A review by bardspeak
You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman

dark reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

When first starting it, I really really loved this book. The writing style and the subject matter and the mood were all so inspiring to me and my own work, especially in regards to the main character and her best friend B. I especially enjoyed the sort of dissociated feeling, the take on food and body image, and relationships with other people when someone 1) assumes they know everything about someone at any given moment and 2) doesn't really think of them as other people. The characters in the book are somehow both less people than the main character and more a person than she's ever been. 
Around halfway through the book, though, it started to lose me. Perhaps because I'm just not a fan of cults, or because I was more invested in the relationships between the characters and the writing style than the predatory nature of companies and body image and the media, and of course, cults. It is interesting in that aspect too! The only thing keeping me from giving it 5 stars is that by the end I had lost the thread of my own inspiration, but I had also lost the thread of.. Why things where happening when they did. The ending came about abruptly and confusingly to me, and didn't have many answers to any questions I might have. I'm willing to accept the possibility that I might just not have gotten it, though. 
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