Massive
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Weight has always been a big issue in Carmen's life. Not surprising when her mum is obsessed with the idea that thin equals beauty, thin equals success, thin equals the way to get what you want. And somehow her daughter is going to be thin.
When her mother sweeps her off to live in the city, Carmen finds her old world disappearing. With everything to gain and absolutely nothing to lose. Carmen starts to ask: if she was thin, very thin, could it all be different?
A new cover edition of Julia Bell's critically acclaimed YA novel, Massive, published to coincide with the release of Julia's new book, The Dark Light
'Bell's debut novel is tough, grimy and truthful as it looks at three women in the same family with food problems' Guardian
'. . . boldly yet sensitively explores complex interactions between emotional and nutritional needs . . . perceptive and disturbing' Bookseller
'. . . told with sympathy and humour . . . manages to be enjoyable as well as thought-provoking' Big Issue
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this disturbing story from a British novelist, a teen battles an eating disorder with only a bulimic mother as a role model. Carmen has more on her plate than she can handle with her undernourished, bone-thin mother watching every morsel that passes Carmen's lips. Her first-person narrative begins with a generous dose of humor: "At fourteen I already know this much about my own destiny. If she wanted me to be tall and skinny she should have given me a different name." Carmen and Brian who has been a father to her since she was three, when he married her mother share a mutual attraction for McDonald's and all things fried. But her mother, in perhaps her greatest act of narcissism, uproots Carmen for a "career move" selling clothing in her native Birmingham. Carmen's mother packs them up while Brian is on a business trip, and Carmen loses the only person who loves her unconditionally. As time goes on, the narrative tone grows as sober as the teen's situation, and readers, like Carmen, will quickly realize there are few people whom the heroine can trust. Passages of Carmen's descriptions of oozing cakes and melting chocolate convincingly take readers into the recesses of the teen's compulsive thoughts. But her mother's tragic demise leaves the heroine alone with her obsession, with no apparent guardian in sight. Only a list of resources for those with eating disorders offers a ray of hope at book's end. Ages 12-up.
