Uptown Oracle Reads… Big Bones

Big Bones
Laura Dockrill

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The latest teen novel from the sparkling Laura Dockrill, introducing Bluebelle, and her moving, hilarious take on food, body image and how we look after ourselves and others A heart-warming teen story from the unique voice of Laura Dockrill, about Bluebelle, aka BB, aka Big Bones – a sixteen-year-old girl encouraged to tackle her weight even though she’s perfectly happy, thank you, and getting on with her life and in love with food. Then a tragedy in the family forces BB to find a new relationship with her body and herself. Moving, memorable and hilarious.

Our main character, BB, is a fat girl who has made a deal with her mother and doctor to write a food diary in return for being allowed to drop school and get an apprenticeship. Although for most of the book, I wasn’t sure where it was heading – I really enjoyed the focus on this specific time in a person’s life. I find that I rarely read books about UK teens who are making their big life decisions, and I found this to be so realistic to mine and my friends lives a few years back.

I found Big Bones to have a lot of funny moments, which were often relatable too. But it also covered many different themes and topics that were a bit darker and more complex.

BB is fairly confident in herself and this book shows a lot of body positivity throughout. The book isn’t a journey for BB to lose weight or change the way she looks – but about how she grows mentally to make her decisions. The book itself is very food focused, but this is because we are reading BB’s food diary which develops into more of a journal diary.

Whilst BB is positive about herself being fat – I found her to be very judgemental about everyone else in the book. This was especially hypocritical when she was abrasive to thinner girls – except for her sister. I didn’t enjoy this at all because it sometimes felt like putting down another girl to make herself feel better about herself – which I don’t agree is a good message.

The book has a great focus on BB’s relationships with different people, and I especially loved the complex and often dysfunctional family dynamics. BB’s mum, dad and sister, Dove, were all very different people despite being a family – and this was so carefully written to also show the love they had for one another too. I enjoyed how it also felt very British still – especially because of the relatability of these dynamics in relation to BB making life decisions about school, work, and relationships.

One part I didn’t like was that when an accident happens leaving a character temporarily disabled, the main character makes it about her. I personally thought this was handled badly by BB – and I disliked her reaction a lot. I felt that BB took on all the negative emotions herself, when all the other characters were being more positive.

Overall I found Big Bones to be a nice easy read – although it had some faults coming from me disliking the main character at times.

Positives

• Body positive
• Complex relationships

Negatives

• Poor handling of some topics

I received Big Bones by Laura Dockrill from the publisher via Publisher. This is an unbiased and honest review