A review by xabbeylongx
You Are Not a Before Picture: How to Finally Make Peace with Your Body, for Good by Alex Light

hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.5

Spoilers Ahead: 
So, this is the first non-fiction piece of writing I’ve read out of personal preference. I want to start diversifying my reading list, and I thought what better way to start it off than with something I’m very passionate about? Luckily, body positivity is something that I can really understand and get behind, but there’s still so much to learn, so I thought what better way to get educated than read memoirs? Also, it helps that one of my assignments is to write about various different non-fiction texts. And, overall, I can say I really enjoyed reading it. 
I would definitely recommend this book, especially for people looking to broaden their horizons and expand their knowledge on TW fatphobia. There are a lot of triggering topics discussed in this book, like TW eating disorders, fat shaming, body dysmorphia, and other topics like that, so if you’re likely to be affected by that sort of information, it’s probably not the best read for you. However, I think it’s very informative, and it’s really good to read about things like this. 
One thing that I really liked is that she wrote about it from the heart, and you can tell that from the start. Right from the get-go, you can tell that Light is chatty, and has a conversational tone, and it really forms a relationship, between us as readers and her as the author. She creates a safe environment, free of judgement, and sometimes it’s really refreshing to hear the same things you’ve gone through, but from someone else’s perspective; it really helps you to feel less alone. Personally speaking, I found her words, although very deep and something uncomfortable, very soothing at times, because sometimes it feels nice, realising you aren’t as alone as you feel you are. 
Throughout this book, Light refers to the opinions of other people, as she recognises that, although she does experience fatphobia, as a white, able-bodied cis-gendered woman she will experience it on a different scale to other people of different genders, cultures, race and disabilities. I really like how she acknowledges her privilege, and then uses her book as a platform for other people to use their voices. All in all, I just really loved this book. It was emotional but informative, it was a safe environment, and it was also very helpful to read, from a personal perspective. All of her facts and statistics were backed up, and she gives lots of other people to follow that also experienced the same thing. Overall, I would definitely recommend the read.  
Expand filter menu Content Warnings