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arcanewolf 's review for:
Massive
by Julia Bell
'Massive' explores the way parents can have a massive impact on their children. It follows the story of Carmen, and how her mother's eating disorder and obsession with beauty standards slowly begins to affect Carmen.
What I liked about this book is how it didn't sugarcoat the reality of eating disorders, puberty, bullying and the idealisation of beauty. Carmen is fourteen in the book, an age where she is very impressionable, even if she likes to think she isn't. She's shown to have a resistance to her mum's extreme views but throughout the book, we begin to see Carmen taking on her mother's views and ideals. We begin to see the seeds of the eating disorder begin to bloom within Carmen.
Whilst dealing with her mother, Carmen also shows being impressionable by the 'popular' girls in school, going as far as bullying another kid to make these girls like her. Later on, it all takes a 180 and Carmen finds herself on the receiving end of the cruel teasing.
I did find the structure of the book a bit patchy, it didn't flow nicely so I had a hard time following the writing. The ending also bugged me a little bit, after Carmen's mother is taken into hospital, we never hear anything about her afterwards. Did she recover? Did she die? You never know.
What I did really like about the ending is when Carmen and her friend Paisley burn the Barbie dolls. I think it shows the beginning of Carmen's recovery and shows a big step up in beating the idealisation of beauty, that women have to be thin if they're going to be successful. By burning the Barbie dolls, it's also showing that Carmen is burning down the ideal idea of being thin.
I guess you could see Carmen's mother as being a lost cause, that some people just can't be saved and that is a brutal reality to think about. Maybe she did die to show that these ideals can kill you, but Carmen is now taking a stand and is willing to make herself better so she doesn't end up like her mother.
What I liked about this book is how it didn't sugarcoat the reality of eating disorders, puberty, bullying and the idealisation of beauty. Carmen is fourteen in the book, an age where she is very impressionable, even if she likes to think she isn't. She's shown to have a resistance to her mum's extreme views but throughout the book, we begin to see Carmen taking on her mother's views and ideals. We begin to see the seeds of the eating disorder begin to bloom within Carmen.
Whilst dealing with her mother, Carmen also shows being impressionable by the 'popular' girls in school, going as far as bullying another kid to make these girls like her. Later on, it all takes a 180 and Carmen finds herself on the receiving end of the cruel teasing.
I did find the structure of the book a bit patchy, it didn't flow nicely so I had a hard time following the writing. The ending also bugged me a little bit, after Carmen's mother is taken into hospital, we never hear anything about her afterwards. Did she recover? Did she die? You never know.
What I did really like about the ending is when Carmen and her friend Paisley burn the Barbie dolls. I think it shows the beginning of Carmen's recovery and shows a big step up in beating the idealisation of beauty, that women have to be thin if they're going to be successful. By burning the Barbie dolls, it's also showing that Carmen is burning down the ideal idea of being thin.
I guess you could see Carmen's mother as being a lost cause, that some people just can't be saved and that is a brutal reality to think about. Maybe she did die to show that these ideals can kill you, but Carmen is now taking a stand and is willing to make herself better so she doesn't end up like her mother.