The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

Summary:
Fifteen-year-old Virginia Shreves feels like a plus-size black sheep in her picture-perfect family, especially next to her star-athlete big brother, Byron. Not to mention that her best friend, Shannon, has moved across the country, leaving Virginia to navigate an awkward budding relationship with Froggy Welsh the Fourth all alone. Froggy might like her now, but she has her doubts about how he’ll react if he ever looks under all her layers of clothes.
In order to survive, Virginia decides to follow the Fat Girl Code of Conduct, and it seems to work-until a shocking act causes the Shreves family façade to crumble. As Virginia’s world spins out of orbit, she realizes that being true to herself might be the only way back.
Review:
I picked this book up from BookOutlet at the end of 2018 after seeing it talked about in the last live show of the year for the Booksplosion book club. I joined reading along with some of my favorite booktubers toward the end of the year, so I missed quite a few books they read this year. After I saw them talk about their books, I found a few of them on BookOutlet and figured I’d give them a try.
I ended up really enjoying this book. I went into the story without any expectations. I didn’t even read the synopsis before picking this up. But it was short and it fits for Contemporary January. I found myself flying through this story so quickly. I was entertained and quickly invested in Virginia.
There were times I didn’t like the story because Virginia was doing some unhealthy shit to attempt to lose weight and I didn’t appreciate that, but I think it was realistic and written well. The negatives were acknowledged and Virginia even talks about how she knows she shouldn’t be doing what she’s doing but she wants to lose weight fast instead of making sure to eat right and exercise. I think this story was an excellent conversation about weight and familial expectations and putting both of those aside to be happy with yourself and your own choices.
I really enjoyed the second half of this book the most. Virginia starts to stand up for herself and for what she wants. She starts doing things to better her life and makes better choices. I enjoyed seeing her grow and develop into a person that does what’s best for herself. I liked seeing her be able to stand up to her family and tell them how they make her feel and how their expectations weigh on her.
Overall, I liked this story. It was fun and entertaining. I liked our main character and I really enjoyed seeing her character growth. This was a great story about learning to love yourself, but also how to make better choices and do the things that you really enjoy.

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.

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