinion, this book has earned it’s one-star rating (only because there isn’t an option to give it zero) This book appalled me, from the problematic and toxic execution of messages about weight, bodies and diet, to the bland and boring characters, to the amateur writing style and slow, lacklustre plot, this book is one I regret reading and I will never recommend it to anyone.
‘BIG BONES’ by LAURA DOCKRILL is a young adult novel following Bluebelle (also known as BB) who is instructed by a nurse at the beginning of the summer to complete a food diary but BB has a lot to say and tells her story of navigating the world when she’s overweight, documenting her love life and a traumatic accident which turns her family upside down.
Discovering this in my library was beyond exciting as I’ve had this novel on my radar for a while as it seemed incredible and inspiring. Being anti-diet culture and promoting body positivity and self-love is something I am insanely passionate about so I was beyond excited for this one.
However, I was severely let down.
From the messages delivered, to the writing style, to the characters, I found myself struggling to find something I liked because this book was, in my opinion, terrible.
Firstly, our protagonist, BB, was horrid. She was selfish, judgemental, rude, one-dimensional and quite frankly, insufferable.
My main issue with her was how self-absorbed she was throughout the entirety of the novel in which she fails to develop, grow or change by the end. Everything needed to be about her, which several of the characters highlight. When the accident occurs, BB begins to mourn and mope about and when her best friend, Cam, asks BB about it, her response is ‘Look, you have no idea what it’s like to have this happen to you.’ Apparently, Cam was as shocked as I was as she responds with ‘It hasn’t happened to you. It’s happened to your sister...you’re being selfish.’ In which BB doesn’t take this onboard and instead victimises herself and doesn’t change.
This selfishness is repeated on several occasions. One of the characters is poorly and throws up everywhere. Is BB concerned? Worried? Or even remotely fazed by it? Nope. Instead, she says ‘Wish she didn’t have to be doing being sick right now because I need to ask her to apply to my apprenticeship. Jeez’ Almost if she is shocked at the audacity for this poor girl to be unwell at the time she wants something from her.
This isn’t the only thing which irked me about BB. Her judgemental and nasty attitude towards everyone in her life made her incredibly unlikeable in an unreedemable way. She’s constantly internally being mean about people, from saying things like ‘Alicia is always very dehydrated; her lips are always crusty and looking like shrinking fried cod. Maybe that’s why she’s always a moody cow, cos she’s so thirsty?’ to her Dad endeavouring to be nice to her and he says: ‘She [The mother] didn’t go to college, neither did I, and look at us!’ and BB internally says ‘yeah, LOOK at you’ with a tone of disgust and shame...towards her caring, employed, loving parents! She had absolutely no respect for her parents, she literally called her mother an ‘attention-seeker’ to her face, whilst she was sobbing, for suggesting she has something to do with BB’s weight. It honestly disgusted me.
BB constantly goes on at how amazing and pretty she reckons she is but only gets her confidence from putting others down, from saying mean things like I’ve previously mentioned, to body-shaming her ‘skinny-minnie’ sister, I personally find it appalling that she gets her confidence from taking it away from others.
BB was the only developed character in the book, despite there being a wide cast. There wasn’t enough effort put into developing the love interest so I didn’t care at all about BB’s romance.
The family plays a major role in the book as they are the ones we see most frequently but I had issues with those too. Firstly, the mother seemed so ridiculously unrealistic. In the opening chapter, BB is overtly verbally abused by a nurse for being overweight, told she ‘eats like a feeding machine’, told she is ‘being selfish for being so fat’ and she’s going to end up in a grave. Yet, the mother completely ignores this and starts crying saying that it’s her fault her daughter is fat because she’s divorcing her husband? I am perplexed.
The mother and father are also experiencing a dreadful divorce but they’re dragging their daughters into it? The Dad is constantly asking BB what the mother is doing and who she’s being seeing and the mother refers to the father negatively in-front of her children, calling him an ‘old rat’. How is that fair to the children?
The little sister, Dove, was initially intolerable as I found her so rude, calling her sister a ‘fat-ass’ but I grew to like her a little and her bond with BB was cute. I also appreciated how she did parkour, it’s a hobby I’ve never read about in literature before so that was refreshing to see. However, that’s the only thing I seemed to like.
Moving away from the characters, the overall message that the book was trying to promote was poorly executed. Pitched as a body confident book about feeling comfortable in your own skin, I found this was completely unsuccessful. Controversially, I believe this was stepping over the line because there’s a difference between loving your body regardless of its size and lack of conformity to unachievable and toxic societal standards and glamourising childhood obesity. The book begins with BB having an asthma attack triggered by her weight, which nearly killed her. Am I supposed to feel empowered by that? This child almost died because of her weight. When a medical professional then tells her she’s at high risk and needs to lose weight, BB refuses because she thinks she’s pretty like that. She is pretty, but she’s also unhealthy. When it gets dangerous, you have to draw the line. Yes, all bodies deserve respect. All bodies are worthy of love. But loving yourself is taking care of yourself, and if that looks like losing weight to save your life, then that’s okay. That is what I’d feel empowered by, not deliberate ignorance of medical professionals, neglecting your body and respecting and loving yourself to save yourself.
Some of the execution was good though. BB completely rebels against diet-culture, something I am extremely passionate about and dismantles the ‘thinness equals happiness’ myth which has completely destroyed my life but this takes over such a small percentage of the message as the rest is completely overshadowed by glamourising morbid obesity.
Another thing which I found to be incredibly offensive was the overt ableism. After an accident occurs, leaving one of the characters disabled, BB mourns her like she’s died and this is used as a way to propel the plot forward and allow the protagonist to learn something which is that we must live life to the fullest incase ‘we end up in a wheelchair’. No. Disability does not mean life isn’t worth living. It doesn’t mean your life is over. To imply this was absolutely disgusting to me.
Furthermore, the writing style was just as horrible as the rest of the book. Understandably, it is epistolary and it is supposed to mirror the writing of a sixteen year old child (who barely passed her English GCSEs) but it was fragmented and choppy and hindered my enjoyment of the novel and was horrendous to read.
The plot was so bland. For the first half of the book, nothing occurred. Boredom crept in as I wasn’t engaged. After two hundred long, tedious pages, do we finally get a pivotal moment which was handled terribly. This book could have easily been condensed.
Moreover, it seemed like the author was trying too hard to be funny and quirky but it came off as weird and disturbing. For example. ‘Bum tills’? I don’t have words. Also, the overly descriptive section of a diarrhea attack? That wasn’t funny. It made me feel physically sick to my stomach. BB’s pets are called ‘2B’ and ‘Not 2B’. In what universe is that humourous?
Another thing I absolutely despised was the failure to recognise and respect certain things and instead give into ludicrous stereotypes and societal stigma. There’s a quote which reads ‘We have a nursery across the road and some of the nannies that come in are so fat, that they’d make you [BB] look anorexic.’ Not only is this problematic because of how cruel and rude it is but it’s also conforming to the stereotype that anorexia is just being thin. It’s 2019. Get educated. Anorexia is a MENTAL illness, not physical and not everyone with an eating disorder is underweight. This honestly enrages me because the ignorance is inexcusable in my opinion. How did this mess get published? It’s disgusting. Overall, it contributes to the stigma we already have and any young, impressionable readers will believe comments like this are appropriate and I lack words to express how shocked I am by this.
Overall, in my opinion, this book has earned it’s one-star rating (only because there isn’t an option to give it zero) This book appalled me, from the problematic and toxic execution of messages about weight, bodies and diet, to the bland and boring characters, to the amateur writing style and slow, lacklustre plot, this book is one I regret reading and I will never recommend it to anyone.
cheyenneb's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder and Vomit
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
jaded98's review against another edition
5.0
I wish this book had been around when I was a teenager.
theprintedgirl's review against another edition
2.0
My feelings for this book have been clearly seperated into two different emotions. The first half of the book was worth 2 stars. It only talked about food and was very superficial. I often asked myself what the point of this book was because it was like reading about any completely normal 16 year old. Really, talking about food is only interesting for so long and 200 Pages is definitely way too long (unless you're writing a cookbook). The summary also says this is a very funny read but I would call it lighthearted at most, funny is really stretching it. The second half of the book was much better it was worth 3 or even 3.5 stars. The story got way more interesting and finally I could read about things other than food. But 50% worth of 2 stars is just too much to give this book a 3 star rating.
This book is about a "fat" (she uses that word to describe herself and that's the only reason I'm using this insulting term) girl who is completely happy with how she looks. And I have to applaud that because body positivity is a very positive and powerful thing to write about in a YA book. That's obviously the part of the book that I like the most. It's also the reason that I would love to give this book more stars. But a good message isn't enough for me to make it a good book. Because the only thing that happens is that she decides at one point to love herself more and to start going to the gym. Not to get skinny, but to be healthy and strong. It's a perfect message but just not enough of a story. It's jut sad that everything that's in the summary of this book is everything that happens in the book. There is nothing more to the story besides from a tiny love story.
Bluebelle was a bit too over the top for me. She annoyed me because she really didn't think twice about making life changing decisions and overall really didn't use her brain that much. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, but I really don't know any other way to describer her. I did like most of the other characters. They were all very different and this book didn't contain too much stereotypes. I just think I was looking for something with more depth and if you are looking for depth, this is certainly not the book for you.
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This book is about a "fat" (she uses that word to describe herself and that's the only reason I'm using this insulting term) girl who is completely happy with how she looks. And I have to applaud that because body positivity is a very positive and powerful thing to write about in a YA book. That's obviously the part of the book that I like the most. It's also the reason that I would love to give this book more stars. But a good message isn't enough for me to make it a good book. Because the only thing that happens is that she decides at one point to love herself more and to start going to the gym. Not to get skinny, but to be healthy and strong. It's a perfect message but just not enough of a story. It's jut sad that everything that's in the summary of this book is everything that happens in the book. There is nothing more to the story besides from a tiny love story.
Bluebelle was a bit too over the top for me. She annoyed me because she really didn't think twice about making life changing decisions and overall really didn't use her brain that much. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, but I really don't know any other way to describer her. I did like most of the other characters. They were all very different and this book didn't contain too much stereotypes. I just think I was looking for something with more depth and if you are looking for depth, this is certainly not the book for you.
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lunarchar_'s review against another edition
5.0
One of the best novels I’ve ever read. A truly beautiful, inspiring storyline and one I want every single woman to read and should I have any future children I’ll be making them read this as soon as they’re old enough.
hollypeckitt's review against another edition
1.0
DNF
Whilst I think this book has so much importance, I think it's poorly done, and frankly BB is an obnoxious lead. Also, please note there should be a trigger warning at the beginning...
Whilst I think this book has so much importance, I think it's poorly done, and frankly BB is an obnoxious lead. Also, please note there should be a trigger warning at the beginning...
piperbunny's review against another edition
3.0
Good message, boring book.
Boring might be a bit strong, things happened they just didn't happen often. Made me really hungry talking about all the yummy food. I really hope I can put some of the lessons learnt in this book into practice about body confidence and being healthy.
Boring might be a bit strong, things happened they just didn't happen often. Made me really hungry talking about all the yummy food. I really hope I can put some of the lessons learnt in this book into practice about body confidence and being healthy.
mdeemowitch's review against another edition
1.0
Honestly, this book was trash.
I was looking forward to reading it, since I was expecting it to be a YA bookish delight about body positivity and self-love. However, I was let down. The main character is an unlikeable, selfish, unempathetic, and rude person, who tries to make everything about herself.
The thing that triggered me to give this book a one-start rating isn't the fact that this 400-page book has almost no plot whatsoever, but the fact it preaches ableist bullshit.
I was looking forward to reading it, since I was expecting it to be a YA bookish delight about body positivity and self-love. However, I was let down. The main character is an unlikeable, selfish, unempathetic, and rude person, who tries to make everything about herself.
The thing that triggered me to give this book a one-start rating isn't the fact that this 400-page book has almost no plot whatsoever, but the fact it preaches ableist bullshit.
jesikasbookshelf's review against another edition
1.0
"people don't like putting a fat person in a position of power - the addiction is too obvious. Like, a gambler can hide gambling or a cheater can hide cheating. You can hide smoking or even a drug habit...you don't have to wear it on your body, but as far as the world's concerned I wear my addiction, my vulnerability. I'm decorated in my weakness"
I will start this by saying that I think it is hard to judge how much young teenagers will like a story when you no longer fit that age bracket. I think there was a lot of good in this book - BB is self-aware and she isn't ashamed. That is such a positive protagonist to put out there in the world. I did feel, however, that her instance that she loved her body came from a place of deep insecurity which only began to be explored in the last third of the book.
Her relationships with her parents, her sister, best friend and the ONE BOY in this book are all sweet and generally pretty funny. However, there isn't a lot of character growth and they all seemed a bit annoying to me - I blame this solely on the fact that, quite clearly, I am getting old. At 26.
BB does eventually make changes, and she does it for good reasons surrounding realising that she should use her body more and take care of it. Honestly, I wish I could permanently get that message through my own brain so I'm impressed with the way it was brought about in this novel.
Big Bones is a story about a teenage girl who has to walk around knowing that everyone is judging her. I understand that - how upsetting it is and how ashamed you feel. She left the end of this novel with a much healthier attitude and that is no bad message to be sending to teenage girls.
I will start this by saying that I think it is hard to judge how much young teenagers will like a story when you no longer fit that age bracket. I think there was a lot of good in this book - BB is self-aware and she isn't ashamed. That is such a positive protagonist to put out there in the world. I did feel, however, that her instance that she loved her body came from a place of deep insecurity which only began to be explored in the last third of the book.
Her relationships with her parents, her sister, best friend and the ONE BOY in this book are all sweet and generally pretty funny. However, there isn't a lot of character growth and they all seemed a bit annoying to me - I blame this solely on the fact that, quite clearly, I am getting old. At 26.
BB does eventually make changes, and she does it for good reasons surrounding realising that she should use her body more and take care of it. Honestly, I wish I could permanently get that message through my own brain so I'm impressed with the way it was brought about in this novel.
Big Bones is a story about a teenage girl who has to walk around knowing that everyone is judging her. I understand that - how upsetting it is and how ashamed you feel. She left the end of this novel with a much healthier attitude and that is no bad message to be sending to teenage girls.
fionaaaaaa's review against another edition
2.0
A little disappointing for me. I enjoyed moments of this book and I liked the 'be true to yourself' feel throughout, but maybe just not for me, this one.