Fat Witch Summer by Lizzy Ives

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you!

4/5 stars 

Thrash lives in a world where witches are given one of three main Gifts when they show their Knack/magical potential. Glamour, Sight or Growth. Her mom is a top ranked Glamour witch, her late mum had Sight. Osmarra wants Thrash to have Glamour like her even if it's just so she can "fix" her imperfections aka her fatness. Thrash however is drawn to Sight.

An opportunity arises when Cresca, one of the cool girls at school, witnesses the manifestation on Thrash's Knack and invites her on a road trip with her and her friends Saki and Em to get Gifts of their own.

Thrash is understandably worried, she doesn't know these girls, how are they going to get along? There are a few false starts but eventually everything comes together.

I loved the story but I would have liked a little more world-building in story although there is a handy brief history at the end of the book. I also would have liked a bit more character development, it felt like we didn't really get to know Em and Saki as much.

Also petty thing but I loved that Thrash was a fat character and she was OK with that up until the same old anti-swimwear vibe that just feels old.

Stef Out x 

Jemima Small versus the Universe by Tamsin Winter

 

4/5 stars

Jemima Small is 12 going on 13. She is super smart, science and maths are her specialities but she knows a lot about a lot. Her body image is however not great. She's fat and the kids at school and even members of the public will not let her forget about it.

Then comes a weigh-in in science class, a remarkably cruel thing for a school to sanction, especially in front of peers, the results of which lead Jemima to be invited to fat club. Jemima dreads it but it turns out that Gina who runs it is actually kind of nice and not at all weight loss obsessed but more concerned with overall wellbeing, including mental wellbeing.

Alongside this Jemima has a chance to star on her favourite smart kids TV quiz show but will she let her body worries get in the way?

This was a super cute, quick read. It was let down slightly by the mum thing being brushed over so quickly, the ending felt a little abrupt and there were also a few Harry Potter references which dated things slightly, especially as there were no other pop culture references.

Stef Out x

No Big Deal by Bethany Rutter

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

4/5 stars

Emily is 17 years old and in her final year of school. University is looming and she feels stuck compared to her friends, especially in terms of relationships. As a self-described fat girl Emily is confident and fashionable and largely unbothered by her weight but with her mother constantly on a diet and picking at her about her weight, and a best friend returning from holiday having lost weight only to immediately get a boyfriend, she starts to lose faith in herself. But then she meets Joe. They connect over music and things seem to be going well but is everything as it seems?

This was a lovely, fast, easy read and I loved Emily! It is so rare to see fat characters in books and even rarer for them to not be obsessed with losing weight. For Emily that was her mum and it was sad to see how she let her obsession damage their relationship, though thankfully not irreparably.

I loved how Emily grew over the story and assured herself that she was worthy. The only thing is that Emily's friends could have been fleshed out a little more.

Stef Out x

This Can Never Not Be Real by Sera Milano

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

3/5 stars

I think that this is a book that will require a physical reread at some point. The formatting of who was saying what appeared to be a little mixed up in my eBook version, though I know you can't expect perfection in ARCs. I also don't know if I absorbed it as effectively as I could have.

It's a very unusual book. It's an as it happens narration of the experience of 5 teenagers (only 4 narrate the vast majority) as they try to survive a terrorist mass shooting event. They all attend the same school but none really interact normally yet are thrown together by fate.

I think claustrophobic is a good way to describe this book. Not just because of the hiding in small spaces but because 98% of the book was just this one event. I think I would have liked to have read more from the outside. Not from the terrorists themselves, I completely understand the author's decision on that front, no the police officers and the families on the outside, how did they find out, how did they feel? All we got were a couple of brief police reports that could have been expanded on.

I did like the writing style and would definitely read more by the author, I'd particularly love a sequel to see how the characters are sometime down the line.

Stef Out x