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A review by reading_while_fat
Her Good Side by Rebekah Weatherspoon
3.0
2.5 stars rounded up to 3
I recognize that I may not be the target reader for this one, but you know how some YA novels may *technically* be for a teen audience but the writing is so beautiful and the themes so utterly human that it sort of transcends the age target? This was not that.
The writing felt forced and choppy and like I was being spoon fed every detail because the author didn’t trust herself to convey themes and emotions well. The characters were fun and overall we had a decently cute book but it did just fall flat for me. The middle bits as the characters were falling for each other were fun and sweet, but by the end of the book, I was skimming just to get to the end of it.
Fat-friendly rating: 3.5ish/5, I picked this one up specifically for the fat representation which, unfortunately, also fell flat. I appreciated that there was representation at all, and that she was also a talented athlete in a bigger body demonstrating that “athletic” isn’t a body type - but unfortunately the conversation around her fatness was “I like food and I eat food so therefore I am bigger than my friends and other athletic sisters”, upholding the notion that fat people are fat because we just can’t put the fork down. Didn’t work for me personally. There was also just way too much emphasis on bodies as the driving force for attraction for my tastes.
Recommend?: not really. I mean it wasn’t a *bad* book, but there are many others out there I’d recommend over this one.
I recognize that I may not be the target reader for this one, but you know how some YA novels may *technically* be for a teen audience but the writing is so beautiful and the themes so utterly human that it sort of transcends the age target? This was not that.
The writing felt forced and choppy and like I was being spoon fed every detail because the author didn’t trust herself to convey themes and emotions well. The characters were fun and overall we had a decently cute book but it did just fall flat for me. The middle bits as the characters were falling for each other were fun and sweet, but by the end of the book, I was skimming just to get to the end of it.
Fat-friendly rating: 3.5ish/5, I picked this one up specifically for the fat representation which, unfortunately, also fell flat. I appreciated that there was representation at all, and that she was also a talented athlete in a bigger body demonstrating that “athletic” isn’t a body type - but unfortunately the conversation around her fatness was “I like food and I eat food so therefore I am bigger than my friends and other athletic sisters”, upholding the notion that fat people are fat because we just can’t put the fork down. Didn’t work for me personally. There was also just way too much emphasis on bodies as the driving force for attraction for my tastes.
Recommend?: not really. I mean it wasn’t a *bad* book, but there are many others out there I’d recommend over this one.