casssmith2022's review against another edition
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I need a part 2
aurorabulgaris's review against another edition
2.0
I love how positive the main character is about her obesity and how accepting she is towards her own body. But my good impressions of her end there. She's insufferably self-centered and entitled, making every situation about her, when it isn't. It was incredibly annoying at times. Overall the book would've been much more enjoyable if Bluebelle was a nicer person. And the gym hype she got right from the get go was a bit of a letdown. As a fat girl who wasn't lucky enough to fall in love with exercise from day one, it's just another disappointment from a book I hoped would be about a fat girl being happy irrelevant of her plus-sizeness.
melindagallagher's review
3.0
I was a little disappointed because I was really looking forward to reading this book. It was so much about food that it was almost gross. BB was loveable, but while she maintained that she didn't care about being fat and that she really liked herself, she really didn't. There is a lot of potential here, but I don't think it completely fulfilled it.
greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Alcohol, Body shaming, Vomit, Animal death, Eating disorder, Pregnancy, Dysphoria, Excrement, Fatphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic friendship
forsythia_phlox's review against another edition
View content warnings before reading review, as it contains excerpts.
I wanted to like this book, honest! I wanted to love it, in fact, because the premise sounded so interesting. A body positive main character? Hell yes! A teenager who needs to get healthier for the sake of her asthma? That was me! A food diary with personality? Unique! The premise reeled me in and the first chapter had me hooked.
I thought I could relate to BB's relationship with food and struggle with health - and that I would enjoy a peek into this character's life. Unfortunately, things began to fall apart very quickly and by the 21% mark I was too mentally exhausted to continue.
And I don't just mean the kind of mentally exhausted that comes with a boring or poorly written book. I mean this book is deeply triggering for me and I quit for the sake of my own mental health. There is nothing "body positive" about the language or events portrayed in the portion I read!
Starting in chapter two, BB ends up being disgustingly, unrealistically harassed by a horrible nurse - and her mother doesn't even defend her! As someone with some major issues dealing with my health because I hate how dehumanized I feel when even an injury from an accident is somehow blamed on weight, I hate that this book is perpetuating those fears of medical professionals.
Here, have a selection of quotes to illustrate:
I wanted to like this book, honest! I wanted to love it, in fact, because the premise sounded so interesting. A body positive main character? Hell yes! A teenager who needs to get healthier for the sake of her asthma? That was me! A food diary with personality? Unique! The premise reeled me in and the first chapter had me hooked.
I thought I could relate to BB's relationship with food and struggle with health - and that I would enjoy a peek into this character's life. Unfortunately, things began to fall apart very quickly and by the 21% mark I was too mentally exhausted to continue.
And I don't just mean the kind of mentally exhausted that comes with a boring or poorly written book. I mean this book is deeply triggering for me and I quit for the sake of my own mental health. There is nothing "body positive" about the language or events portrayed in the portion I read!
Starting in chapter two, BB ends up being disgustingly, unrealistically harassed by a horrible nurse - and her mother doesn't even defend her! As someone with some major issues dealing with my health because I hate how dehumanized I feel when even an injury from an accident is somehow blamed on weight, I hate that this book is perpetuating those fears of medical professionals.
Here, have a selection of quotes to illustrate:
01) “I know you girls. You think because you have such a pretty face you can get away with being very fat?”
02) “Excuse me. Well, you can look pretty in the grave, then.”
03) “See,” says the nurse, “you are selfish for being so fat. You are making your own mother cry.”
04) “Ha! Well, you eat like a feeding machine.”
But it's worse than that. Not only is this nurse a disgusting, horrible bully which misrepresents medical professionals but she she's also large herself and the first black character in the book. Nigerian, apparently.
“You need to lose weight,” the nurse says. Oh, does she have to be so matter-of-fact? It’s like her accent immediately gets more Nigerian. Well, I’ve heard it all before. Yawn. “It will help your asthma.” She is wearing a really nice gold watch. It’s thin and antique-looking; it looks beautiful against her dark skin, like it’s in a velvet box.
Do I really need to explain what's messed up about all of this? I hope not, because I can't articulate how uncomfortable these things make me feel. Then, to top it off, BB has a very unpleasant outlook towards others and partakes in plenty of body shaming. Here's just a small selection of examples:
OBESE? Says the actually QUITE FAT HERSELF nurse.
The nurse celebrates with a smile so hard I see her fillings. They are the colour of sardines. And I absolutely HATE sardines.
It’s all the girls at my school go on about: how to get thinner as quickly and as ferociously as possible. Honestly, they’ll stoop to the wormiest, shallowest, ugliest pits of lowdom to get there and will stop at nothing. And once they’ve done all the starving one can do, overdosed on paracetamol and cranky coffee and nail biting—and their breath stinks like an old fish tank—they’ll binge on 1,000 donuts, cry themselves into a frenzy and do it all over again.
I wish Dad could be the person [the dog] thinks he is….He probably sees Dad like some action-movie-star actor hero…not a broke, grey-haired wiry stick of a man with round tortoiseshell spectacles.
Alicia is always very dehydrated; her lips are always crusty and look like shrinking fried cod. Maybe that’s why she’s always a moody cow, cos she’s so thirsty?
I hold her hair up like how you’re meant to do for a friend but Alicia’s hair is really thin and childish and there isn’t much to grab, and plus, she’s not my friend.
She’s still on the floor. She’s wearing tight jeans, little black kitten heels, a stripy T-shirt. Kind of high-street trying to be French but mostly looking a bit like you work at Pizza Express. The thread’s so cheap it’s already worn on the bust, showing the print of her dotty bra.
Beyond that, BB's attitude toward her weight quickly spiralled from self-love to something grotesquely unhealthy. She, an asthmatic and obese teenager, won't stop swearing she's healthy. She won't stop calling herself fat in ways which aren't actually body-positive or self-confident at all; it feels more like swimming in a pool of vitriol while someone stirs it with a boat paddle that has it's okay because a chubby girl said it carved onto the handle.
“That’s a nice…errr…What is it…a shirt…type thing, shows off your curves.” OH PLEASE. CURVES. You mean thick chub rolls. Thank you very much.
It’s a belly top, so my side fat rolls crinkle out in the gap of the dress.
We giggle. Bellies jolting up and down. Up and down.
I mean, seriously, look at that! This doesn't make me feel good about my own body; it triggers deep self-loathing and reminds me that, yeah, even other overweight people think that lowly of how we look, so of course nobody else will ever think I'm beautiful until I lose weight. And I'm an adult! Imagine how a young teen may feel. (How in the world does language like this work with BB's supposed love of her own body?)
Actually, for that matter, I'm noticing a trend of "body positive" books with plus-size main characters actually just being vehicles for disgusting body shaming and bitter hatred and body dysmorphia-triggering language handwaved away as okay because a fictional "fat" girl said it.
Frankly, this exchange between BB and her sister perfectly sums up how I felt while trying to read the book:
“Why would you say that, anyway? This fat talk is getting so long. It’s all you talk about, fat, fat, fat. You talk about fatness quite a lot for somebody that doesn’t care about being fat.”
“No, I just like to point it out before somebody else points it out to me.”
“ ’K. All I’m saying is, it’s kind of annoying, just get on with it.” Dove licks her thumb. “Like, it’s not the only thing about you.”
All I want is a book where the chubby (or even obese!) main character truly loves herself and doesn't talk herself down and isn't a body shaming bitch to/about others. A book where her (or his! or their!) weight is not the epitome of personality and motivation. It can be a story about weight loss for health, a story about finding love, a story about overcoming bullying - hell, even a story about the zombie apocalypse. I don't care, so long as I'm not given body shaming bullshit with a "body positive" sticker slapped on top or a deeply insecure character who pretends to be confident in their size.
(If anyone reading this knows any books which fit what I want, please don't hesitate to recommend them!)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming
Minor: Racism
managedbybooks's review against another edition
1.0
I went in to this with high hopes, but just within the first 30 pages there were a few racist and homophobic comments and it all turned extremely ableist when a secondary character ends up in a wheelchair.
savannawaddle's review
1.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a complimentary arc of My Ideal Boyfriend is a Croissant by Laura Dockrill in exchange for my honest review.*
tw / a flashback of BB forcing herself to throw up (even using a hanger to complete it) and fatphobic comments. /
This book seems to be mostly meant to be fun, in the beginning it definitely does reference the fat politics when it comes to home doctor’s and the medical field treat fat people. They assume that they’re only sick because they’re fat and don’t look at anything else, or actually treat them like a client.
The character’s arc transitions at the end, after something tragic happens, she begins to lose her appetite and it eventually resolves, but as a thin person I don’t believe I have the right to comment on how that could effect/not effect some within the fat community, so I wanted to make any readers aware.
There is basically no plot (until like half way in) and very character driven, which is usually find but I couldn’t connect with almost any of the characters. However, I did love the sweet relationship between BB and Max and I also enjoyed Dove’s character.
Fat rep is SO IMPORTANT, but this particular book wasn’t for me, and I can’t say if the fat rep was done well or not. It didn’t really keep my attention and bounced back and forth so confusingly. There was a tone shift halfway through the course, and it didn’t work for me. There were some parts that were fun, and BB was overall proud to be who she is and her love of food and life.
tw / a flashback of BB forcing herself to throw up (even using a hanger to complete it) and fatphobic comments. /
This book seems to be mostly meant to be fun, in the beginning it definitely does reference the fat politics when it comes to home doctor’s and the medical field treat fat people. They assume that they’re only sick because they’re fat and don’t look at anything else, or actually treat them like a client.
The character’s arc transitions at the end, after something tragic happens, she begins to lose her appetite and it eventually resolves, but as a thin person I don’t believe I have the right to comment on how that could effect/not effect some within the fat community, so I wanted to make any readers aware.
There is basically no plot (until like half way in) and very character driven, which is usually find but I couldn’t connect with almost any of the characters. However, I did love the sweet relationship between BB and Max and I also enjoyed Dove’s character.
Fat rep is SO IMPORTANT, but this particular book wasn’t for me, and I can’t say if the fat rep was done well or not. It didn’t really keep my attention and bounced back and forth so confusingly. There was a tone shift halfway through the course, and it didn’t work for me. There were some parts that were fun, and BB was overall proud to be who she is and her love of food and life.
smwayne's review
1.0
DNF at 10%. The writing style was not for me. It was super choppy and I did not see the appeal of this book. I will admit, I am not the targeted audience but I feel like this would be extremely triggering to the targeted audience. The characters, especially the adults seemed so much more immature than the actual teenagers and I don't think I could have enjoyed this story.
ankonyx's review against another edition
1.0
It wasn’t good folks. It’s more of a two star book (plot wise) but so many things ticked me off (especially that one excessive scene with the poop ewwwww). It has some good ish messages towards the end, but it’s enveloped in a wrapper of “people in wheelchairs’s life is so sad”. Yayyy :/
Edit 2021: Not ever going to reread this, but I think past me had a lot of issues regarding this that I no longer agree with so I tweaked my review. I might pick up the another book this author has written at some point.
Edit 2021: Not ever going to reread this, but I think past me had a lot of issues regarding this that I no longer agree with so I tweaked my review. I might pick up the another book this author has written at some point.
scherer5127's review against another edition
3.0
I had a love/hate feeling about this book. I loved the voice of Blue Bell (BB), the 16-year-old main character. The book is actually the food diary she is "forced" to write after a visit to the doctor. She is very overweight but sees no need to go on a diet or to try to lose weight. The food diary is a compromise. I liked that. I liked that her mom and her doctor were willing to work with her and not force her. I liked the extreme contrast between BB and her sister Dove. Dove is younger and she spends her days doing parkour all over town. She loves to be on the move while BB loves to enjoy food.
I didn't like how BB reacted to an accident that Dove had. I won't go into details so I don't ruin anything. It isn't a total surprise that Dove gets hurt given that she spends her days jumping off of things. But BB internalizes it and makes it her problem. Maybe that is real for a 16-year-old? The bigger issue for me is the representation that Dove's life was over even though it was a temporary injury.
The moment in the book that I loved the most was when BB was in a spin class and realized that when she exercised, she got an endorphin rush and that her body was able to do so much more than she ever tried. I liked that she never focused on what the scale said, but she did learn to balance her love of food with some more healthy choices.
The book could easily be followed up with a recipe book of all the good food she makes. This book will make you want a snack and a good cup of coffe/latte/chocolate milk!
I didn't like how BB reacted to an accident that Dove had. I won't go into details so I don't ruin anything. It isn't a total surprise that Dove gets hurt given that she spends her days jumping off of things. But BB internalizes it and makes it her problem. Maybe that is real for a 16-year-old? The bigger issue for me is the representation that Dove's life was over even though it was a temporary injury.
The moment in the book that I loved the most was when BB was in a spin class and realized that when she exercised, she got an endorphin rush and that her body was able to do so much more than she ever tried. I liked that she never focused on what the scale said, but she did learn to balance her love of food with some more healthy choices.
The book could easily be followed up with a recipe book of all the good food she makes. This book will make you want a snack and a good cup of coffe/latte/chocolate milk!