Book Review: Big Bones

3/5 stars

I had an E-Arc of this book but didn't get to read it before publication.

We follow Bluebelle A.K.A BB A.K.A Big Bones. A body-confident, plus-sized sixteen year old who wants to leave school and get an apprenticeship at the coffee shop Planet Coffee. She has a younger sister, Dove, and parents that are on the brink of an on-off relationship.

Bluebelle is an unlikable character because she is constantly judging other people that are smaller than her while complaining that everyone judges fat people. The only thing that changes her attitude, slightly, is her sister's accident in the second half of the book. After that, she realises she should go to the gym (even though she's completely happy with her body image).

The book is written a food diary and the chapters are titled with each food that she is eating or has a memory attached to.

I annotated a few pages while reading including:

p. 101 BB is making a Shepherd's pie and has written out the recipe (which I want to follow!)

p. 106 Another recipe - this time for egg-fried rice

p. 174 - I feel like this quite often.

Is it just me or does it feel like every girl is secretly on a diet?

I thought we were all in this 'eating what we want when we want' revolution together but I've got a sneaky fear that I'm the only one taking it seriously.

Or maybe even doing it at all.

p. 188 BB gets the bus home from work and I just kind of laughed-out-loud because she was complaining about her thighs chafing. I thought 'You should get some chub rub shorts!' (It's an inside joke, if you follow Louise Pentland!)

p. 349 BB kisses the love interest (spoilers!) and says she feels 'truly beautiful'. I feel like contradicts everything about her self-confidence. She said to begin with that she felt beautiful in her own skin no matter what other people thought... You shouldn't suddenly feel beautiful only because someone has an interest in you. 

p. 367 'if you ever want to get a girlfriend maybe stop being such a sexist pervert?' 

YOU GO, BB!

p. 390 First lines are usually the most important but I loved the last line 'You're a girl. And you can do whatever you want. The whole world belongs to you.'

Many people enjoyed this book for its body positivity and I can see a few things scattered throughout but not 100%. This book wasn't one of my favourites and I was going to DNF it after 100 pages. I'm glad I didn't because the second half improved the whole book. This book won't be at the top of my recommendations list.