Kris Dinnison

A perfectly amusing and charming tale of high school misfits, bullies and enduring friendship.

There was nothing extraordinary here, we have all the standard high schoolers: a misfit fat girl, her gay best friend, a couple of nerds, the former friend turned queen bitch, some jocks for conflict, and the enigmatic new kid. But a fully fleshed protagonist with an engaging narrative voice, plenty of snappy dialogue, and consistent pacing turned this into a one day read that I didn't want to put down. Maggie's struggles with her weight, her well-intentioned parents and manipulative peers are eminently relatable and when she finally stands up for herself, I wanted to high-five my fictional new friend.

The plot felt a little anemic though; some more plot involvement for supporting characters would have gone a long way (most notably for Cece). Also, too many cookies (which rendered a constant craving in me). But overall, just a lovely little summer read.

Many thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt who kindly provided me with an advance reading copy in a very timely fashion.… (meer)

Told in the first person, the main character of this YA novel is Maggie Nash. Maggie is overweight and always feels as if she is in the outside looking in most of the time. One good thing she has is that her best friend Nash is right there by here side. However, when a new kid named Tom starts school, the two best friends find themselves on the outs with each other for the first time.

I don't know what else to say about this one besides I was pretty bored throughout the book from beginning to end. It was a perfectly serviceable story, however, there was no real push/pull for me while reading it. I just felt mostly irritated by the character of Nash and then severely aggravated by him and then I found myself getting annoyed with the character of Maggie for letting her so-called best friend shut her out over a boy that he had no chance with.

I also thought that the book was just a bit too cliche for me at times. I mean of course Maggie was overweight, and of course Nash was gay. There didn't seem to be much discussion about that besides Maggie lamenting her appearance and her going over how many times Nash has been hurt by having an object of his affection reject him. Maggie I think was supposed to be a deep person, but I just wasn't getting that sense at all. I do get why she was attracted to Tom though. He made her feel seen.

And I am just going to say it. I really really disliked the character of Nash. Nash is gay and has a crush on Tom. However, Tom makes it readily apparent to Maggie and others he is not gay. Just because Nash called "dibs" and man oh man that was annoying, doesn't mean that Maggie and other girls are somehow not allowed to date Tom. Nash acting like Maggie did this great big betrayal I found exhausting to just read about. Nash is definitely a high drama friend that I would ditched years ago, because being around somehow that always has to make it about themselves, it's exhausting. And then you realize that you are not really friends with the person, you are just a sounding board that is forced to listen to them go on and on about themselves.

The writing was okay, but I really didn't like the flow. I think that was because of the fact that Maggie was getting jerked around by Tom from beginning to end, so she had to deal with that, her job, and with Nash shutting her out. By the end of the book I was just ready for this thing to end already.

The ending when it comes just sort of happens. I guess I wanted a new understanding by Nash and Maggie about teenage friendships (most are fleeting and most of us outgrow them) but instead that does not seem to be the message that Ms. Dinnison wanted to portray.… (meer)

Nash is one of the worst characters ever. He's supposed to be the gay best friend, but he is a terrible friend throughout this book. Nash and Maggie are written like outsiders because they're "different." Different meaning they like vinyl records, art, and Rockabilly style. Not exactly the most unusual counter-culture showing here. They LIKE being different and basically look down on all the popular people. I connected with Maggie's relationship with food, her weight, and her mother's (negative) and father's (positive) influence on her self-esteem.

The plot is that they are both attracted to new guy Tom, who seems not only cute, but also nice, indifferent to the high school social structure, and maybe into Maggie. But he seems to flirt with everyone. So, maybe he's too good to be true. I didn't ultimately enjoy this book, and I was disappointed that the book synopsis made me think this would be a story told from two points of view - Maggie's and Nash's - love triangle fight over a bisexual guy. This book was not that. I would not classify this as a LGBTQ book. It's a YA "fat girl" book. A little tired and not one I would recommend.… (meer)