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Anniek's Reviews > Starfish
Starfish
by
by
Anniek's review
bookshelves: 1-2021-releases, 2-middlegrade, 3-contemporary, 3-poetry, fat-mc
Mar 24, 2021
bookshelves: 1-2021-releases, 2-middlegrade, 3-contemporary, 3-poetry, fat-mc
I kind of regret reading this. Since I'm fat myself, I was hoping for an empowering, relatable reading experience. Instead it was a horrible reading experience as I felt like the author went out of their way to include as much triggering material as possible, with hardly anything to balance it out. A book like this is supposed to be empowering and yet here I am, with worse body image issues than I had before. And this is a middlegrade too, how is this safe to read for kids?
My issue isn't necessarily with the fatphobic content, because I know that's realistic for a lot of people. The thing is though, for a book to not be damaging, it needs to have a good balance. And while the main character did get support from a few characters, I don't feel like the horrible abuse she faced from her mother especially was handled enough. Quite honestly, I feel like the only good outcome for this would have been for her dad to divorce her mum and get full custody and she'd never have to see her mother again. I don't see potential for their relationship recovering from this, I think that would damage the MC further. So I really don't feel like the mum was challenged enough. I also don't feel like she actually went through that much learning and changed enough.
I think mainly this book was too short to achieve anything actually meaningful. I feel like it ended before it had done what it set out to do, which is challenge fatphobia and provide an empowering narrative. I wanted to see accountability and most of all I wanted to see the main character grow into herself more. Throughout the book, we don't actually get to know her outside of being a fat girl. And this is intentional - she says in therapy that people focus on her being fat so much that she doesn't know who she is as a person outside of that. I just wish more of her growth could have been focused on finding out things about herself.
As it is, I can't give this book more than 2 stars, as it was a damaging reading experience for me and I don't think it lived up to its potential or achieved what it meant to do.
My issue isn't necessarily with the fatphobic content, because I know that's realistic for a lot of people. The thing is though, for a book to not be damaging, it needs to have a good balance. And while the main character did get support from a few characters, I don't feel like the horrible abuse she faced from her mother especially was handled enough. Quite honestly, I feel like the only good outcome for this would have been for her dad to divorce her mum and get full custody and she'd never have to see her mother again. I don't see potential for their relationship recovering from this, I think that would damage the MC further. So I really don't feel like the mum was challenged enough. I also don't feel like she actually went through that much learning and changed enough.
I think mainly this book was too short to achieve anything actually meaningful. I feel like it ended before it had done what it set out to do, which is challenge fatphobia and provide an empowering narrative. I wanted to see accountability and most of all I wanted to see the main character grow into herself more. Throughout the book, we don't actually get to know her outside of being a fat girl. And this is intentional - she says in therapy that people focus on her being fat so much that she doesn't know who she is as a person outside of that. I just wish more of her growth could have been focused on finding out things about herself.
As it is, I can't give this book more than 2 stars, as it was a damaging reading experience for me and I don't think it lived up to its potential or achieved what it meant to do.
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Reading Progress
March 24, 2021
–
Started Reading
March 24, 2021
– Shelved
March 24, 2021
– Shelved as:
3-poetry
March 24, 2021
– Shelved as:
3-contemporary
March 24, 2021
– Shelved as:
2-middlegrade
March 24, 2021
– Shelved as:
1-2021-releases
March 24, 2021
– Shelved as:
fat-mc
March 24, 2021
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-17 of 17 (17 new)
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This story just makes me feel uncomfortable and traumatised, it is realistic perhaps but that does not mean I enjoyed it (like you, it just makes me feel worse and to despise my parents and their attitude towards my own weight issues even more).
This book was dark. I think the mom should have gone to see a therapist in the end.
Thank you so much for this review. I too was deeply troubled by this book and am wondering why we’re in such a minority?
Kate wrote: "Thank you so much for this review. I too was deeply troubled by this book and am wondering why we’re in such a minority?"Me too, and I even had comments in my book group that the mother meant well and I was being too hard on her, sigh.
I am so sorry this book was triggering for you. I understand your feelings about the mother, in life I don't think the relationship could recover as well. So much damage was done! And the school bullies really didn't get their come-uppence in the book. The ending was open-ended--we really don't know what happens with the mother or the bullies. What we do find out is that Ellie gets the love and help she needs from the caring and loving advocated in her life, and gets the tools to love herself and accept herself, and how to navigate dealing with the bullies in her life. It's a very hard subject, and maybe it should be reclassified as YA rather than J. There are so many kids, adults, etc. going through this right now.
Quick question: What is your opinion on black children having to read books on race in school that contain triggering material about lynching/racial slurs?
That's exactly how I, a fellow fat person (since childhood!) felt reading this. It was too hard. It made me feel really bad. It's NOT because I didn't empathize with the main character - I do!
Beck wrote: "That's exactly how I, a fellow fat person (since childhood!) felt reading this. It was too hard. It made me feel really bad. It's NOT because I didn't empathize with the main character - I do!"Hard and not enough payback for the mother and the siblings!
Phillippa wrote: "Quick question: What is your opinion on black children having to read books on race in school that contain triggering material about lynching/racial slurs?"In elementary school, maybe there should be some choices, but not in high school or at the college level. I am of German background and I certainly never had choices not to read books that basically labelled ALL Germans as Nazis and also never would have considered asking for alternate reading choices.
You hit the nail on the head! There was not enough balance
As a teacher and librarian I think this book was written to let high school students know how their words can impact and hurt others. Her mother was the worst.
I couldn't even finish this book, so I'm glad to see someone else who felt the same way I did about this book.
I'm reading Starfish at the moment and I have to agree... It's a profoundly negative book. It reads like trauma p**n for middlegraders :-/
excellent review, I'm so glad to have read your perspective
So glad to read your review before I bought it for my classroom.
As another fat person (and former fat middle school girl), I have to disagree with this review.
This book can be very triggering, but I personally found it healing to read about such real experiences with bullying and self-image issues--experiences I myself had, and felt very lonely in having. While it would have been nice to see Ellie's problems tied up neatly with a tidy divorce and clear justice brought down on her mom, I think the ending we get is more realistic and empowering.
Ultimately, Ellie's external situations don't really change. Her mom doesn't grow very much; Ellie's still going to face fatphobia in the world. But over the course of the book, Ellie gains the ability to face those obstacles with courage, self-love, grace, and dignity. That internal growth is going to serve her so much better than an external removal of obstacles.
I also thought we DID get to know a lot about Ellie outside of her being fat! We get to see her love of poetry, of dogs, of libraries, of history and nature. She's a good friend and hardworking student.
If I had been able to read this book in middle school, it would have seriously changed my entire view of the world and myself in it. It would have made me feel so much less lonely. I wish I could ship it back to myself circa 2007, but until time travel is possible, I'll just count myself lucky to have it now.