A review by shelleyanderson4127
Big Girl by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 

Big Girl by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan is an extraordinary coming-of-age novel. The reader first meets protagonist Malaya Clondon when she is eight years old. She's thinking of French fries and on her way to a weight loss meeting for Black women.

We follow her life through to age 14--a life shadowed by her parents' increasingly rocky marriage, by her high achieving mother Nyela and her bitter, undermining grandmother Ma-Mère. It becomes increasingly clear that Malaya hungers not just for cookies and Chinese take-away, but also for recognition and love. Malaya navigates the world in a body constantly being judged for its increasing weight and Blackness. She's attracted both to a boy at school and to her best friend Shaniece. She loves art, her father and food.

This is a sympathetic and insightful look at modern girlhood, at how female bodies are inhabited and how femininity is both embraced and rejected. We root for Malaya throughout the novel as she struggles with both self-acceptance and society's expectations.

Harlem, where Malaya lives, is also a character in this book, as changeable and unique as Malaya herself. The writing is inventive and observant, full of delicious metaphors. I defy anyone to read the luscious descriptions of food and not want to eat something right away. This book is a quiet tour de force and well worth reading.