From the description, it sounded like All the Bright Places meets Bone Gap -- which sign me the fuck up! But also the main character 'fat-shaming' herself, because of her insecurity, as a direct result of the bullies and other factors. This means that he can’t recognise faces, so his brothers, friends and even himself are complete strangers. He's the guy who can re-engineer and rebuild anything, but he can't understand what's going on with the inner workings of his own brain. And the fact that she's supposedly "[rejoining] the human race" is shaming the girl for her weight because it's implying that she's lazy or a sloth or to blame somehow for her size - it diminishes her worth as a person.

My new title will be high school junior, which, let's face it, sounds a lot better than America's Fattest Teen. Definitely not here for the horrible, weight shaming premise noted for this book on GR (I'm speaking as a woman who's struggled with weight issues most of my life, but yet I've worked with overweight kids/teens in the past in my educational field of sports medicine. At first I wasn't going to say anything but then the comments and review updates on here and Twitter started to really hit a nerve with me. It seemed like Jennifer Niven spent the whole time trying to convince me these characters were interesting, rather than them actually being interesting.Hearing the main character struggled with self-esteem and body issues made me think I was going to relate to her. It plays into the bullying and belittling dialogues about people who are overweight rather than allowing people to love themselves for who they are, no matter their weight. It's my experience that the people who are most afraid are the ones who hide behind mean and threatening words.

Jennifer is currently at work on her fourth and fifth novels for young adults, with number three— Breathless— coming out September 29. You’ll read teens who actually sound like teens and have their share of dickish moments and you’ll get to experience a relatable first crush rather than instalove and laugh out loud when Libby says things like: “I want to lean in and get a whiff of him and rest my head on his should or maybe make out with his neck” while slow dancing with a boy. I loved how much detail was put into the side characters – Jack’s little brother Dusty was by far my favourite character. It's thoughts of her mother, the things she taught her, the sayings she had, that informed Libby's actions and keep her going, as well as what she thinks her mother would say to her about certain situations if she was still alive. My main problem with her is that she really does not want to be known as the fat girl anymore but she’s CONSTANTLY talking about it.I applaud that she shows how the two teens with these unique experiences come together in a relationship of some form (again: bare bones intention of the narrative). i mean, i really like the idea of the story and how wholesome it could have been - i think diverse representation is something that can always be appreciated. Besides, there’s a part I absolutely love and it’s when Libby leaves her favorite book, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, on a bench in the park for someone—anyone—to pick it up. To show he’s not a coward, he accepts the challenge reluctantly and is rewarded by a punch in the mouth from her. He didn’t humiliate her as others did and he truly saw her as a person, a nice and funny and trust-worthy person.