Cindy's Reviews > Big Summer

The first half had the potential to be a decent chick lit story - it had a lot of focus on social media influencers, frenemies drama, and body image discussions with a plus-sized protagonist. I would have given it 3 stars if it were just that, but the latter is where the story suffers as we abruptly shift over to a mystery. I actually am intrigued by the idea of switching genres halfway through a book, but the execution wasn’t great because it was clear that the author is better at writing chick lit than a mystery or thriller. Another reviewer compared it to Scooby Doo, which I find accurate - we watch the protagonist become an amateur sleuth and go on a journey with two sidekicks, a cheesy detective, and a cartoonish villain who gladly gives exposition about how and why they did it.

I didn’t care for any of the characters. The protagonist constantly comments on her weight, self-deprecates, and compares herself to others. This behavior, while realistic and understandable for a lot of people, gets repetitive and tiring to read, especially when it seems like you can’t read any fat character without them CONSTANTLY feeling bad about themselves. At least in “One to Watch” it was more purposeful and realistic considering that protagonist’s circumstances, but in this one, I really wish there was more to her character other than struggling with her self-esteem, body image, and dealing with her bitchy skinny frenemy. It seems like such low-hanging fruit of a narrative. She didn’t even really get a decent romance, since we were thrown right into insta-love.

As for the frenemy, the entire plot hinges upon her somehow having a magnetic effect on the protagonist and everyone else. She didn’t have that effect on me at all, since it’s obvious she’s a stereotypical vapid influencer. Even when the book tries to make her sympathetic or give her depth, I still could not bother to care. The frenemies relationship just felt like white girl drama to me.

Speaking of which, I have mixed feelings about a very dramatic scene in the story where she has a conversation with an Asian character, who laments about being the only Asian person in a predominantly white place, how their family worked so hard to get them to America, and how important it was to be an American, but now their parents were ashamed of them because of that character’s academic failures. Aside from the stereotypical Asian-American background story, the protagonist replies that she knows what it’s like to be different as well, because she is a fat girl. The Asian character argues that is not the same, but the protagonist insists that she has suffered too and that everyone suffers in their own way. The main character replies: “We’re all people.” Um…. ok?

A question I constantly asked while reading this was: what is the point? Any message that could have been given from the first half of the book becomes diluted by the sudden turn of events and Scooby Doo hijinks in the second half. The best answer I can think of was that it shows how everyone has their own insecurities and issues, and you never know what someone is going through behind their social media. “We’re all people”. To which I say… um… ok.