Massive

I had very mixed feelings about Massive written by Julia Bell. Even though this book was fiction, it was very realistic. However, I would say this is one of the worst books I have picked up. Although it is centered around Eating Disorders, it didn't fit my forte. The book mainly has to do with how a divorce, a move, an eating disorder, and a secret turn one teen's world upside down.

Set in England, 14 year old Carmen has always been overweight. Nevertheless, she is constantly on a diet. Her mother has always been the same except she is thin....really thin. Her mother is obsessed with losing weight and she expects the same from her daughter. At the start, Carmen and her mother live with Carmen's step-father, Brian. But when her mother makes an unexpected move to Birmingham bringing Carmen with her, Carmen is torn from her school, friends, and the only dad she's ever known. Now she is thrown into a life filled with family members she's never spoken too and other teenagers involved in the wrong things. As her life spirals out of control Carmen begins to take charge of the only thing she can--what she eats. She soon follows in her mother's footsteps; sometimes not eating at all and other times throwing up what she does eat. I mean if she were thin, really thin, could it all be different?

First, since reading this book I have discovered how real child abuse is. It isn't just in the physical form but in the verbal form too. And although Carmen's mother, Maria is equipped with a very diseased mind I felt like Carmen was put through what most people don't endure in a whole lifetime. For brief moments there is a sense of love in their small apartment but then that moment ends and reality comes crashing in. Most of the time Carmen has to put on a brave face and make it through with no help at all. She tries to reach out to someone and get help but she never can. Instead, she has to suffer in silence.

Next, in reading this I have discovered how true this story is. It really does relate to problems that regular teens face each and every day. Thrown in with the fun British language is an abusive mother-daughter relationship, teen sex, backstabbing "friends", and drugs/smoking. I could really connect to Carmen in certain parts, but like I mentioned earlier I had mixed feelings. At some points in the story I felt as if the author had mixed more adult themes in there than she had meant to. I felt as if she wasn't sure what she wanted to write about in some parts. But, then again I have a completely different mind compared to the author.

In closing, this book wasn't the best and it wasn't the worst. It was more of a story that you could read if you were looking for a cold, hard dose of reality. Massive is very dark and could scare a few people. I would not recommend this unless you, yourself are going through an issue similar to Carmen's. And even then, I would warn readers to not be afraid to put the book down. C