I wanted to read this because it was about a plus size woman navigating her life. That's all that pulled me in..but it ended up being so much more. As a small Fat woman I found some of the internal dialogue Bea had with herself pretty realistic. Yes, we might look like we have our shit together and we are confident but basically most of that is bullshit for me, most of the time.. Or at least it has been. Most fat women do have to go on a "journey" to become truly comfortable in our skin.

There are issues surrounding some of the racial stereotypes of the men, for example Asher being the smart, bookish Asian and even though Sam came from a rich family, he was still written like a young, lazy Black man and I felt that trope was not anything that added to his storyline.

In the end, there are a lot of us who have thought too long over a partner who was too ashamed of our fat bodies to acknowledge them and who put themselves first when it's time to move on. The story with Ray felt so real it made me want to scream every time he was on the page. Its not perfect. Bea definitely could have been written better. She could have ordered groceries that weren't exactly what straight sized people think fat people eat. There could have been some hiking in the hills because actually, if I was Bea living that life I probably would be up there every weekend.

It actually gave me similar feelings to The Flatshare. I laughed, I cried, I enjoyed the style of the book interspersed with Slack chats, TMZ reports, emails.. Perfect tonic to these covid times. 3.5 stars rounded up for fun.