I went into this book only knowing a little about Jenny’s background and her struggle with obesity. The depth and eloquence of her story blew me away. 

Jenny gently leads the reader through the various stages of her life that have shaped and impacted her life as an obese woman and her addiction to food. These include her childhood and fraught relationship with her family, the bullying she experienced at school through to the workplace (and from strangers); and eventually to her blossoming friendships and her gradual self-love she nurtured over many years. 

Each chapter reads like a separate anecdote and with sophisticated introspection, she identifies her early self-loathing and how it was entwined with her early predisposition to obesity and co-dependent relationship with food. At each life event, Jenny reiterates that her story is not one of counting calories and kilograms lost, but rather the importance of being able to love and value yourself before reaching a so-called weight goal. 

Jenny explores her own journey with humour and sensitivity and gently encourages the reader to cultivate their own sense of self-worth and love, no matter your life stage or issues you could be struggling with. 

As a medical health professional, I’m cognisant that we ironically often exhibit a certain level of dismissiveness when it comes to obesity and its management. There is a generalised stigma that if only the person would eat less or healthily and exercise more, they would lose weight. The fact is, obesity in humans is an incredibly complex health state and, as Jenny fully recognises in her book, requires a multi-modal approach to tackle not only the physical aspect but also the mental aspect. 

This book is recommended reading for everyone. Walking a mile (or several hundred as Jenny writes!) in Jenny’s shoes will go a long way in cultivated the level of kindness and empathy we need in all facets of handling obesity, whether you’re a health professional, retailer, or anything else really. 

 This story started out very strong; excellent world-building, a down-trodden protagonist to root for, and an intriguing enemy. However, after the first 3rd of the book and the introduction of a few more characters, the writing seemed to become weaker. 

 

I enjoyed the story through Deka’s 1st person view, but many parts of the book were skimmed over and it felt like, because of that, we missed a lot of key character development; these characters were all of a sudden more mature or good friends. This also made the relationship between Deka and the love interest seem rushed and “fast-forwarded” for want of a better word. A lot of the key plot points or twists were seemed very 2-dimensional (the classic “show, don’t tell” writing was not here…). 

 

There was some occasional good writing addressing the trauma experienced by some of the characters but on the whole, these characters seemed to bounce back from some serious trauma without batting an eyelid!