Sasha Paley

Fatties at camp — while not a new idea, an interesting one all the same. Sasha Paley’s “Huge” first caught my attention with the great cover art and title — I mean, come on, a huge so-more and “Welcome to fat camp” makes it a definite must read for fatties everywhere.

Upon opening the book, two very one-dimensional characters greet me: Wil — a rich teen that is forced to go to camp by her parents and April — a poor, fat teen that has saved all her money to go away to camp with no support from her mom. These two opposites get paired to be roommates at Wellness Canyon, a very pricey fat camp.

This seems like a great opportunity for hijinks and lots of drama — and oh, is there.

And while it is a fun ride, the book precedes to quickly snowball in the last ten pages or so into a horrible mess. The author basically chucks the mood of the entire book to deliver a touchy-feely ending that seems so detached and leaves me wishing the last ten pages didn’t happen.

NOTE: This book is not about size acceptance. The author seems to want everyone to be the same size, much less the same person. Tagline of the book should be changed to “If you were skinny, you’d be happy.”… (plus d'informations)

Reviewed by Jocelyn Pearce for TeensReadToo.com

HUGE deals with a topic that is apparently in the media more and more these days (though I myself haven't seen it much): fat camp.

Wellness Canyon is a high-end fat camp where two very different girls, April and Wil, are paired as roommates. April has saved all year for this, despite a lack of support from her mom. She wants to lose some weight and gain the popularity she's always wanted. Wil wants to be anywhere but Wellness Canyon. Her wealthy parents have sent her there, as she's a public relations nightmare: they own the high-profile chain of Excalibur Gyms. Wil's revenge on them is to enter Wellness Canyon with a huge stash of sweets and be the first kid in camp history to actually gain weight while there.

Of course, as it's full of teenagers with raging hormones, there's more than weight loss going on at Wellness Canyon. When April and Wil start crushing on the same guy, football-playing hottie Colin, their relationship gets even more tense. Can they make it through the summer together and maybe even become friends?

A lot of HUGE is your typical summer camp story. Sasha Paley does a great job of creating at least two fleshed-out, interesting characters, though some secondary characters sometimes seem a little flat. Paley is a talented writer, but the popular-kids-are-mean message is maybe a little heavy, and, despite what the back cover says about learning to accept yourself, I felt like she was saying that being skinny is better than being fat, even if she never came out and said it.

Despite this, though, HUGE is a fairly satisfying read, and I'm looking forward to seeing what Sasha Paley writes next!… (plus d'informations)