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A review by bookalong
13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad
5.0
Nominated for the Giller Prize in 2016 Awad's debut 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A FAT GIRL is a tough read as Awad does a fantastic job really peeling back the layers of diet culture and body dysmorphia.
This books is about Lizzie, a teenager who dates men over the internet but is hesitant to send full body photos of herself because of how she looks. Throughout these thirteen chapters we witness different eras in her life as she struggles with body image. As she loses weight she loses herself, until she is unrecognisable. Shes angry, bitter, hungry and unhappy.
Awad digs deep on this one. She meticulously writes of the mental prison self hatred and body dysmorphia can be. Lizzie was such a realist character, and her mother, her mother was the most toxic for her daughter. It made me sick. Mothers have so much input to help shape their children, to thrive or fail and Lizzie's mother was the worst kind. Starting in her youth Lizzie was seeking approval from men via the internet and other unhealthy ways to then growing into an obsession to be thin that eventually overtook who she was and what she cared about. It distorted her ability to understand how others could just be happy and satisfied with who they were.
I saw aspects of my past self in Lizzie and it made me grateful I never ended up on the path she goes down. It's hard, not just being female but human in this society's with so much pressure on bodies, to be thin and fit and then the under representation of bigger bodies being beautiful and healthy too, it's a lot and life is hard enough is it not? Without "extra" pressure from loved ones and society. Anyway Awad really hit the mark with this one. Its different than her later books so dont expect thoes but I found it hard to put down, much like all her work.
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
This books is about Lizzie, a teenager who dates men over the internet but is hesitant to send full body photos of herself because of how she looks. Throughout these thirteen chapters we witness different eras in her life as she struggles with body image. As she loses weight she loses herself, until she is unrecognisable. Shes angry, bitter, hungry and unhappy.
Awad digs deep on this one. She meticulously writes of the mental prison self hatred and body dysmorphia can be. Lizzie was such a realist character, and her mother, her mother was the most toxic for her daughter. It made me sick. Mothers have so much input to help shape their children, to thrive or fail and Lizzie's mother was the worst kind. Starting in her youth Lizzie was seeking approval from men via the internet and other unhealthy ways to then growing into an obsession to be thin that eventually overtook who she was and what she cared about. It distorted her ability to understand how others could just be happy and satisfied with who they were.
I saw aspects of my past self in Lizzie and it made me grateful I never ended up on the path she goes down. It's hard, not just being female but human in this society's with so much pressure on bodies, to be thin and fit and then the under representation of bigger bodies being beautiful and healthy too, it's a lot and life is hard enough is it not? Without "extra" pressure from loved ones and society. Anyway Awad really hit the mark with this one. Its different than her later books so dont expect thoes but I found it hard to put down, much like all her work.
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong