A review by clovetra
Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah

3.0

reread!!!!!!!!
i actually enjoyed this book a lot, and was surprised how invested i was. for the first 100 pages or so i was bored cuz there was no tension, and although there was only tension at the end, i still enjoyed this pretty well. i can't point out a lot of positives, i just really enjoyed the writing style. what i CAN do is point out a bunch of things this book flopped at!
1) disordered eating. why oh why is simone's entire character just about the fact shes overweight and hates the way she looks. like i get that it is a big deal for her but... please my girl needed some depth. which also combines with my second point:
2) the outdated language. there's an entire paragraph dedicated to how simone wishes she was anorexic and/or bulimic and im like. oh my god. or the language used at other points was um..... Questionable at best. i get this is from 2006 but yikes
3) the buzzwords. my god does this book sometimes read like a BuzzFeed article. and at some points it hurt so much. So Much.
i kinda enjoyed amal? she has a similar personality to me, but she also is kind of insufferable at times? i didn't have a strong liking to any of the characters other than maybe yasmeen.
i also didn't like how the book paints muslims one way or the other. like either you have leila's family or amals. no in between. like ok the spectrum is
Spoilereither a misogynistic mother & brother who is borderline abusive, or literally the nicest family in the world.......
like i get this book isn't trying to speak for every single muslim ever but............. WHERE ARE THE LAYERS
overall i enjoyed this book, but honestly i couldn't see myself rereading it. the book was giving millennial's perception of teens core, and esp now that i am finally free from high school i could not give a shit about books that solely revolve around teenage drama.