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breeisreading_'s review
hopeful
inspiring
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
3.25
Obviously written for teenage readers, but a message that can resonate no matter how old you are. Very teeny and YA, but I liked the characters explored, it felt like it could be a teen coming of age film.
Emily was a great character, so tough and sure of herself and confident, and seeing her grow into herself even more throughout the book was great to see. I loved the relationships explored with her friends and parents, and with Joe as well.
I wish this book could have been longer perhaps and given us more of Emily and Ravi at the end, but I understand that romance is not the focus of the book.
Emily was a great character, so tough and sure of herself and confident, and seeing her grow into herself even more throughout the book was great to see. I loved the relationships explored with her friends and parents, and with Joe as well.
I wish this book could have been longer perhaps and given us more of Emily and Ravi at the end, but I understand that romance is not the focus of the book.
caenerys's review
3.0
I definitely enjoyed this and the concept was amazing, though I did have a few issues with it. Not the best read and the writing could definitely do with some work, but overall the story is really empowering and I think that it could be really great for a lot of teens to see them represented in such a way.
achilleanshelves's review
3.0
The main character had such an amazing killer confidence that was very refreshing to see in the YA landscape of insecurity. While the ending was a little flawed, in my opinion, this was a funny and highly enjoyable book.
niinalukeekirjoi's review
4.0
Olipas jotenkin ihana ja positiivinen lukukokemus. :-3
"Life is long and kind of boring sometimes. One of the best ways to make your time on earth suck less is to surround yourself with cool people. People who make you happy. People who you have fun with. People who make you feel important. And you're super smart and interesting, and you want cool things for yourself, and that kind of narrows down the pool of people who you'll accept into your life."
"Life is long and kind of boring sometimes. One of the best ways to make your time on earth suck less is to surround yourself with cool people. People who make you happy. People who you have fun with. People who make you feel important. And you're super smart and interesting, and you want cool things for yourself, and that kind of narrows down the pool of people who you'll accept into your life."
chalkletters's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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? No
3.75
After being slightly disappointed in Dumplin' (though I do love the film adaptation), I've been low-key on the lookout for other books with positive portrayals of plus-size main characters. I picked this up at my local station's free bookshelf (whence it shall probably return) and have just been waiting for a gap in my reading schedule to read it.
First, and most important, things first: Emily is so much more consistent than Willowdean! She does go through ups and downs in terms of her self-image, but those always follow on from events in the plot, making them logical, and she's much more coherent in her narration about why she feels the way she feels, even when she knows her feelings aren't 100% rational. Emily's character developments follows a genuine trajectory, one which is satisfying from beginning to end.
Perhaps the price of all this internal consistency and self-focus is that No Big Deal's secondary characters aren't drawn as strongly as they could be. Emily has friends, characters that don't feel like cardboard cutouts and that do have their own lives and their own stories happening in the background, but they just don't get enough attention to have particularly developed personalities. Abi is positive, Camila is calming, Ella and Sophia are girlfriends — that's about it. Emily's family fares better, perhaps because their lives don't markedly change during the course of the story. (Sidenote: Emily's mum's story is just heartbreaking. Sequel?)
The romantic plot line works very well: the turns it takes feel realistic, without being so predictable that you can see them coming a mile off. The climax evoked the brutal plot twist in Girls Out Late, or the moment in Hairspray when Link tells Tracey the adventure is 'a little too big'. (Plus-size readers, what are the moments in fiction that hit you in the solar-plexus like these?) As in It Only Happens in the Movies, the ending is more complicated, but feels more rewarding, than a simple happily-ever-after.
The whole of No Big Deal feels like Bethany Rutter's love letter to teens and young adults struggling with their size in society. At times, that did mean that it came across just a little heavy-handed, but in a way that felt worth it, and wasn't unpleasant to read.
I'd thoroughly recommend No Big Deal to anyone interested in this style of book!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming and Fatphobia
itskatie_b's review
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
libraryofdani's review
5.0
it’s been a long time since i’ve read a book in a day, but i couldn’t put this down. so so good. i wish i had this book during my teenage years!
craftychelc's review
4.0
I wish teenage me had had this book so I could have learned to love myself like Emily loves herself. I knew exactly how she felt with her mum constantly projecting her own insecurities, but I didn't have the true self-worth that Emily does. I found that really inspiring! I never had the confidence to be exactly who I was and to not give two fucks about what everyone thought. With more (fictional!) role models like Emily in the world, I would have understood that being fat wasn't all there was to me. Luckily, we seem to very slowly becoming less fatphobic on a whole, but there's still a way to go.
"I’m not just a tragic fat loser. I’m a cool fat babe." < put this on my tombstone!!
I found some elements a little cliched, but overall, a really great step in the right direction.
"I’m not just a tragic fat loser. I’m a cool fat babe." < put this on my tombstone!!
I found some elements a little cliched, but overall, a really great step in the right direction.