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emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is very much reflective of the time it was written in, though a lot of the issues of weight and body image a lot of teen girls still struggle with. I appreciated that Virgina learns confidence throughout the book, allowing herself to speak up about what she wants. It will for sure make for interesting conversation at book club this week!
Also, I ended up listening to the audiobook and I think they changed some of the pop culture references? Because they mentioned La La Land at one point, and I was like wait...didn't this come out way before that? And yes, I was correct.
Also, I ended up listening to the audiobook and I think they changed some of the pop culture references? Because they mentioned La La Land at one point, and I was like wait...didn't this come out way before that? And yes, I was correct.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia
Moderate: Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault
Minor: Vomit
dark
hopeful
fast-paced
This book's kinda meh. It didn't do anything special for me. I wish this book was willing to go more in depth onto literally anything. Everything is pretty surface-level in this book.
Still an enjoyable read, and I flew through it.
Still an enjoyable read, and I flew through it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia
Moderate: Eating disorder
Minor: Rape
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Poor little rich girl whines for 400 pages. Ugh.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia
Moderate: Rape
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder, Rape, Self harm
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-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
"Does 'doing exactly what I want' mean not thinking about other people's feelings? Because that's just not the kind of person I am.
Maybe it can mean whatever I want it to mean, like taking care of myself and not letting people walk all over me.
Yes, that's much more like it."
nostalgic middle school re-read
Maybe it can mean whatever I want it to mean, like taking care of myself and not letting people walk all over me.
Yes, that's much more like it."
nostalgic middle school re-read
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming
Moderate: Eating disorder, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-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:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Dysphoria
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
this book is beautifully written and you can see that a lot of research and thought has gone into it, Virginia is a loveable character and is easy to relate to
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming
Moderate: Eating disorder, Vomit
Minor: Rape
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I first read this when I was in high school, and I have just finished re-reading this as an adult because I found out there was a sequel. As I remember, it is a very heartfelt novel about a girl trying to develop a good relationship with her body in spite of the fatphobic world she lives in. I remember liking the ending then and I still appreciated it in my rereading. I somehow forgot all of the incidents of self-harm in the book. Those were very alarming and not for the faint of heart. Even so, it creates an important contrast between
I listened to the 15th anniversary version of the audiobook, and I was surprised by the "text edits" that took place. I don't really feel like those helped the narrative. Rather than making the book feel more current, it actually drew more attention to the anachronisms. Specifically, you really can't make a novel that takes place in high school during the 2010s without making some mention of social media. Along those lines, I would imagine that a teenager in the 2010s would at least be aware of the fat positivity/body positivity movements on social media. I understand why the author didn't explore this theme, since that would've meant rewriting the whole book, but if that's the case, it would've been better to simply leave the narrative in the early aughts.
A problem that I had with the book is that BIPOC characters seem pretty peripheral to the protagonist's life, despite the fact that she is living in New York City. The author does that annoying thing where she only mentions a character's race or skin color if they are nonwhite. I was particularly taken aback when the protagonist discussed wanting to take Chinese because she could curse people out and no one outside of chinatown would know what she was saying. That felt rather fetishizing to me. I'm curious to see if that dynamic improves in the second book.
I listened to the 15th anniversary version of the audiobook, and I was surprised by the "text edits" that took place. I don't really feel like those helped the narrative. Rather than making the book feel more current, it actually drew more attention to the anachronisms. Specifically, you really can't make a novel that takes place in high school during the 2010s without making some mention of social media. Along those lines, I would imagine that a teenager in the 2010s would at least be aware of the fat positivity/body positivity movements on social media. I understand why the author didn't explore this theme, since that would've meant rewriting the whole book, but if that's the case, it would've been better to simply leave the narrative in the early aughts.
A problem that I had with the book is that BIPOC characters seem pretty peripheral to the protagonist's life, despite the fact that she is living in New York City. The author does that annoying thing where she only mentions a character's race or skin color if they are nonwhite. I was particularly taken aback when the protagonist discussed wanting to take Chinese because she could curse people out and no one outside of chinatown would know what she was saying. That felt rather fetishizing to me. I'm curious to see if that dynamic improves in the second book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief
Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content
Minor: Genocide, Vomit