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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
hahahahahahahahaha :DDDDDDDDDDD tehe. love this author. Froggy welsh the 4th!!! hahahahaha
read this as a fifth grader and loved it!
i definitely related to the story line.
i definitely related to the story line.
This book took about two hours to read and was thoroughly pleasurable, probably for all the same reasons that it gets banned from classrooms about every four minutes. It would also be a really useful text if you were teaching a unit around the essential question, "Why are [b:the children of men|1815727|Les filles du docteur March se marient|Louisa May Alcott|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1188737805s/1815727.jpg|3244642]tal health professionals so frequently messed up?"
I can't decide if I would have liked this back in 2003, when I was 12 years old and fascinated by the title and original cover. I thought this was supposed to be funny but I didn't laugh once or enjoy myself at all. In fact, I would say that this is a pretty dark book with some okay lighter moments. Virginia has a very unfair stereotypical "I'm unhappy with my weight and will complain about it constantly, then get ~help~ to be ~healthy~" kind of character journey and it was rough being in her head. I feel ya girl, I sometimes don't feel comfortable in my skin for the same reasons, but this was definitely an outdated (yes, I know it was written in '03) portrayal of being a fat teen. It was just a very heavy book and I feel misled based on the synopsis. I want to see more body positivity in today's book landscape, which is why it concerns me that this book has a sequel now (15 years later). It's weird to think that the second book will pick up where this one left off though - she'll have to keep up the 2003 technology/references/etc.
Could not say I enjoyed this book. I thought this would be a coming of age novel about a plus sized teen and her struggles with friendships and first love. It wasn’t. This book felt all over the place to me. Things were mentioned, forgotten about and brought back at random. There were a lot of smaller subplots that really did nothing for the story. It honestly felt like majority of the events in this books didn’t really effect the story in anyway. There wasn’t much of a story to begin with. Her family was shitty. Her older brother raped a girl and it was brushed under the rug. Her parents were obsessed with her weight. I hated pretty much her entire family beside her older sister who was hardly mentioned. Honestly this whole book was nothing but filler. A pointless waste of 244 pages. I didn’t care what happened. I just wanted it to be over.
It was so great, I read it all in the same day! I haven’t done that in a while. Honestly wish I had this book when I was going through high school. It shows that you should love yourself, and not let anyone control who you are! Also, that you can’t always look up to people, regardless of who they are you to.
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
I can't believe I missed this book when it was first published in 2003, but with a second book in the series just being released it came on my radar. When I was younger I was always looking for plus size teens in books, so read all books I ever heard about depicting plus size character. This was one of the more enjoyable stories. It was not about the teen losing weight to redeem herself, the character did not even have issues with her size. Her issues with the people around her that issues with her size. This perspective was few and far between in books I read when I was younger. I am thrilled that it is becoming more and more the norm in YA books featuring plus size characters. At some point I hope it is a feature that is not even commented on in my lifetime.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
tense
fast-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