This YA tackles many themes: being fat, having anxiety attacks, divorce, having a brother on the autistic spectrum, and more. And Lori is definitely not perfect, far from even. But then her mom decides to move to Clifton, Cape Town, where everyone is perfect. She loves the art school she attends and her two best friends. Lori is fat, and she hates her body, the fat on her arms, the cellulite on her thighs, her double chin. The bullying hasn’t really stopped, has it? Except you’re the one bullying yourself this time. When the authorities start asking questions, Lori realizes that finding her voice might have gotten her into a world of trouble…but sometimes standing up for what you believe in is as important as standing up for yourself. When her brother befriends Jake’s sister, Lori is suddenly thrust into his unfamiliar and exhilarating world of water polo, parties, and stargazing.īut with her relationship with her mother deteriorating, old anxieties resurface and Lori finds a new artistic release that unknowingly ignites a powerful movement. So Lori decides that the only way to survive the rest of the year is to blend into the background, but her plans go awry when she discovers that the most popular (and hottest) guy at Bay Water High, Jake, is a volunteer at her brother’s school. She misses her old school―where her talent as an artist carried more weight than she does―and longs for her old family life, before her parents got divorced and her mom reinvented herself.

Lori Palmer is the new girl at Bay Water High, where students prize glossy hair, beach bodies, and school spirit above all else. Can she be herself in a one-size-fits-all world?

Big boned by jo watson