A review by novi
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

4.0

I think this is the book that I re-read the most in my life. Re-reading it in 2020 and in my big age of 26, I still really love it. But now I can see more issues in this book, like how the book talk about eating disorder. I feel like the book looks down on it and doesn't really adress clearly that Virginia's mom has eating disorder, when I think it could do more by making people aware of what eating disorder actually is, the symptoms/behaviors, etc, and that even though these people have done terrible things to Virginia, they're actually also victims of this fatphobic society.

I see some reviews here saying that this book is sooo 2003, no one is fatphobic anymore in 2020. Hmmm... are you sure? Sadly I still see internalized fatphobia in this world, and all of us still have a lot to learn and unlearn about this. And also, sadly, rapist with privilege almost always getting away with it. I'm so so angry about it.

But now I can see the ending is kind of unbelievable, like, suddenly everything changes and runs smoothly so fast, when in real life changes takes time, especially with issues like deep self-hatred included with self-harm. I hope the sequel will address this (yes I haven't read it).