13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl

Book 57 of my 2016 Reading Challenge
read from July 09 - 12

13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad

Summary (via Goodreads)
Growing up in the suburban hell of Misery Saga (a.k.a. Mississauga), Lizzie has never liked the way she looks—even though her best friend Mel says she’s the pretty one. She starts dating guys online, but she’s afraid to send pictures, even when her skinny friend China does her makeup: she knows no one would want her if they could really see her. So she starts to lose. With punishing drive, she counts almonds consumed, miles logged, pounds dropped. She fights her way into coveted dresses. She grows up and gets thin, navigating double-edged validation from her mother, her friends, her husband, her reflection in the mirror. But no matter how much she loses, will she ever see herself as anything other than a fat girl? 

My Opinion
This was one of those books I rated highly not because I 'liked' it necessarily but because it was so raw and real in that painfully well-written way that made me not want to read it but have to read it all at the same time.

It wasn't a linear book, more like each chapter was its own short story covering a brief time in Lizzie's life.  She was almost always the narrator but not all the time which made it interesting to see both how she viewed herself and how others saw her - they didn't usually match.

It's not always worth it to get what you want.  The closer Lizzie became to who she wanted to be on the outside, the further away from happiness she seemed to get.

My favorite chapters were "Your Biggest Fan" and "She'll Do Anything", and I liked "If That's All There Is" the least.

Quote from the Book
"Later on I'm going to be really fucking beautiful. I'm going to grow into that nose and develop an eating disorder. I'll be hungry and angry all the time but I'll also have a hell of a time."