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A review by readerpants
If the Dress Fits by Carla de Guzman
Ooof, I just... had a hard time with parts of this. I was excited that it was framed as a fat-pos romance set in the Philippines with an #ownvoices author... and while parts of it worked super well for me, others were not so great.
I liked:
-The setting and sense of place
-The role that her strong extended family played, with each family member fleshed out rather than being an afterthought
-how SUPER into her the dudes were, especially Max (and I read the bonus story from his POV, which made me really happy)
- her adorable fashion & shameless enjoyment of great clothes making her feel good
-Max
I had a hard time with the juxtaposition of "I love my body! I wouldn't want to change it!" and CONSTANT -- like, nearly every page -- loaded descriptors and negative body self-talk. In terms of show-don't-tell, the heroine spent an enormous amount of time verbally attacking her body, even more than the folks around her. I can't think of a single moment when she looked at her body and described it as soft, welcoming, warm, solid, pretty, any of the positive descriptors that the hero (who's obviously attracted to her) would have used, or that she would have used if she were describing her attraction to herself or another fat person. She *tells* us a lot that she likes her body, but I can't think of a single point where she *shows* it.
I think maybe all of this would have been easier to swallow if the narrative was told from the hero's POV... maybe through that filter or at that remove, it wouldn't feel like such a barrage of little attacks.
I'm not sure that this is necessarily a criticism of the book's quality or the author's skill, and I definitely hope she keeps writing and publishing because I look forward to reading more! It feels a lot like older queer books that are filled with homophobia, both internalized and external... maybe it's better than no rep at all, or maybe it isn't. Maybe a kid or an adult is in the right place to engage with that, especially recognizing and engaging with internalized homophobia, or maybe they're too vulnerable to engage with that right then. Maybe they don't even recognize it. But it's worth being cautious when recommending it, because a reader who's grappling with a lot of body-hatred may have a very different, painful experience reading the book than a reader who's at a different place.
I liked:
-The setting and sense of place
-The role that her strong extended family played, with each family member fleshed out rather than being an afterthought
-how SUPER into her the dudes were, especially Max (and I read the bonus story from his POV, which made me really happy)
- her adorable fashion & shameless enjoyment of great clothes making her feel good
-Max
I had a hard time with the juxtaposition of "I love my body! I wouldn't want to change it!" and CONSTANT -- like, nearly every page -- loaded descriptors and negative body self-talk. In terms of show-don't-tell, the heroine spent an enormous amount of time verbally attacking her body, even more than the folks around her. I can't think of a single moment when she looked at her body and described it as soft, welcoming, warm, solid, pretty, any of the positive descriptors that the hero (who's obviously attracted to her) would have used, or that she would have used if she were describing her attraction to herself or another fat person. She *tells* us a lot that she likes her body, but I can't think of a single point where she *shows* it.
I think maybe all of this would have been easier to swallow if the narrative was told from the hero's POV... maybe through that filter or at that remove, it wouldn't feel like such a barrage of little attacks.
I'm not sure that this is necessarily a criticism of the book's quality or the author's skill, and I definitely hope she keeps writing and publishing because I look forward to reading more! It feels a lot like older queer books that are filled with homophobia, both internalized and external... maybe it's better than no rep at all, or maybe it isn't. Maybe a kid or an adult is in the right place to engage with that, especially recognizing and engaging with internalized homophobia, or maybe they're too vulnerable to engage with that right then. Maybe they don't even recognize it. But it's worth being cautious when recommending it, because a reader who's grappling with a lot of body-hatred may have a very different, painful experience reading the book than a reader who's at a different place.