Good Luck with That by Kristan Higgins
Penguin Random House: 8/7/18
eBook review copy; 480 pages
paperback ISBN-13:
9780451489395
Good Luck with That by Kristan Higgins is a controversial woman's
novel dealing with body image and self-acceptance. Recommended, but
highly for fans of Chick Lit and romance novels.
Emerson,
Georgia, and Marley have been best friends ever since they met at a
weight-loss camp as teens. When Emerson dies from complications due to
her weight she leaves her best friends an envelope with a note. The note
is actually a list they made at their last year of fat camp. The list
is title "Thing's We'll Do When We're Skinny" and consists of: go
running in tight clothes and a sports bra; get a piggyback-ride from a
guy; be in a photo shoot; eat dessert in public; tuck in a shirt; shop
at a store for regular people; have a cute guy buy you a drink; meet a
guys parents; tell off people who had a problem with you being fat.
Georgia and Marley decide to tackle the list and along with dealing with
their poor self-image, they also tackle other, deeper issues. Marley
has had survivor's guilt ever since her twin sister died when they were
four. Georgia has dealt with a hyper-critical mother and a critical
angry brother. The two need to tackle these concerns along with other
complicated relationship issues.
The narrative alternates between chapters told from the first person
point of view of Georgia, Marley, and Emerson (through excerpts from her
journals). They are in their very early 30's now and the list was
written when I originally thought they were probably around 13, but
later the book said 18. Okay, like many reviewers I've never been the
skinny perfect girl these women dream about, but I would have never
written such a list at 18, fat thighs and big butt or not. Why would
these women follow a list they made as teens as if it is important and
life changing?
It must also be said that I didn't know about the controversy surround
this novel until after I read it. If I had known that the bulk of the
novel would consist of so much weight-based insecurity and recalling
fat-shaming events, I would have skipped reading it for review. The blurb does not
focus so much on their weight issues, which likely isn't all that bad for
Marley and not at all for Georgia. Why even make weight and fat shaming the focus when the root of everything was from
much deeper emotional issues? This is also very much Chick Lit and these
two women are somehow incomplete without a man. Yeah, it's normal to
want a relationship with other people, but get mentally healthy, accept
yourself, and make a life for yourself. (The men in this novel are not
worth the trouble, by the way. With Marley's brother and Georgia's
nephew being the exceptions, none of the rest of them are worth the
consideration or any concentrated effort anyway.)
It became very clear early on that this was not the novel for me, which
begs the question:
Why did I keep reading it? Admittedly, I did have to soldier through
during several parts of the novel. At a hefty 480 pages, some editing
might have been in order. The quality of the writing is quite good,
which helped me get through the parts that annoyed me. For its flaws, Good Luck with That
is
an interesting book and does handle with compassion and insight the
fat/body shaming women go through. (Men too, by-the-way, which was never
mentioned.) The characters are portrayed as real people and
their emotions and insecurities are presented as heartfelt and
authentic. She does give her characters emotional growth
and there is closure to the plot points at the end. It is a solid 3.5,
rounded up for the right reader, down for me. (I should have followed my
personal rule to avoid [most] Chick Lit and Romance novels, but I did
enjoy another one of Higgins's novels and wanted to give her another
try.)
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Penguin Random House
via Netgalley.
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