A review by dembury
Just As Long As We're Together by Judy Blume

3.0

I've recently been revisiting Blumes work, and something that is just consistently holding them back for me (even if I remembering loving the book as a kid) is the constant fatphobia. I didn't remember it being so bad in this one but at one point it just ramps up and develops a really shitty narrative on 12-13 year-old girls bodies. Like, part of the "happy ever after" aspect is tied to Stephanie losing weight she gained? Her mom sends her with a boiled egg and carrots for lunch while trying to make her do exercise videos? Honestly the other topics and discussions in here are pretty solid, but I definitely wouldn't love putting this in the hands of the target age reader because of the body image aspects.