A review by thebakersbooks
The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller

2.0

I can't say I'd ever experienced slow-burn fatphobia in a book before, but now I have! Idk, if I wrote a cool world and innovative magic system with a fairly unique premise, I simply...wouldn't ruin it by having the described-as-curvy (the only curvy woman in a society where everyone else is tall and thin and being that way is fashionable/desireable, as noted in chapter ONE, mind you) MC think about the largeness and abnormality of her body all the time. Do thin people (like the author) think that's how fat people live? I promise, we don't all constantly think about our bodies. We don't all have internalized fatphobia, either. And the punchline was "fat" finally getting used twice as an insult against the MC near the end by a main antagonist, very much with triumph, like the author had just been waiting to do it and had restrained herself the whole book to that point. 

The above might not register if you're a straight-sized person, so make your own call about reading this book. There's lots of well-written shit and you might love it. I just don't think the author had to punch down and worse, I doubt she even realizes she did it. Fellow fat folks, read at your own risk because I clocked that shit from EARLY and was unsurprised to google the author when I was 75% through the book and find out she was skinny.