Review Detail

I had no idea that I was due to review this book. I won it from Young Adult Books Central way back in December, and completely forgot about it because I never received it.

Well, one night I was going to check on my dog, Delilah, before I went to sleep. She sleeps in the laundry room at the back of the house. My house just so happens to be down a long driveway in the middle of the woods in the deep south of Louisiana, surrounded by fields and built up on a hill.

So I walk into the room and see Delilah standing up, tail pointed back, staring directly at the door that leads to the garage. Now, she’s a big dog. Easily weighs 40 pounds, but thinks she weighs 10. (No really. She thinks she is a puppy. She’ll be the first one to lie across my lap while I’m reading outside.) And to see her wolf-like frame, completely still, watching the door like a bone is floating just outside the threshold, scared the living daylights out of me.

It’s pitch black outside the small window that fits in the door and I can’t see a damn thing. So, being the realistic person I am, I ask Delilah what’s wrong. (Yup, the first thing I do is ask the dog what is going on.) And she doesn’t even move a muscle. Neither do I as I refuse to step another foot into the room that I’m certain is haunted now.

Then I hear a scream from outside. (Ya'll, if I wasn’t scared then, I am now.) And I run to my dad and tell him that there is a murderer outside the house! (“Always jumping to conclusions, Emily.” is what he was probably thinking.) But even though I am 21, my dad went to investigate. Just like he still does when I tell him there is a spider on the ceiling.

Turns out there is a Budget rent a car sitting in our drive way that is being driven by a very nice lady employed by FedEx. (How none of us heard her drive up is beyond me. Or that none of our 6 dogs barked. Great guard dogs, eh?) And she just so happens to be afraid of frogs. Of course, our open garage is full of those little green tree frogs that croak day and night, calling for the rain. So a frog jumps on her while she is trying to find her way to our door at midnight on a Saturday and she screams bloody murder, prompting me to go find my dad, thus ending this miniature horror flick.
(And it seemed like a total horror movie at the time! FedEx van breaks down so she has to borrow a rental to go to a house in the middle of nowhere. To deliver a book to a 21 year old girl who was completely oblivious to the fact that she had any packages coming to her and was more involved in Candy Crush than listening to vehicles come up and down our driveway.)

So yeah, I was completely surprised when I saw it was addressed to me. And absolutely ecstatic when I found that it was this book, accompanied by a pack of M&M’s.

And now I will read and hope that is just as good as the way that I received it.

SO. I'm done. I finished while curled up in bed, all sickly, and was almost in tears. (Not because of the cold I contracted from night swimming, but the book.)

It got to me. And I'm sure it will get to anyone who has ever had any low self body image (and we all have). Not just about weight, but anything that lowers our self esteem.

As this book states more than once (more elegantly that I can), it is only once you are happy with your own self that you can appreciate how others see you as well.

I related closely to Ann and her situation. I've struggled with my own body image for years, and I also felt self conscious loads of times in my teenage years. It's nice to have a support group though. Raynee was great and Jon was adorable. Ann's mom drove me crazy and I really wanted to wring her neck a time or two.

But other than her, this book is great for any young lady struggling with body image issues.