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Showing posts with label Obesity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obesity. Show all posts
Thursday, December 09, 2021
Body-Positive YA Horror Novel Hilarious and Powerful
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
Vivian Ellenshaw knows she's overweight. She also knows it doesn't matter. The teen is comfortable with who she is—a smart, funny, athletic soccer star—and with how she looks (even if her plus-size body bothers her mother and her new stepdad). Vee is not exactly thrilled, then, when her parents decide she needs to spend her winter break at a weight-loss camp. She's even less enthusiastic when she realizes who's going to be accompanying her on the van ride to Flagstaff: Allison DuMonde, her former BFF. Although the camp van driver is a hot college student, a definite plus, Vee is not happy about the situation, which seems to be getting worse by the second.
I've been looking forward to reading Eat Your Heart Out, the newest YA novel from local Arizona author Kelly deVos, ever since I heard about it. It's got a fun premise (with a hard-core message behind it) that just makes me laugh. The set-up is unique, the characters are likable, and the action is pretty much non-stop from the get-go. Although the book is gory and sad (in places), it's also surprisingly upbeat and funny. Most of all, it's an empowering, body-positive novel that smashes stereotypes and reminds us all that everyone is more than what their outward appearances might suggest. I could have done without the constant F-bombs blasting all over the place, but otherwise, I enjoyed this entertaining read and its many powerful messages.
(Readalikes: Reminds me of Starfish by Lisa Fipps [sans zombies])
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for language, violence, blood/gore, and mild sexual content
To the FTC, with love: I bought a copy of Eat Your Heart Out with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger. Ha ha.
Wednesday, October 27, 2021
Body-Positive MG Novel Empathy-Inducing and Empowering
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
Ellie Montgomery-Hofstein is used to people gawking at her—and not in a good way. She's always been bigger than her peers, which has made her the recipient of relentless bullying. Even her mother is constantly haranguing her for being fat. Now that Ellie's best friend has moved away, she's facing sixth grade alone, making her even more of a target than usual. The only place she finds peace is in her backyard swimming pool where she feels weightless and free.
When bubbly Catalina Rodriguez moves in next to Ellie and welcomes her into her boisterous Mexican-American family, Ellie discovers another safe place. With the help of her new friend and a caring therapist, she starts learning to stand up for herself. Will these new skills help her face the biggest bully in her life? Can Ellie help her mother understand that Ellie deserves to be loved just as she is? Can Ellie finally free herself from the Fat Girl Rules and embrace her big, beautiful self?
Starfish—a debut novel by Lisa Fipps—is a quick read, but one that sticks with you. Written in free verse, it's raw and honest. Anyone who's struggled with their weight, or been bullied for any reason, will empathize with Ellie's pain. Hopefully, those who bully will also be moved by her story. Starfish really is impactful as it teaches lessons about the impact that words have, for both good and ill, on other people; how bullying, whether done by children or adults, affects people; the importance of kindness and acceptance; and the empowering magic of learning to stand up for one's self. This is an important, touching read that I hope kids will take to heart.
(Readalikes: Reminds me of Wonder by R.J. Palacio)
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for difficult subject matter (body shaming, bullying, and verbal and emotional abuse)
To the FTC, with love: Another library fine find
Wednesday, November 02, 2016
Niven's Newest About Being Yourself, Being Brave, and Being Kind
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
Libby Strout has already lived through her worst nightmare. After a massive weight gain following her mother's sudden death, Libby had to be cut and craned out of her home. The videos went viral, earning her the nickname "America's Fattest Teen." A 300+ weight loss has given the 16-year-old some confidence and Libby's ready to give real life a do-over. At 351 lbs., she knows she'll still be a target, but maybe this time, her classmates will look beyond her weight and get to know her for the smart, spunky person she really is.
Jack Masselin goes to great pains to be the cool guy around school. If the 17-year-old can fake it well enough, no one will know about the secrets he hides. His prosopagnosia makes recognizing people—even his own family—almost impossible sometimes. No one can know about this freaky little side effect of his screwed-up brain. He hides it, as well as problems at home, by being smooth, charming, and sometimes, a class A jerk.
When a horrifying prank ends with Libby and Jack in detention together, the two make a surprising connection. Libby doesn't trust Jack's new attentiveness and Jack's not sure his cool factor can survive an unwitting attraction to the resident fat girl. Can two very different teens look past their own anger, anxiety, and prejudice to really see each other? If they're honest with each other, can they finally be real with themselves?
Holding Up the Universe, Jennifer Niven's newest contemporary YA, tells an affecting story about two teens searching for themselves in the confusing corridors of high school. Libby, of course, is wholly sympathetic. Bold and sassy, she's easy to cheer on, easy to root for. Jack's initial jerkiness makes him a little less appealing, but his vulnerability and changed ways makes up for it in the end. While Holding Up the Universe definitely has its dark moments, overall it's a bright, encouraging story that teaches important lessons about being yourself, being brave, and being kind. The plot gets idealistic, also a tad unrealistic as Jack (eventually) shows way more maturity than any high school boy I've ever known. A PG-13 version of this book would have been more enjoyable for me (and easier to recommend), but all in all, I enjoyed Holding Up the Universe.
(Readalikes: Wonder by R.J. Palacio; Butter by Erin Jade Lange; Skinny by Donna Cooner; and A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks)
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for strong language, sexual innuendo, and depictions of illegal drug use and underage drinking
To the FTC, with love: I received an ARC of Holding Up the Universe from the generous folks at Penguin Random House. Thank you!
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Skinny: It's About More Than Just The Pounds
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
Ever Davies knows she's fat. The 15-year-old weighs over 300 pounds, so it's not like she's surprised when someone calls her an elephant or a whale or a freak or whatever. Not that the words don't wound—of course they do—but she's so used to hearing the labels that she hardly notices anymore. Besides, if real people aren't calling Ever names, she's got Skinny—the constant, nagging voice in her head—reminding her that she's an out-of-control blob who will never be loved. Ever's so used to living (if you can call it that) this way, she's almost given up trying to change things. What's the point? As Skinny is so quick to note, Ever is too pathetic and helpless to do anything right.
After a humiliating experience at school, Ever's finally had enough. Determined to gain some control over her life, she embarks on a risky journey to slim down, get healthy and prove to the world that she's someone worth noticing. And yet, even as the pounds melt off, Ever can't stop hearing Skinny's snarky criticism. Is it possible that Skinny's been right all along? Is Ever destined for failure, no matter how hard she works? Is she really too worthless to bother with—or can Ever find something inside herself that's worth saving, even celebrating? Most importantly, what will happen when she reaches her weight loss goal? Will Ever Davies finally be happy?
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I wanted to read more books about obesity, especially about teens who struggle with the issue. An author friend of mine mentioned that she'd heard good things about Skinny, a debut novel by Donna Cooner. Cooner, who's written picture books, textbooks and children's television shows, is also a former gastric bypass patient—obviously, weight loss is something with which she's intimately familiar. That insider's view makes Ever's fight for control over her body an authentic and poignant one. Cooner's personal experience with bariatric surgery also makes for a story peppered with interesting details about the process. All of that kept me interested. What annoyed me about Skinny, though, is its lack of a well-defined central conflict. Ever's goal is to lose weight, yes, but since the pounds are "magically" disappearing via surgery, she achieves what she wants a little too easily for my tastes. I want to see a hero or heroine really struggle to attain the story goal, and Ever really doesn't that much. Yes, she still has to banish the voice in her head (which, really, is the point of the story), but still ... the central conflict didn't feel like that big of a conflict, in my *humble* opinion. In the end, while I appreciated Cooner's realistic look at a teen undergoing weight loss surgery, Skinny just didn't quite satisfy me.
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for brief, mild language
To the FTC, with love: I received a finished copy of Skinny from the generous folks at Scholastic. Thank you!
Wednesday, August 07, 2013
Shriver's Newest Compelling, Though Heavy (Pun Intended) and Generally, Just A Big, Ole Downer
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
Pandora Halfdanarson will do anything for the older brother she's always adored. So, when Edison needs a temporary place to live, she agrees to take him in without a moment's hesitation. Her husband is not enthusiastic about the idea, however. Fletcher thinks his brother-in-law is an insufferable blowhard. But Pandora insists: Edison is family. He needs her. She'll do whatever she can to help.
Pandora's marriage is already floundering, due in part to the fact that Fletcher's custom carpentry business isn't making any money, while Pandora's pull-string doll company is flourishing. Does she dare alienate her husband even more by siding with Edison? As Edison's domineering personality slowly begins to take over Pandora's life, she must decide how much she's willing to risk in order to aid her brother. Can she save him from himself, even if it means sacrificing everything she has? Because, as is becoming clearer and clearer, that's what it's going to take.
When Edison lumbers off the plane in Cedar Rapids, Pandora gets the biggest shock of her life. Her brother's always been svelte—a hip, handsome Jazz pianist with plenty of adoring females at his side. In the four years since Pandora last saw him, Edison's transformed himself into someone completely—literally—unrecognizable. He used to be trim, now he weighs just under 400 lbs. The obese 43-year-old suffers from depression, pre-diabetes and a severe case of denial. Clearly, Edison Apaloosa needs more than just a soft place to land. The question is: Can Pandora give her brother the help and support he so desperately requires? And, what will it cost her, not just financially, but emotionally as well?
Pandora's marriage is already floundering, due in part to the fact that Fletcher's custom carpentry business isn't making any money, while Pandora's pull-string doll company is flourishing. Does she dare alienate her husband even more by siding with Edison? As Edison's domineering personality slowly begins to take over Pandora's life, she must decide how much she's willing to risk in order to aid her brother. Can she save him from himself, even if it means sacrificing everything she has? Because, as is becoming clearer and clearer, that's what it's going to take.
Obesity seems to be a trendy topic in fiction lately. It's easy to see why—it's a heavy subject (pun intended), a life-and-death struggle with plenty of inherent conflict and drama. In Big Brother, Lionel Shriver's newest novel, the author gives us a raw, unsettling taste of what dealing with a loved one's obesity can feel like. It's a powerful story—though a depressing one—about the lengths we go to to help struggling family members, even when it comes at great personal cost to us. Shriver writes with sharp, piercing honesty, making Big Brother a compelling, compulsively readable story, though a difficult one. I found it engrossing, even if none of the characters came off as particularly likable. The ending, however, soured me on the whole thing. Without being too spoiler-y (I hope), let me just say that unreliable narrators almost always kill a story for me. Considering that and the novel's generally downer tone, Big Brother turned out to be just an okay read.
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for strong language, depictions of illegal drug use, intense situations and sexual innuendo/content
To the FTC, with love: I received an ARC of Big Brother from the generous folks at Harper Collins via those at TLC Book Tours. Thank you!
Saturday, September 01, 2012
Term "Dying to Fit In" Takes On A Whole New Meaning in New YA Novel
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
At 423 lbs., "Butter" can barely move without fighting for breath. Waddling down the hallways of his ritzy Scottsdale, Arizona, high school is just plain torture—not because his classmates tease him, but because they don't. Even the bullies feel sorry for him now. He's too pathetic to warrant a glance from them, let alone from a thin, beautiful girl like Anna McGinn. Sure, Butter can pour his heart out to her online (as long as Anna continues to believe he's the cool, confident "SaxMan," anyway), but in real life? Not a chance. She'd probably throw up if she knew that Butter, the blob who sits behind her in English class, has the hots for her.
Butter has tried to slim down, he really has. He's gone on special diets, attended fat camp every summer, even starved himself to lose the weight. Nothing works. After he humiliates himself at school one day, he's officially ready to give up—not just on dieting, but on life. Butter creates a blog, announcing to the world that he's planning to eat himself to death on December 31st. And he's going to do it live on the Internet. He's prepared to tell anyone who asks that it's all just a big joke, even though the thought of dying sounds more tantalizing by the day. Then, something weird happens: the in-crowd at Scottsdale High starts swarming around Butter. They're not there to talk him out of his impending suicide, they're clamoring for all the macabre details of Butter's death plan. Suddenly, bizarrely, he's the most popular guy on campus. And, just as suddenly, he's not so sure about the suicide thing. He knows that wimping out of his big plan will cost him all of his new-found friends, but, then again, how can he kill himself when he's just discovering what it feels like to truly live? With everyone gleefully counting down the days until his death, Butter must make the biggest decision he's ever faced in his 16 years on planet Earth—live or die.
With a premise as shocking as that one, you just know Butter (available September 18, 2012), a debut novel by Arizona journalist Erin Jade Lange, is going to be one of those disturbing, no-holds-barred kind of stories. And it is. It's also sensitive, thought-provoking and, ultimately, empowering. Anyone who's ever struggled to accept themselves as they are (and, really, who hasn't?) will sympathize with Butter. He's funny, talented and self-deprecating—the kind of person everyone would love, if only they could look past the extra pounds to see the kid beneath the fat. The fact that our hero is contemplating suicide (an act I find unforgivably selfish) does diminish him as a character for me, especially since the decision to kill himself seems to pop up out of nowhere. Still, I devoured Butter's story, as anxious as anyone to find out what he'd do in the end. I had a few issues with the novel (of course I did). Overall, though, I enjoyed this modern take on the old dying-to-fit-in story. It offers a little something different—and I like that.
(Readalikes: a little bit like Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher)
Grade: B-
If this were a movie, it would be rated: R for strong language and depictions of underrage drinking
To the FTC, with love: I received an e-ARC of Butter from the generous folks at Bloomsbury Children's Books via Netgalley. Thank you!
Monday, January 14, 2008
Fat Girl Deeply Disturbing, Absolutely Riveting
Basically, the book is a memoir chronicling Moore's life as an overweight girl and woman. From the beginning, she is frank, saying:
Narrators of first-person claptrap like this often greet the reader at the door with moist hugs and complaisant kisses. I won't. I will not endear myself. I won't put on airs. I am not that pleasant. The older I get the less pleasant I am.And she's right. She is not pleasant. Not at all. She describes - coldly and bitterly - what it is like to be an overweight woman. From the injury of insults shouted by teenage boys, to the pain of not fitting into plus-sized pantyhose to the horror on a friend's face when she says she's in love with him, Moore tells it all. Still, in the first third of the book, I found her to be a mean, unlikeable narrator.
When Moore begins talking about her childhood, however, I couldn't stop reading. It was heartbreaking. Sad. And undeniably compelling. She endured a bleak childhood, unloved by her mother and abandoned by her father. Starved for love, she turned to food. If that sounds cliche, she offers other - more disturbing - examples of how emotionally scarred she was:
I began to chew my fingernails. I turned into a voracious eater whose meal was herself. I ripped and I tore at the flesh around my child nails; I licked, delicately and hungrily, at the blood that popped up in bright droplets at my chubby fingers' ends. I ate myself raw. (123)The majority of the book reads like this, describing how lonely and painful she was as a child. The only glimmers of happiness in her life are imagined or real, but short-lived. She talks about the months she lived with her kind uncle, a joyous respite that was cut short when her cancer-stricken grandmother came to live with him. Life in the once happy house soon turned terrifying for young Judith, who had to sit by her mean-spirited Grammy, listening to the woman whimper, "I hurt" and "I don't want to die."
I hoped things would look up for Judith, but they didn't. She grew from an unhappy girl into an unhappy woman. In the book's forward, Moore promises not to sugar coat anything. And she doesn't. She swears, "Rockettes will not arrive on the final page and kick up their high heels and show their petticoats" (2-3), and they don't. Fat Girl does not have a nice, triumphant ending. What it does have is truth, truth so real that it hurts.
Judith Moore's writing is interesting. I mentioned that she isn't a warm and engaging storyteller. She is frank. She is honest. But, she is also coldly matter-of-fact. Her sentences are often awkward, like this one: "Uncle Carl, I don't know where he was, but we were not having the family meal with him" (176). In contrast, she offers brutal, but strong descriptions like this one about her maternal grandmother:
She was the Nazi of the barnyard, entirely businesslike in these procedures, and it seemed not to bother her when blood soaked her apron and blood dried in splotches on her bare arms and legs and in the folds of her neck. "If you want to eat you got to kill," she said, when I ran in fright from her.You can see how ambivalent I am about this book. In one way, it is repulsive in its revelations of hate and abuse (and in several descriptions of sexual acts); in another, it is both compelling and moving. It is well-written in some respects, not so much in others. I couldn't stop reading, but I don't think I would have finished the book if I hadn't chosen it for the Triple 8 Challenge. I'm not even sure if I would recommend it to a friend. Is it angry? Yes. Is it disturbing? Yes. Is it riveting? Absolutely. Am I encouraging you to read it? Not really. I wish I could be more decisive, but I just can't. It's deeply disturbing, utterly heartbreaking, and absolutely riveting.
Grade: C
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