I think one of these days I should just accept that extreme horror isn't for me. The violence is whatever, but at the end of the day, I usually have the same issue with books like this: I don't care enough about the plot or characters to be drawn into what's happening. 😕
 

 Miiiight try this one again someday, but the protagonist was so infuriating in the first few chapters (one poor choice after another, no common sense) that I couldn't bring myself to continue right now. 💀
 

 I didn't even really get a chance to find out what this story was about because I got so irritated at the abusive main character's jokes about domestic violence. Nah, I'm good.
 

 Look, I'm sorry, I just... I think I've reached the age where I can't deal with whiny YA protagonists anymore.

Don't get me wrong: I'm 30, it's not like I'm the target demographic anymore, so it's fine - it just bums me out! 

Eh, the writing just wasn't for me. Maybe I'll give this another try sometime, but... probably not.

 I'm very sad to say that this is NOT the book for me, despite — or, more likely, because of — the film being one of my favorite films of all time. I'd been told by so many people over the years that the book and film are very different stories, and that's true, but that's why this isn't working for me.

I think the biggest struggle I'm having is the fact that Howl/Sophie is one of my favorite OTPs ever, and I went into this book hoping for more of the instant chemistry between them that we see in the film; instead, they've barely interacted at this point and most of the character development surrounding Howl has just been discussions of how he constantly falls in and out of love with other women (which honestly makes it VERY difficult to imagine the two of them having any longevity in the end, given how he has a long streak of falling out of love as soon as the feelings are reciprocated).

If you're going into Howl's Moving Castle for the whimsy and fantasy, I'd give the book a try, but if you're like me and primarily love the film's romance, I'd avoid the source material. As much as it disappoints me to DNF this, I have mostly hated this book so far and can't foresee it redeeming itself enough to be worth how grumpy it's making me. 😅 

 I may give this one a try again sometime, but I kept getting taken out of the eerie mystery by all of the banter. I love horror-comedy, but the constant volley of playful (or not) insults between characters made it hard to get sucked into the storyline, and the book as a whole felt a bit heavy on dialogue. That said, I'd definitely try reading something else by these authors in the future!
 

 I could see this being pretty useful for someone who is definitely wanting to try out minimalism but doesn't know where to start! I'm in the boat of "I've been hardcore de-cluttering my home for two months and am content with my progress thus far" and this isn't really doing anything for me in that vein. 🤷‍♀️
 

 This started off strong, but by the 30% mark, it began to feel so repetitive that I wasn't getting enough out of it to justify continuing. I did really enjoy the sentiment on how many people have been conditioned to view all hardships as personal attacks these days, buuuut I definitely rolled my eyes at some of the outdated comments thrown in like "Halloween costumes can't be that offensive", etc.
 

 "You Just Need to Lose Weight" is a valuable resource that has a lot to offer for the right audience — most notably, people who want to learn how to fight anti-fatness from ground zero.

As someone who has dealt with this in my own life and the lives of my loved ones since I was born, I didn't feel like I was gaining anything except the feeling of being generally miserable because the entire book up to my stopping point was such a painfully honest reminder of how so many people view fat bodies (and even "average" bodies in many countries).

Great book for a lot of people, just way too high-risk/low-reward for me with the impact this author's blunt prose had on my mental health.

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.

✨ Representation: the author takes care to discuss the impacts of anti-fatness on BIPOC fat individuals as well as using trans-inclusive terms.