Hello friends! This month's book is Big Fat Manifesto by Susan Vaught.
Jamie is a senior in high school and, like so many kids in that year, doing too much ”including trying to change the world” and fighting for her rights as a very fat girl. And not quietly: she's writing a column every week in the paper with her thoughts and fears and annoyances. As her column raises all kinds of questions she must find her own private way in her world, with love popping up in an unexpected place, and satisfaction in her size losing ground to real frustration.
Susan Vaught is tapping into her own experience losing weight, her training as a psychotherapist, and the current fascination in the media for teens who are trying drastic weight-loss measures including surgery, this searing and hilarious prose will grip readers of all sizes, leaving them eager to hear more. - summary taken from goodreads.com
Trigger Warning!!! We would like to notify our readers that this book contains eating disorders and fatphobia.
Pre-Read Thoughts:
Michaela: I have never read a book like this one. I usually tend to avoid books that have to do with eating disorders, and the like, because it ends up being hard for me to read. Having been plus size for my entire life, I find books about characters who are 'overweight' or 'fat' to often be untrustworthy because so often its about a fat girl, who usually is not actually plus size, becoming skinny and all of a sudden she's beautiful now. Or she's just the funny sidekick and never the main character. But this book is written by Susan Vaught who has actual educational training on this subject and has her own personal experiences to jump off of for this book. I'm excited to read a book from the mind of someone who knows the struggles of existing in a world where plus size or fat people go unconsidered and ridiculed.
Jacilyn: When Michaela and I discussed what book we wanted to do this month, I really wanted to read a book with a fat protagonist. Both of us have been in the process of de-programing the fatphobic mindset that has been integrated into us by societal standards, and it was important to me that Shelf Explored tackle this topic and give more visibility to books where the fat character isn't just a sidekick. Personally, this journey through my own internal fatphobia has been difficult and painful, and I expect some of what we read in this book might cause similar feelings, but the end result is liberation and I am looking forward to reading a book with a protagonist that I might be able to relate to more than I usually do.
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